Do you look at things from the outward appearance? If any man trusts that he is Christ’s, let him consider again that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.
He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed before men is an abomination before God.
Are they servants of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, often facing death.
For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might submit to it readily enough.
I have become a fool in boasting. You have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for I am in no way inferior to the leading apostles, though I am nothing.
For we are not commending ourselves again to you. Instead, we give you occasion to boast on our behalf, that you may have something to answer those who boast in appearance and not in heart.
We are of God, and whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not of God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, for the Lord sees not as men see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”