Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
God will judge in his own good time. A judge is insulted if a servant presumes to pronounce a verdict before the judge makes the decision known. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light, &c. He will reveal the thoughts and actions of men that lie hid in darkness. He means, then, that to God alone are naked and open the hidden things of Prayer of Manasseh , his intentions, his secret motives, and the depths of his heart, which is to him like a bottomless sea, and therefore that none but God sees man"s justification. None, therefore, save God should judge another, or even himself, for his faith, his works, or the grace of Christ. For we often think that we are doing right when we are acting amiss: we often suppose that we are led by the grace of Christ, and act out of love for Him, when all the time we are impelled by our own lust or by the love of our own fame. Cf. Chrysostom and Ambrose and S. Jerome ( Dial2contra Pelag.). S. Augustine, too, has some beautiful remarks on this point in his sermon on Psalm 42, where he says that the deep of human misery and blindness calls to the ...
Judge not He gives them an admonition against rash and false judgments, and hints at those among them, who said, this man is better, this man is greater than such a one See St. Chrysostom. (Witham)
Paul is not talking here about those sins that we all recognize and confess as such. Rather he is speaking about preferring one person before another and making invidious comparisons of moral behaviors. Only God, who knows all our secret doings, can judge that sort of thing with accuracy. Only he knows what is more and what is less worthy of punishment.
