The English author, C. S. Lewis, in one of his books, points out that when people become Christians, if they are not careful, their sinning often shifts from the overt, outward, visible sins of lying, cheating, stealing, cursing and swearing, to the more inward, hidden, non-apparent invisible ones ... and among them he lists "a critical spirit" ... a spirit of judgmentalism, a censorious attitude. In fact, he points out that these sins are more commonly committed by church people than by those who are not. So prevalent is it in church circles, that it is sometimes labeled "Christian cruelty."

What is the sin of judging implied in Jesus' Parable of the Tares? What exactly is judging? If we see a man walk out of a bar and stagger down the street, it is not judging to say he is intoxicated. That is a statement of fact. Judging is jumping at unverified conclusions. It is relating as fact that which is only hearsay or conjecture. It is reading evil into another's motives merely because it seems obvious.