My office is located very near the local Anglican Cathedral. And for several months, I have been intrigued by the fact that the cathedral car park contains a collection of cars that most parishioners would consider to be "highly unsuitable" as the chosen mode of transport for high-ranking ecclesiastical staff.

To be precise, the car park contains the sort of cars that racing drivers (or racing wannabes) would be happy to use as their day-to-day "street cars". They all have high performance engines, race-bred suspension and even rear spoilers.

[Comment: You never know when you'll need to "speed off" to choir practice, or a prayer meeting, or to chair a crisis meeting of the church jumble sale committee, I suppose.]

And the exterior colours are not exactly subtle, either. For example, there's "burnt" orange, fire engine red, the ubiquitous FBI black, lime green and something currently called "grape".

You almost get the feeling that the local churchmen (and women) have been inhaling too much incense. But not so.

According to a neighbour of mine, who works for Anglicare and drives one of those boy-racer type cars, a few years ago, the august church commissioners discovered that the cars you would expect to find in the church fleet (ie. bland, mid-range GM or Ford models) have lousy resale values. However, these expensive, brightly coloured performance models keep their resale value extremely well.

So, when it comes to the local Anglican car fleet, in their quest for fiscal conservatism, the church beancounters have thrown all other forms of conservatism out the window. Consequently, the local cathedral's use of purple will no longer be reserved solely for the bishop's vestments.

My point? You can't judge a book by its cover. And you obviously can't judge a cathedral by its car park. Nothing is ever as it seems, which is why we should never rush to judge anything—or anyone. And in this media-crazy world, we have been programmed to make rush judgments on the basis of a 30-second sound bite.

That's what happened recently at the Olympic Games in Athens, when the Australian Women's Rowing "Eight" limped across the finish line, out of medal contention. The initial blame for this substandard effort was placed on one girl, who supposedly "ran out of gas" and stopped rowing before the finish line.

Since Australians take their sport very seriously (the atmosphere at the Sydney 2000 Olympics was described as something akin to "religious fervour"), she was vilified in the national media. The evening news was full of scenes of her team-mates pouring out their vitriol in front of the cameras. And one Australia Olympic legend, who was in Athens at the time, even called her efforts "un-Australian".

A day or two later, it emerged that the German coach—or, to be more precise, his coaching style and pre-race instructions—were to blame for the team's poor showing (the governing body of Australian Rowing is holding an official enquiry into his behaviour). And it seems that he was also the one who first jumped on this girl and then stirred up her team-mates.

However, before the cameras arrived, he quickly disappeared, left the country, and hid out in Italy while other people took the blame.

[Oops. I just made an unrighteous judgment. See how easy it is?]

Another lesson about our propensity to rush to judgment comes from an episode on the New York subway. Apparently, one day, some passengers started to get angry and criticise a father who was not imposing any kind of parental control over his very young children, who were running up and down the carriage, out of control, making a lot of noise and annoying all the people.

While all this mayhem was going on, the father just stared into space. But finally, the ire of the passengers snapped him out of it and he apologised, explaining that he and his children had just come from the hospital where they had heard that their wife and mother had died.

Obviously, like the "experts" who criticized the Australian woman rower, the people in the subway carriage did not have all the facts.

There's an old adage that, in war, the first casualty is truth. And in my experience with "conflict resolution", I have discovered that, especially in the area of husband-wife relationships, there are always three sides to every story: his, hers and the truth. And that goes for every other facet of life as well, including business.

So, judgment usually arises out of conflict. And, for a Christian, the only way to deal with conflict is through love. Also, in any conflict, it takes time for the truth (the whole truth, and nothing but the truth) to come to the surface. However, since love is patient (1 Corinthians 13v4), we Christians should be willing to wait until all the facts are available to us.

But why do we judge or criticize? What is the primary motivation behind it?

I would suggest that, at worst, criticism comes out of either fear or anger—or at best, ignorance. Sometimes it comes out of our own feelings of inadequacy. And sometimes because we have something we wish to hide—and are hoping that the criticism of others will deflect any close scrutiny of our own actions.

In other words, nothing we can be proud of.

Jesus said, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7v24, KJV). However, the vast majority of judgments we make on a day-to-day basis would qualify as "unrighteous". They are not motivated by faith, but by sin—which places us out of "right standing" with God.

Yes, we are called to "(one day) judge and govern the nations" (1 Corinthians 6v2). However, when we do, we will have to do it God's way, and make the kind of judgments that He would make. And since He is "omniscient" (ie. all-knowing), He always has all the facts at His disposal before He makes any judgments. So that's where we should start.

Interestingly, the Amplified version of the above verse (John 7v24) instructs us "not [to] decide at a glance (superficially and by appearances); but judge fairly and righteously." So if, for example, you ever judge people by the clothes they wear, or by the car they drive, or by the kind of house they live in, you are judging by appearances, which this scripture defines as superficial.

There's also another important reason why people criticize and judge others. They are arrogant enough to believe that they know better. And when they judge a brother or sister (in Christ) who has made a mistake, they do so motivated by the belief that they would never be stupid enough to make the same mistake, or else they would never have done it that way.

To those people, I would deliver Christ's words: "Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you" (Matthew 7v1-2).

It's true: What you sow, you will eventually reap. How many times, for example, have you heard some parent criticize someone whose daughter has become pregnant out of wedlock, or whose children have been caught doing drugs, only to see their own children in the same predicament not long after?

And here's another facet of Christ's warning: if your neighbour (or business colleague) hears you criticize or judge some third party, that neighbour/colleague—if he or she is smart—will assume correctly that, one day, they too will fall victim to one of your critical diatribes. And they will never be able to trust you. Similarly, if you do judge someone superficially, others who recognize what you have done will in turn consider (ie. judge) you to be a superficial kind of person.

Finally, on the commercial level, a rush to judgment may often result in the loss of a business opportunity, which is not clever. There are probably lots of people out there that God wants you to do business with—but who you have no desire to deal with, perhaps based on what you've heard about them.

When I went to work on Wall Street, I was told that the single reason behind 90 percent of failed deals is management ego. They did not fail because of the numbers being bad. Or because of a mismatch of business objectives and/or lack of market synergies. Just human ego.

So, it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. The vast majority of business people are totally focused on their own needs—and not on yours. They are only interested in "No.1". They do not believe that they are on this planet to make you happy, or even to make you money. And if you ever wish to be successful in business, you need to learn how to deal with that—and not get offended, or judgmental.

And the first thing you need to learn is to keep your ears open—and your mouth shut.

In conclusion, I am reminded of a story from the Victorian age, when several gentlemen were sitting around discussing whether or not they should go to the aid of a particular lady, who had found herself in some kind of trouble. It appears that this lady had become the object of gossip, and most of the men had decided against helping her. They then proceeded to justify their actions (or inaction, as it were) by criticizing the lady's character.

At that point, one of the older gentlemen reminded the group that an English gentleman was honour bound to assist any lady in trouble and, also honour bound never to question a lady's character.

That's a very good depiction of what God expects of the Body of Christ.

"Honour" is a word that is not heard very much these days. But Jesus used it often, especially during His last night with His disciples: "When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine" (John 15v8).

And later that evening, when Christ was addressing His Heavenly Father, the Amplified version states that He said, "They [the disciples minus Judas] have done Me honor; in them My glory is achieved]" (John 17v10).

Jewish scholars believe that, when you criticize or judge someone (unrighteously), you bring dishonour to three parties: firstly, the victim of your criticism; secondly, the person who is listening to you; and thirdly, yourself. However, I believe that you also bring dishonour to three others who are, as we used to call them, "the unseen guests": God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

So what's my final piece of advice? Again, keep your mouth shut and your ears open.

That's often the best way to hear from God.

Douglas Harrison-Mills is an investment banker who also runs the Haversham Foundation, which publishes a free fortnightly "e-pistle" for Christian business leaders. For more information, visit www.haversham.org.

Copyright © 2004 Haversham Foundation. Used by permission.