We human beings have a big problem: We always look at people’s outward appearance. In fact, we often use what we see with our eyes to make sudden judgments about others. We make assumptions based on the color of someone’s skin, or the language they speak, or the clothes they wear, or the kind of car they drive. And usually our assumption goes like this: “I’m better than them!” Don’t think you have that problem? God says you do. “People look at the outward appearance” (1 Samuel 16:7).
So on Martin Luther King Jr. day, it’s good to be reminded that God is not like us at all. “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). In a nation that struggles with race, God doesn’t judge anyone by the color of their skin. In a nation in which the richer get richer and the poor get poorer, God doesn’t judge anyone by the clothes they wear or the car they drive or the place they live. That’s what we shallow human beings do. “People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
But that doesn’t mean what God sees is good. Actually, the fact that God looks at our hearts is bad news for every one of us. That means that God sees through the charade. He sees through the hypocrisy. He sees through all our attempts to look good on the outside. He sees the sin and the jealousy and the hate and the pride and the selfishness and the bitterness in every one of our hearts. There is something that every person of every tribe, nation, and race of people has in common: Sin. Corrupt, sinful hearts. How could we look down on someone else when our hearts are just as dirty? Just as sinful? God sees them.
And he still loves us. He still loves us! God sees exactly who we are—even the bad stuff we hide inside. And God still loves us. In fact, God so loved the world—the whole world!—that he gave his one and only son Jesus to be our Savior (John 3:16). Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). It’s the blood of Jesus that purifies your heart and my heart and makes us clean and new and whole (1 John 1:7). No matter who you are, no matter what you look like, whoever believes in Jesus is saved (John 3:36). In fact, in heaven right now stands a crowd of Christians that no one can count from every nation, tribe, people and language, washed cleaned in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:9).
As our nation reflects on its struggle with racism, may God give us repentant hearts that trust in Jesus’ salvation and compassionate eyes that see the world the way that God sees us. All people are sinners whom Jesus died to save. As we’re filled with God’s forgiveness and grace each day, may we strive to share the message of Jesus with people from every nation, tribe, people and language, that God may be glorified and his salvation spread to more hearts everywhere. Because “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
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