Looks can be very deceiving. In fact, some of the worst sinners that can be found are often the ones who outwardly appear to be the most holy. Though this doesn’t mean the outward aspect of our life is unimportant, it does mean we should give first priority to making sure all is well with our soul rather than vice-versa.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.”

                                 -Matthew 23:27

Notice here that Jesus doesn’t condemn the Pharisees for their outward appearance of holiness; His point is simply that they had a very distorted concept of what holiness consisted of. Rather than recognizing the fact that true holiness begins inside and works its way out, they had come to believe just the opposite. In essence, they put more faith in what they could do outwardly than what God could do inwardly. It got so bad that anybody who dared to violate their sacred traditions was labeled a heathen, even if those traditions had no Biblical foundation (see Matt 15:9). On one occasion, the Pharisees even questioned Christ’s spiritual integrity simply because He didn’t wash His hands before He ate (Matt 15:2)!

The truth is, inward holiness will always be accompanied by outward holiness. Yet this does not mean that every instance of outward “holiness” necessarily  indicates its presence within. Like the old math law which says  “all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.”, every one who is holy looks holy, but not everyone who looks holy is holy. Am I making any sense? God’s first and foremost priority is to purify our heart, which will then purify our actions. He doesn’t try to do things in reverse, and neither should we.