Article April 8, 1972 Issue

Beyond Appearances

LESLIE C. BELL

Merely the way people look often prejudices others in favor of them or against them. Jesus said, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." ^{John 7:24;} May not "righteous judgment" include understanding man as he really is—as the image and likeness of Spirit, God?

Paul complained to the church at Corinth of being judged on appearances. Some in the church had sneered that while Paul's letters were "weighty and powerful ... his bodily presence" was "weak, and his speech contemptible." Paul claimed that in spite of this he expressed the Christ as much as anyone else. "Do ye look on things after the outward appearance?" he said. "If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's." ^{II Cor. 10:10, 7;}

Christian Science shows that each individual's true identity is in the Christ, or Truth, the spiritual idea of God. Material personality is a mistaken concept, or counterfeit, of the image and likeness of God. Christian Science exposes the falsity of material personality and reveals the true being of each one of us to be spiritual and perfect. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy explains: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." ^{Science and Health, pp. 476, 477;}