Don’t Judge by the Face

BECAUSE a person has a handsome face, does it mean he has a good heart? Does it mean he is honest and trustworthy? There are people who seem to think that it does, but in spite of what they think, the face is not a window to the heart. It does not reveal a person’s true personality.

Beauty can hide the vilest kind of hearts. Satan, the god of this world, is a good example. He is a radiantly beautiful creature but yet is the embodiment of wickedness.—Ezek. 28:17, AS.

Although we cannot penetrate a man’s outward appearance and look at his heart, God can. Unlike humans who judge by what they see on the surface, God judges by what he sees in the heart.—1 Sam. 16:7.

A person may be able to hide his true personality from human eyes by a handsome face and a clean-cut appearance, but he cannot hide it from God. His personality is stripped of all covering and is laid bare before Him. “And there is not a creation that is not manifest to his sight, but all things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with whom we have an accounting.”—Heb. 4:13.

As men judge one another by outward appearances, so do they judge religious organizations. Because an organization has beautiful church buildings, colorful ceremonies and pious-appearing clerics, they judge it to be God’s chosen servant. Jehovah’s witnesses, on the other hand, are rejected because they do not present the same glamorous appearance. The witnesses are viewed by the world in the same manner as were the Christians of the first century. “We have become as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things.”—1 Cor. 4:13.

God has chosen his servants not on the basis of how they appear in the eyes of the world but on the basis of their heart condition. What he has chosen are “the ignoble things of the world and the things looked down upon.” (1 Cor. 1:28) As a man’s personality must be judged by his works and not by his face, so God’s servants must be judged by their fruits.