Most modern-day sources recognize this as a “proverb,” but only a few attribute the saying to scripture.

Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.     – Jeremiah 13:23

I’ve heard this saying all my life…and found it quite troubling.  It’s not bothersome at all if you always apply it to judging others.  But…if you’re self-contemplating, it can make your situation seem quite hopeless.

Only when you come to look beyond yourself can you recognize that, while we cannot change our spots, He can.

Yet now he hath reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unspotted, and blameless before him.     – Colossians 1:22

It’s not about the spots…or even the leopard.  It’s about the spot-remover.