[The Lord spoke to Samuel:] "Do not look at his appearance . . . for the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
   Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
   For you yourselves know, brethren, that our visit to you was not in vain; but though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the face of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from error or uncleanness, nor is it made with guile; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but to please God Who tests our hearts. For we never used either words of flattery, as you know, or a cloak for greed, as God is witness; nor did we seek glory from men, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.
   But we were gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her children. For we do not venture to count ourselves among or to compare ourselves with some who commend their own qualities. However, when they make themselves their standard of measurement and judge their own value from comparisons with each other, then they do not behave wisely. For it is not the man who commends himself that is accepted, but the man whom the Lord commends. Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.
   [Paul said this in one of his letters:] "Being a Jew is worth something if you obey God's laws; but if you don't, then you are no better off than the heathen   . . . He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His praise is not from men but from God."

Taken from I Sam. 16, Gal. 1, I Thes. 2, II Cor. 10, Pr. 26, 27, Rom. 2, The New King
James, The R.S.V., The N.I.V., The Modern Language Bible and The Living Bible.
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