You can’t judge a book by looking at the cover

Lately I’ve been learning a new blues song on the guitar and the lyrics ring very true. “You can’t judge an apple by looking at a tree – You can’t judge honey by looking at the bee – You can’t judge a daughter by looking at her mother – You can’t judge a book by looking at its cover – Oh can’t you see, whoah you misjudged me – I look like a farmer, but I’m a lover – You can’t judge a book by looking at its cover…

Recently I instructed some leaders in our company a similar concept; do not judge performance by looking at personalities. Look at the results, not the person. Is the job being performed well or not? A common mistake of junior supervisors is to get emotionally attached with sub par employees, from then on they will have a tendency to overlook their poor performance because they are concentrating more on their liking of the individual instead of how well they are performing the job. The same holds true of excellent employees who may rub the supervisor the wrong way. The employee may perform a superb job, but the supervisor ignores that and concentrates on personality clashes. Unfortunately we are all human and all too often we judge the “book by looking at its cover”.

God is not human and will judge us perfectly. He will not judge the book by its cover, He will be looking at the substance. This may or may not be to our advantage. Often the book cover is glossy and beautiful, yet the book itself is rotten. Something to think about isn’t it. The Bible states that nothing is hidden from God’s watchful eye and one day we will account for everything, both good and bad. Fortunately we do not have to rely on our own performance to escape certain death and everlasting punishment. We can rely on the performance of Jesus Christ on the cross to save us. His precious blood will cover our sins. We will still be judged and have to account for our actions, but through the sacrifice that Jesus made, we will escape Hell. That is if Jesus is living inside your “book”. Don’t let the last lyric in your song be, “I look like a Christian, but I’m a charlatan”. Charlatans will be separated from the real thing…The Bible teaches that if you love Jesus, you will have “works”. It also states that “faith without works is dead”. Based upon what James has said, if we proclaim to be Christians, yet have no “works”, shouldn’t we fear for our very lives?


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Matt. 7:21
Not everyone who says to Me
‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the
kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
will of My Father in heaven.



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