Abba Paphnutios was a renowned desert father. One day as he was walking, he noticed two people committing a certain sin. A sinful though assailed him: "Look at the great evil they are doing!" He saw them with his own eyes and was immediately bombarded by this thought, which attempted to assault the saint's pure soul by pushing him either to criticize or to become scandalized. However, being practiced in watchfulness, he immediately perceived the assault and responded to himself, "They are sinning today; I will sin tomorrow. They will repent, but I am a hard-hearted, unrepentant, and prideful man. I will not repent, and I will end up in Hell. Truly, I am worse than these two people. I am full of passions; therefore, what can I say about these people who are less sinful than me?" By thinking this way, he brought the sinful invitation to a dead stop and avoided condemning the people who were transgressing.
He did not walk much further when an angel of God appeared before him, holding a double-edged sword dripping with blood. The angel asked him, "Paphnutios, do you see this sword? Do you see the blood that is dripping?"
"I see it, O angel of God."
"With this sword, I execute and behead them who judge their fellow man. Since you did not judge the two people who were indeed sinning - not just ones whom you suspected to be sinning, but whom you actually saw with your very own eyes - but condemned yourself instead, your name has been written in the book of eternal life."
+Elder Ephraim of Philotheou, from The Art of Salvation, homily 11 on Watchfulness, Prayer, and Confession
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