How do you judge other people? - I mean, in particular those you don't know very well. How do you suppose other people judge you? In the same way? Using these same methods you do? What are some of these methods? Well, for instance, how you look or how you act or what you say or who your friends are.
The apostle Paul says that, 'Bad company is the ruin of a good character.' Now how can this be possible? Suppose a young man - we'll call him Jimmy - suppose this young man does have good character. He goes to Church, he's trustworthy, he's honest, dependable, he works hard - he's the kind of person of whom people say, 'Such a fine young man.' Well a bunch of loafers move in next door to Jimmy. They drink and they gamble all day long and they appear to Jimmy to have a lot of fun. They try to get Jimmy to be one of them and Jimmy begins to hang around them.
Now, Jimmy can't afford to be different and still be friends with this group. He can't be one of them and still be different, so what does he do? He too starts to drink and gamble and loaf. People are influenced, even against their will, by what goes on around them. People judge Jimmy by his companions and they would be right to do so.
You judge others this way and this is one way they judge you. What does your choice of friends say about you? Remember, a rose does not grow in the middle of dog fennel, but with other roses.