Proverbs 14:12 - Homiletics

The way that seemeth right

I. ITS ATTRACTIVE APPEARANCE . This way does not only seem pleasant; it seems to be right. This is a course of life which a man is tempted to follow because it flatters him with fair promises.

1 . It promises good. We are greatly tempted to judge of the means by the end, and, if we think that the thing to be attained is good, to condone the questionable conduct that secures it. Thus men have justified

2 . It flatters self-will. Men believe in their own way, just because it is the way they have chosen. The statesman makes the best of the politics of his party. In private life what accords with our desire is warped into the semblance of right.

3 . It is followed by others. Fashion condones folly. The conduct of the multitude creates a social conscience. Men measure by the standard of the average rather than by the gauge of absolute rectitude.

4 . No evil is apparent. At present the path is easy, pleasant, flowery, and to all appearances quite safe. Shortsighted men judge of it by so much as is in view, as though the end of a road could be known by the character of its beginning.

II. ITS DELUSIVE CHARACTER .

1 . It is only right in appearance. It "seemeth right." But "things are not what they seem." A flame seems good to a moth; thin ice, safe to a heedless child; the undermined road, sound to the hoodwinked general; the sparkling water, refreshing to one who knows not that the well from which it is drawn has been poisoned. The bad social custom appears to be innocent to the slave of fashion. The way of sin "seemeth right" to the blunt conscience.

2 . It is only right in the eye of man. It is "to man" that this doubtful way "seemeth right." But man is not the highest surveyor of life, and the map that he draws is not the supreme authority. Man is prejudiced, confused, ignorant, self-deceiving. There is a higher Judge than man, and. it may be that the way which "seemeth right to man" is seen to be wrong by God.

III. ITS FATAL END . This pleasant, inviting path is a tributary to a high road. Innocent as it looks in itself, it leads into other ways, and those the ways of death. It is like a winding lane between green hedgerows and flower-strewn banks, that brings the traveller out at length into a very different road from that he supposed he was nearing. There are questionable courses that do not seem to be evil in themselves, but, they lead to evil. There are amusements that seem to be innocent enough, yet they are paths towards more dangerous things, and in the end they bring the unwary to the very gates of hell. Now, the chief question to ask about any road is—Whither does it lead? If it will bring us to a treacherous bog, a homeless waste, a dark and dangerous forest, or a perilous precipice, it matters little that its early course is harmless. Whither does the way tend? If it is the path of sin, it must lead to death ( Romans 6:23 ).

IV. THE NEED OF WARNING .

1 . The preacher must warn the heedless. There is danger of self-deception, and the end may be ruin. Then men should not be indignant if they are invited to examine their ways.

2 . Each man should consider his own ways. We live too much by appearances. But "life is real." Let us turn from the picture that "seemeth" to the fact that is.

3 . We need Divine guidance. He who knows all ways, and can see the end from the beginning, is the only safe Guide into the way of life.