What scripture in the bible talks about how 'Looks might be deceiving'?

Answer 1

A few scriptures come to mind:

*1 Samuel 16:7 is the account of when Samuel was sent by God to find the next king of Israel. When he arrived at Jesse's home, he met his eight sons, seven of them tall, handsome and impressive looking, but God told 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 man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."(ESV) God then chose young David, who had been shepherding his father's flock of sheep.(1Samuel 16:11+12)(Acts 13:22)

*Matthew 7:15 Jesus told his followers to "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." (KJB) Some wicked people would appear to be sheep-like, but would actually, underneath, be 'wolves' with the potential to tear Jesus followers to pieces, speaking with empty deception....like 'whitewashed graves'full of dead men's bones (Matthew 23:27+28). We were warned that "by their fruits ye shall know them"(ASV), so never mind how they 'appear', just WATCH what they actually DO, and compare it to God's word(Acts 20:28-30)(2Thessalonians 2:3-12)(Ephesians 5:6/Colossians 2:8)."

*James 1:22-25 Here we are warned about deceiving OURSELVES. James tells us: "Do not merely listen to [God's] word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it-not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it-they will be blessed in what they do"(NIV). If we do not have a mirror, or ignore what it tells us, we can 'pretend' that we're well dressed and attractive, though we may, in actuality, look terrible(messy hair, food in our teeth, dirty face). We need to act on what we see. The Bible is like a mirror....if we hold our own conduct up and compare it to the Bible's council, we can SEE what we need to change to be pleasing to God. If we do NOT have this standard to go by, or ignore it's council, we can make ourselves believe that what we're doing with our life is just fine, when in actuality, it's death-dealing. We need to be DOING God's will to be saved (Matthew 7:21-23)(2 Thessalonians 2:10)(Ephesians 4:22-24) and we can only find out what God's will is in the Bible.(Psalm 119:105)

*Mark 4:19 Jesus tells us that 'the deceitfulness of wealth'(NIV) can give us a false sense of security and power which can cause us to turn from serving God. (Matthew 13:22)(Mark 4:19)(1 Timothy 6:9)(Mark 10:23)