Do you judge according to appearance?

Be careful if you do, because you probably would have rejected Paul, and he reminded the Corinthian Christians of this truth,

Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s. For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed—lest I seem to terrify you by letters. “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we will also be in deed when we are present (2 Corinthians 10:7–11).

We accept Paul, yet, none of us have seen his face, or looked upon his stature, or heard him speak publicly. People in the first century did have those experiences with him, and they were not impressed, but when they heard what he said, which is what we do (we read what he wrote), then they accepted him and what he taught.

Therefore, let us not judge according to appearance, but according to righteousness (John 7.24).

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