When Right Seems Wrong

 There is a way which seems right to a man,

But its end is the way of death. 

-Proverbs 14:12  (ASB)

When Right Seems Wrong

When the crowd is running the wrong way, it's hard to be the oddball who runs the right way. Most of the participants in the 10,000-meter cross-country race thought Mike was heading the wrong way. He kept waving for the other runners to follow him, but only 4 believed he had taken the right turn--the turn that all the other competitors had missed. When he was asked about the reaction to his mid-course decision not to let the crowd determine his direction, Mike responded, "They thought it was funny that I went the right way."

First-century pagans reacted the same way to the changed lifestyle of their Christian neighbors. The apostle Peter said, "They think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you" (1 Pet. 4:4). Non-Christians still think that followers of Jesus Christ are going in the wrong direction. But actually, believers are headed for the victor's crown and a heavenly home (2 Tim. 4:7-8).

Scripture often warns that human reasoning and human desire can lead to disaster (Jeremiah 17:9). The problem is not that we cannot use reason, or that we can never have right desires. Rather, it's that we're too easily swayed by what we desire, not what is true (Proverbs 1:7). Proverbs 12:15 previews this danger: the "fool" is the person who trusts his own thinking over and above that of God (Proverbs 3:5). This verse points out the need for self-examination (2 Corinthians 13:5). Other proverbs note the value in seeking advice and wisdom from godly people (Proverbs 11:14; 15:5). 

Even faced with overwhelming evidence, however, a person who is committed to rejecting God can find excuses to do so.  “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. “ John 5:39–40). Left to his own devices, such a man will reject the way of salvation (Hebrews 2:3). He relies on his finite, corrupt knowledge to illumine his way through life.  “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8). He walks in darkness, and unless he comes to faith in Jesus Christ, he will experience eternal death (John 3:36). Isaiah 53:6 confirms, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way."