Read "The Book"

 

 

"You can't judge a book by its cover" means that before we can rightfully and righteously judge or evaluate something or someone, we need to go beyond a cursory look. For example: "He dresses in simple clothes and drives a regular car. Who would know he is very rich? You can't judge a book by its cover."

 

Value is not always obvious from what is obvious - that is, what we see. So we should save our judgments until we have more information. In college I had a professor who literally jerked as he spoke. He learned to transfer his habit of stuttering to this jerking motion in order to speak clearly. On the surface, his ubiquitous smile, lifting speaking voice, and jerking shoulders made people misjudge his actual intellectual capacity. People "judged the book by its cover" and judged incorrectly and unfairly.

 

"You can't judge a book by its cover" means that when we have only seen the surface - that is, have an superficial knowledge of something - we cannot know what is on the inside. Too many people get involved in bad relationships because all they focused on was the "cover"! Too many miss out on a good and godly relationship because all they can see is the "cover"! And too many make prejudicial conclusions because all they see is the "cover."

 

Let's advance this saying and change it somewhat - "Can you judge a book by its title?" Time was you could.

 

"In the eighteenth century, writers had the habit of composing elaborate titles that told the reader what the whole book was about. Here is a title by Jeremy Collier, an English divine who attacked what he considered to be the obscenity - we would say pornography, perhaps - of Restoration drama much more learnedly than is customary nowadays: A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English State, together with the Sense of Antiquity upon this Argument." (As an aside, I wonder if the title was longer than the "Short View?") You can guess from this that Collier recites many flagrant instances of the abuse of morals and that he supports his protest by quoting texts from those ancients who argued, as Plato did, that the stage corrupts youth, or, as the early Church fathers did, that plays are seductions of the flesh and the evil" (How to Read a Book, M. Adler, p.79).

 

Sometimes though, the title of a book is not as informative. Gone with the Wind is not a meteorological study of the effects of hurricanes! Hobbes' Leviathan is not about sea monsters, but rather it is a political treatise.

 

But a title does not need to be long and complicated in order to be clear. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are about two boys - and since they are boys you could surmise without reading the book that they will get into a lot of troublesome adventures.

 

This got me to thinking… What can we learn about another book? Let's look at the title backwards - "Bible" means "book." "The" is a definite article of specificity. This "Bible" is not "a book." This “Bible" is "The Book." It is the most important book because it is "The Book." It is the only book needed because it is "The Book."

 

Let's return to the discussion of covers and discuss the cover of this book. What can you judge about yourself by looking at the cover of "The Good Book?"

 

· Do you know where your Bible is so that you can look at the cover?

 

· Is it dusty?

 

· Does it still look brand new?

 

· Is it worn and well used?

 

In the end we will not be judged by the cover of our Bibles, but rather by the words within "The Book": John 12:48 - "He who rejects Me and does not recceive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.”

 

Oh, and by the way, we are the only "Bible" some will read. And they will judge the book by its cover - by what they see and hear from us. Are our lives encouraging them to read the real Book?

 

Perry D. Hall