Only God Sees the Heart

“All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits” (Proverbs 16:2).
After God rejected Saul as King, the prophet Samuel was sent to Jesse the Bethlehemite to anoint one of his sons as king. Jesse called his sons to stand before the prophet, and each time, the Lord told Samuel that the son before him was not the chosen one. When Eliab, the firstborn, stood before Samuel, the prophet thought “Surely the Lord’s anointed [was] before him.” But the Lord said unto Samuel, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (I Samuel 16:6, 7).
Unfortunately, the outward appearance of a man is often very different from what is found in a man’s heart. If we judge according to the external, we will often come to the wrong conclusion, because we can only make an impression based on the superficial. Jesus called the outwardly religious Pharisees, “Hypocrites,” who were like “whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:27, 28).
The world judges by visible appearance: how a man looks, what kind of car he drives, how much money he makes, etc. God judges a man by his heart. Has the blood of Jesus been applied to his life? Does he love God with his entire being? Does he love his brother as himself? Only God sees the heart.