The Motive of Your Appearance

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7.
There is many things that can be seen within this passage, but one notable truth is how we look at things compared to how God looks at things. People are always looking at how things appear and the sight of things. See, the world strives so hard to appear outwardly rather than focusing on the heart because people don’t see the heart and they don’t know the Lord who does see the heart. Therefore, the default motive of the flesh and of people is to focus on their outward appearance. They will do anything to feel justified and valuable in someone else’s eyes. That is why the world focuses so hard on that. The context of this passage is that Samuel and the Lord are discussing which one of Jesse’s sons will be anointed as the new king of Israel. People of this world always consider the outward appearance of a man rather than his heart. When Samuel considered Eliab in the previous verse, the Lord responded to not even consider Eliab because God saw his heart. Even Samuel saw the appearance of men rather than the heart at times. You see, because people are always looking outwardly at the appearance of others, people get this motive in their hearts to strive to appear pleasantly in the sight of others. Whether it is with make-up, clothes, cars, property, materialistic things, muscles, or anything to support their outward appearance, they will do it. However, when we do this, we are actually considering ourselves man-pleasers rather than God-pleasers without even realizing it. Remember what that Scripture said. “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” If people look at the outward appearance and God looks at the heart, then people aren’t seeing the heart. Therefore, when we strive so hard to please others with our appearance, we neglect how our heart is. If God looks at the heart, the wisest option would be to focus your energy there as God is much more important than man. Why waste all that time focusing on how others think you look rather than how your heart appears before the Lord?
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” – Matthew 23:25-27.
This can feel harsh, but there is a valuable lesson in this passage. You see the Pharisees and scribes appeared like these perfect people upholding the law but in reality, were actually the biggest hypocrites you would ever have met. Like a cup, they were ornate and gilded on the outside, but the inside was as extremely dirty and nasty. Jesus was basically telling them to cleanse the inside first rather than the outside. Why? Consider this. If we cleanse the inside which is our heart and let the inside change the outside appearance which is how we walk live, and do things in our everyday life. Then people would see the heart without even realizing it. If people won’t look at the heart, then in order for people to see Jesus through us, we must let the heart affect our outward appearance. That is the correct way to live and the correct way to appear outwardly. So, when people dress up with all sorts of luxuries and expensive things, their motive has nothing to do with the inside which is the heart but solely on the outward appearance so that they may feel justified in the eyes of man. But here is the thing; you judge yourself based on how others perceive you when you care about how others think you look or appear. There isn’t anything wrong with dressing nice or wearing products, the wrong part is when your motive is out of alignment with God. If you wear all these nice things or such, then do so with the right heart, not out of the desire to impress others. On the other hand, we aren’t to appear ragged and rough to others with torn clothes and such. People will actually want nothing to do with you and try to avoid you. You have to, at some degree, look pleasant in this world. So overall, don’t let what others think about you determine your outward appearance for it is the heart that seeks God that should determine your outward appearance. God sees the heart and nothing else should matter other than how God sees things. Remember, the heart is the root of it all.