The Lord Looks At the Heart

“… For man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7

If I could only count the number of times that someone has used this verse to justify their actions. People like to focus on the last part of this verse. “The Lord sees my heart! He knows what my intention is! I have a good heart! I don’t care what people think of me—I only care what God thinks!” This sounds good, for sure, but is it truly the right attitude to have?

Yes, it is true that the Lord looks at our heart.
Yes, it is true that the Lord sees our true motives.

But it is also true that man (or generally, people) look at the outward appearance. The old adage is worryingly accurate: You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

As Christian, we bear a great responsibility. We are not simply responsible to reflect our own individual clothing style, but we are responsible to reflect the character of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 states that “we are ambassadors for Christ.” Just a few verses before that, we learn that we have been given “the ministry of reconciliation.”

Yes, the Lord looks at the heart… but there are people, sinners and saints, who look constantly at our outward appearance. They gain insight of our character by our clothing. For the sake of our Lord, for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of the eternal destiny of souls... let us continually seek to Lord to be accurate ambassadors for Him in the silent speech of our clothing.