Picture this: You’re walking down the street when you spot someone who, by your standards, is overweight. Immediately, you decide that this person is weak and unsuccessful, because it appears to you that she either cannot or does not want to control her weight.

And you recall, proudly, how hard you work to keep yourself fit (come on, you don’t go to the gym for fun) and how carefully you eat.

Oh, and you remember painfully—fleetingly, please!—how badly you used to get teased for being a chubby kid, how you’ve endured years of disordered eating, and how even now, you experience unsettled tension regarding food and fitness from time to time.

You continue on your way, stepping neatly around this person with whom you share the sidewalk.

Unfortunately, I’ve been there. This scene comes directly from my own experience. Years ago, as a psychology student, I read plenty of the research that proved our tendency to judge others based on appearances. There are studies that show we tend to assume that obesity implies weakness and lack of success.

But Jesus teaches something different (thanks be to God!). He teaches that we need not—in fact, we must not—be confined to such insidious thought patterns, however naturally they may come to us. After all, he famously warns, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged” (Matthew 7:1).

This admonition gets tossed around a lot—and it appears straightforward, doesn’t it? “Don’t do this bad thing, or the same bad thing will happen to you, too.” However, the fact that we are still judging up a storm 2,000 years later indicates how deeply it is part of our human nature. (Continued on next page.)