The Spirit of Charity the Opposite of a Censorious Spirit

Mr. Carroll expounds 'love thinks no evil' (1 Corinthians 13:5) as the opposite of censoriousness—a readiness to judge others' state, qualities, and actions from scant or no evidence. He cites Richard Baxter's image of censoriousness as 'vermin which crawls in the carcass of Christian love.' He traces how censorious people judge others' spiritual state from trifles, dismiss good qualities backhandedly, and operate from suspicion. He identifies the roots: self-conceit, vanity, and imposing private standards on others. Drawing on Romans 14:1–5, he asks, 'Who are you to judge another man's servant?' He lists practical areas where censoriousness thrives—hair, music, clothing, schooling, discipline, money—and closes with Matthew 7:1–5 on judging while harboring a plank in one's own eye.