Does appearance really matter?

Week 1

We began this six week series with a simple question: “Does appearance really matter?”

In our day-to-day walk through life are we concerned with appearance? The appearance of others, our own appearance, how others view me and what distorts my view of others.

My friends: How do I choose them? Why do I choose them? It’s painful to admit, at times, but there are several occasions when we choose friends based on things like popularity, other people’s opinions, skin color, weight, gender, ethnic background, etc. Is this okay? Should appearance (what we see) determine who we love? From a biblical perspective the answer is easy. No, appearance shouldn’t determine who we share the love of Christ with. However, what about from something as simple as a “moral perspective”; I mean, would it be okay for your mother or father to decide not to love you simply because you weren’t as attractive as they wanted, weren’t the gender they’d always dreamed of having or because you weren’t a healthy child. When given those choices we can easily say “absolutely not” there is no way a parent should be allowed to act in such a way. If we believe this to be true then the love of God should never be witheld from anyone we come in contact with – regardless of appearance.

Stereotypes: What stereotypes am I guilty of? It can be as simple as assuming a certain race deserves less than yours, never dating athletes because they are “full of themselves” or never befriending someone of another religion because they don’t believe the same as you. Regardless of how it makes sense in our minds we have to be careful of judging others based on appearance. Stereotypes play a large role in this area.

If we can agree that we all struggle in at least one, if not many, of these areas then that means room for improvement exists. We must strive to get past our own selfishness. Desire to move above tradition and “how it’s always been” and advance towards a life that leads others to a God that loves regardless of appearance. A God that looks at the heart, not as man see’s but as God does!

Scripture reference: 1Samuel 16:7

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.