We know the saying yet we still do judge a book (a person etc.) by external appearances.
Walking into Docking Bay 94, Luke sees the banged-up Falcon makes a snap judgment.
He exclaims, “What a piece of junk!”
Han, very protective of his ship, boasts “She’ll make point five beyond light speed. She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid. I’ve added some special modifications myself.” While not entirely convinced Luke scratches his head and enters the ship.
Christians & Prophets Are No Different
In the 1 Samuel 16, the prophet Samuel is charged to go to Jesse and anoint one of his sons to be the king to succeed Saul.
In 1 Samuel 16:6-7, when the eldest son Eliab came out, we read “When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.'”
Samuel continues to have Jesse’s sons parade in front of him but to no avail. None of them is the one that God wants to be anointed.
Finally, David comes in and we read in 1 Samuel 16:12 “he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, ‘Arise, anoint him, for this is he.'”
David was not necessarily the “man’s man” that Saul was.
In 1 Samuel 13:14 we are told that the LORD was seeking a man after His own heart to replace Saul. And David was the Lord’s pick, and that was enough.
In Acts 13:22b we read “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.”
God made some special modifications Himself to David’s heart.
Regardless of our outward appearance, we can find comfort in what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10, “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
What’s A Christian To Do?
We are to look beyond the person’s appearance. We are to look at their actions, also known in the Bible as their fruits.
While people are happy to read and enforce Matthew 7:1 about not judging others, we do need to be mindful and test people’s fruits and message.
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
~Matthew 7:15-20 (ESV)
In 2 Timothy 4:2-5, Paul exhorts Timothy to:
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Don’t make snap decisions. Do your due diligence.
