To "judge a book by its cover" is to determine the quality of a book (inside) by evaluating the book sleeve, that "marketing" method where the publisher puts "cool pictures" and fancy lettering on the front and maybe a picture of the author and reviews or a bio on the back to get you to buy the book. "I don't care much for that drawing on the front" is not a good way to determine if the content of the book is any good. We use the phrase, of course, not generally in terms of books. We use it in terms of people. "She doesn't dress very well," we might say, "but you'll love her once you get to know her. Don't judge a book by its cover."
But we do it all the time, don't we? There are nearly a million police officers in the United States. Watching the news accounts, 10 or maybe even 20 of them have been caught doing bad things. A phenomenally tiny percentage. Still we have parents teaching their kids not to trust a cop because all cops (apparently even the minority ones) are racist and we have businesses refusing to serve police officers because all cops are corrupt. Judging a book by its cover. We read about cases, even quite a few, where Catholic priests et. al. are molesting children and we conclude that the Roman Catholic Church produces nothing but child molesters. Judging a book by its cover. We see people calling themselves Christians speaking and acting hatefully -- genuinely hatefully, not just in our perception -- toward people they deem sinful and we conclude that Christians and their church and their religion are the most hateful things on the planet. Judging a book by its cover.
The concept, judging a book by its cover, is that doing so is wrong. You can't determine the quality of what's inside until you actually look inside. But the concept does not preclude actually discovering what's inside and determining the quality of that. It actually is the argument to do just that. It isn't a plea for being nonjudgmental; it's a plea to actually examine the facts rather than the perceptions on the surface. Are police all corrupt? The news media accounts might make it look that way, but dig in and you find it's not necessarily so. There are lots of good officers on the job. Does the RCC actually produce pedophiles? The public perception argues for it, but if you dig into it, you'll find that it's not so. Oh, they may have more than their share, but it isn't a correct blanket statement. You see, then, that I've offered judgment on police and priests -- police not so bad and priests not so good -- just not by their "cover."
As it turns out, when it comes to evaluating Christians, Christianity, and the Church, it actually is easier than either police or priests. What defines a "good police officer" or a "good priest"? That's somewhat relative. What defines a good Christian? Ah, now, we have a Book for that. We have a standard. We have a description of the Christ of Christians and a lengthy explanation of all that goes into Christianity and the Church and we can compare what the standard is with what we have in front of us to make a judgment. We can say, "This person acts hatefully toward homosexuals. How does that stack up?" And we can read, "Love your neighbor as yourself" and conclude, "Nope, that is not a valid Christian behavior." On the other hand we can see a story about someone who stands on the position that homosexuals need Christ because homosexual behavior excludes them from the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9-10) and compare that position to the Book and discover that it is so ... and it is not hate.
But that's not really the approach for most, is it? To a seemingly large number, Christians are hateful and churches are corrupt and Christianity is meaningless not because they don't line up with the Book, but because they don't line up with personal, arbitrary, emotional, ill-defined guidelines. And because some who claim to be Christians violate them. Very, very few -- even Christians -- seem to ask, "But, how does that line up with the Book?"
If "the Book" in this case is God's Word and Christians are "the cover" -- the outward representation of Christ and His Word -- then we actually ought to be judging the cover by the Book. Embrace that which aligns with the standard and discard that which does not. We have a valid standard. We ought to use it.
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