Open in the app
Mid-century illustration of a tree planted by a pool of water on a path

Proverbs 24:23 · World English Bible

Proverbs 24:23 Meaning These Also Are Sayings of the Wise

These also are sayings of the wise. To show partiality in judgment is not good.

Read it in the app

What does Proverbs 24:23 mean?

The wise mind is the one that has learned to look without partiality, and this looking is the whole of forgiveness. To respect persons in judgment is to divide the world into those who deserve love and those who deserve attack, ranking brothers by the faces the ego has painted on them.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 24:23 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

The wise mind is the one that has learned to look without partiality, and this looking is the whole of forgiveness. To respect persons in judgment is to divide the world into those who deserve love and those who deserve attack, ranking brothers by the faces the ego has painted on them.

Every such ranking keeps the dream of separation alive, treating the body's differences as the truth of who a person is. A mind that stops sorting people into worthy and unworthy begins to see them all as they are, which is the single vision that heals.

The wise: the mind that has learned to look past appearances and judge nothing by the face the ego has drawn on it. Persons: the surface identities, the masks of guilt and worth the ego assigns, which partial judgment mistakes for the truth of a brother.

Christian Psychology lensGo deeper in the app

Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 24:23 today

  1. Scroll your feed for a minute and watch yourself rank people, better than, worse than, not worth my time. Each time you catch it, let the ranking drop and keep going.
  2. Give the same attention to the person serving you at the register as you would to someone you want to impress. Same eyes, same patience, same voice.
  3. In a meeting, let the quietest or least senior person's idea land with the same weight as the loudest one's. Judge the thought, not the face attached to it.

Who have I been quietly filing as worth less than me?

The same truth in other traditions

Zen

A mirror shows whatever stands before it without preference, reflecting the beautiful and the plain in the same light. A mind that has stopped sorting sees that clearly.

Sufism · Rumi

Love dissolves the ranks we set people in. When the eye of the heart opens, the stranger and the friend turn out to have the same face.

Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius

We share one nature and one reason, so to despise anyone is to tear at something you belong to. Treat the one in front of you as kin, not as a category.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

Free · No account needed

Read all of Proverbs 24 through 17 lenses

Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.

Get Lensightful on the App Store