Choosing To Look Beyond the Outward Appearance - Encouragement for Today - October 8, 2025

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October 8, 2025

Choosing To Look Beyond the Outward Appearance
KIA STEPHENS

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“Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” John 7:24 (NIV)

I assumed we had nothing in common.

She was a young stylist, and I was her client. My first impression was that we talked differently, had dissimilar backgrounds, and would probably never be friends outside of the salon. I am ashamed to say I judged her appearance and speech as being less than my own.

In that moment, the Holy Spirit reminded me that I had experienced a similar situation with another woman, except I was on the receiving end of her shallow judgments. As a result, although I was content to sit in my chair and remain silent, I decided it would be better to engage with my stylist.

“Do you have kids?” I asked, looking for commonality. Her “yes” resulted in us laughing and swapping stories about the challenges of raising teenage boys.

Eventually, our conversation drifted to relationships, and she vulnerably shared her story of surviving domestic violence. In an instant, this woman went from a stranger to someone I deeply respected.

Once I looked beneath the surface, I realized she had overcome so much to be standing there as a survivor, single mother, and CEO. She had courageously left a physically abusive relationship to prioritize herself and her children. My initial judgments were skin-deep and unimportant. Rooted in pride, my superficial opinion almost robbed me of the opportunity to get to know her on a deeper level.

In John 7:24, Jesus challenged a crowd not to rely on shallow assessments when He said, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”

Jesus was attending the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles when, halfway through the festival, He went up to the temple courts and began teaching. There had been widespread whispering among the crowd, with some saying Jesus was a good man and others saying He violated God's law by healing a man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath (see John 5).

In response to their surface-level judgment of who He was, Jesus exposed their hypocrisy. He argued that if it was holy for a boy to be circumcised on the Sabbath “so that the law of Moses may not be broken,” then it was lawful for Him to heal a man’s body on the Sabbath (John 7:23, NIV). Jesus was essentially saying to the crowd, “If you are merely evaluating the outward appearance, then you are judging incorrectly.”

The same is true as we interact with people. When we base judgments on a person’s looks, status, background, and even certain actions, we are forming opinions based on their outward appearance. As believers, we have the opportunity to reject shallow assessments and choose to look beyond the surface. In doing so, we gain insight we would not otherwise have, and even more importantly, we position ourselves to see people the way God does.

Heavenly Father, help me to look beyond the outward appearance and to judge others correctly. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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FOR DEEPER STUDY

Matthew 22:36-40, “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And [Jesus] said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets’” (ESV).

How might choosing to look beyond another person’s outward appearance impact how you engage with that individual?

Whom might the Holy Spirit be encouraging you to see beyond their outward appearance? We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments.

© 2025 by Kia Stephens. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 31 Ministries
P.O. Box 3189
Matthews, NC 28106
www.Proverbs31.org