Some of the most attractive Christians can lack discernment, and some of the most discerning could use some spiritual and moral attractiveness. Spurgeon was warning us to be aware of the spiritual state of others, and beware of an overly-critical spirit. Test everything (1 Thess.5:20) but do not quench the Spirit (1 Thess.5:19). A lop-sided keeping of one command can adversely affect the keeping of the other – and it works both ways. 

Maintaining a spirit of worship and evaluating all things is well-nigh impossible, even for regenerate Christians. In a sermon on 2 Samuel 5:24, delivered on 31 May 1857, Charles Spurgeon told a story which was meant as a warning to all who profess the name of Christ:

I’ll tell you, many of you Christians do a deal of mischief, by what you say when going home. A man once said that when he was a lad he heard a certain sermon from a minister, and felt deeply impressed under it. Tears stole down his cheeks, and he thought within himself: “I will go home to pray.’ On the road home he fell into the company of two member of the church. One of them began saying: ‘Well, how did you enjoy the sermon?’ The other said: ‘I did not think he was quite sound on such a point. ‘Well,’ said the other, ‘I thought he was rather off his guard,’ or something of that sort; and one pulled one part of the minister’s sermon to pieces, and another the other, until, said the young man, before I had gone many yards with them, I had forgotten all about it; and all the good I thought I had received seemed swept away by those two men, who seemed afraid lest I should get any hope, for they were just pulling that sermon to pieces which would have brought me to my knees. How often have we done the same! People will say: ‘What did you think of that sermon?’ I gently tell them nothing at all, and if there is any fault in it – and very likely there is, it is better not to speak of it, for some may get good from it.

The one who is without sin in this regard can cast the first stone.

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