Seems About Right

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 16:25

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

If what seems right isn’t, how can a man know the right way? There is an old Seinfeld episode in which George Castanza decides to do the opposite of whatever his normal response would have been. He decides that since everything he had been doing always turned out badly, then if he did the opposite it would turn out well. And he was right! He started doing the opposite of what he would normally do and that was the key to success for him.

Well, that is not what this proverb is advising. It isn’t saying that whatever seems right, just do the opposite. Instead, it is warning against allowing gut feelings, culturally accepted norms, or group-think to drive our decision-making. We are sinful. Our thinking and motives are muddled by sin. We have to be careful about taking a path in life because “it just feels right.”

Let me say, your gut may be right. What seems to be right may be right. But just because that has been true sometimes, doesn’t make it true all of the time, or the basis on which you determine future decisions.

Let the Word of God guide you. Look to its commands, precepts, and principles to govern what is right, and not what seems right to you at any given particular moment. If what seems right is in alignment with what is right according to God’s revealed Word, then great. But if what seems right disagrees with the word of God, go with the Word, because what seems right may very well lead you down the road of death.