Judging by Outward Appearances

[Christsfreeservant]

“You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame, for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.” Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present.” (2 Corinthians 10:7-11 NASB1995)​

Paul and Timothy were being faced with opposition and false accusations from false teachers and those who did not adhere to their teachings, which were the teachings of Christ taught them by the Holy Spirit. And they were being judged by fleshly and worldly thinking rather than by the truth of the Scriptures they had available to them at that time. For, even though they were no longer under the Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification, circumcision, dietary, and Sabbath laws, they were not lawless.

So much of what was taught in the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, is repeated for us under the New Covenant. For God’s character and his moral laws did not change. And his divine will and purpose for his people did not fundamentally change. His purpose always was and still is that those who call upon him and who claim fellowship with him must be those who have died to sin and who are walking in obedience to his commands, in practice, in holy living, by the grace of God, in the power of God, and for salvation and eternal life with God. Faith has always = obedience to God.

Gospel:[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

And the fear of (honor, respect, reverence, and obedience to) the Lord is taught both in the Old Testament and under the New Covenant in the New Testament. We must be those who believe God and who take his word seriously, and who, thus, put it into practice in our daily lives. We must not be those who “cherry pick” the Scriptures they like and who reject the ones they don’t like which confront us in our sins, and which warn us of divine judgment if we forsake the commands of God to follow after the flesh.

So many people today, though, are looking at the Scriptures and the gospel of Christ and Christian ministry from an outward and worldly perspective, rather than from a divine perspective taught us in the Scriptures. And so they judge the Scriptures falsely, and many of them judge the Lord’s servants and messengers falsely, too. For they are judging by the standards of the world and not by the Scriptures. They assume wrong motives of the Lord’s servants from a fleshly and worldly perspective which is not of God.

And a lot of what they are using to make their judgments by are false teachings which are being taught as truth, and which it seems as though the majority are embracing. And they are judging by humanistic philosophy and psychology and marketing schemes, and by diluted and altered “gospel” messages intended to appeal to human flesh. For they are getting most of their “truth” through worldly means rather than directly from the Scriptures taught in their correct biblical context. And this is abhorrent to God.

So, if we are to judge, we need to be those who are making righteous judgments based on the truth of the Scriptures and not on the lies of the enemy, and not on humanistic philosophy and false narratives regarding biblical truth. We should not judge others based on our own thinking and on our own personalities and our own human traditions and cultures and/or personal prejudices. But we must judge righteously according to biblical truth, but truth taught in the correct biblical context, not out of context.

[Matthew 7:1-5; John 7:24,51; John 8:15-16; Romans 2:3; Galatians 6:1-5; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 2 Corinthians 10:12; James 5:19-20; Jude 1:22-23]

Your Word

Based off Psalms 119
An Original Work / December 27, 2011
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Praise You with an upright heart as
I learn of Your righteousness.
I seek You with all my heart;
Do not let me stray from Your law.
I have hidd’n Your word in my heart
That I might not sin against You.
Open my eyes that I may see
Wonderful things in Your word.
I am a stranger on earth.

I have chosen the way of truth;
My heart is set on Your word.
I will walk about in freedom,
For I have sought out Your truth.
Teach me knowledge and good judgment,
For I believe in Your law.
Your hands made me, and they formed me;
Give me understanding, Lord.
I put my hope in Your word.

Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light unto my path.
You are my shield and my refuge;
In Your word I put my hope.
My heart trembles at Your word, Lord.
May my lips o’erflow with praise.
May my tongue sing of Your truth, Lord.
Your salvation, Lord, long I.
Your word, Lord, is my delight.

Judging by Outward Appearances
An Original Work / August 17, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love