Faulty Reasoning

               "Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment." (John 7:24)

Isn't this a classic human problem?  We pass judgment so quickly on circumstances, ideas, people, etc. based on mere appearances. We respect our own frame of reference so much that it makes it hard to pause and consider other viewpoints.  With finite data we presume to discern infinite truth.  In this case in John 7, the crowd in the temple was so legalistic in their judgment of appropriate Sabbath day behavior that they missed the obvious implications of Jesus' healing: they were in the presence of divine power!

               "But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one willl know where he is from."  (John 7:27)

It's terrible how illogical we can become when we are trying to defend a point--especially if we fear our argument is weak or our opponent a more skilled debater.  So, now that they are confronted with considering that he really might be the Messiah, they offer this theory that Jesus couldn't be the Messiah because they knew what town he was from!  These guys needed to read their Old Testaments.  The Scriptures told very accuraltely where Jesus would be born and even where he's go temporarily (Micah 5:2 and Hosea 11:1)..

But we're still like this today--having our little theories about God, drawing conclusions on faulty reasoning and missing who Jesus really is and the work he's like to do in our lives!