Mensa Otabil - When Wrong Seems Right (10/19/2025)
We are looking at Proverbs Chapter 14, and we’re learning lessons of wisdom from the Book of Proverbs. It’s always important that we apply our hearts to the things we hear from the Scriptures, so we are at verse number 12: Proverbs 14, verse 12. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. The paths we take in life will determine the destinations we arrive at; it’s a very simple principle.
If you take a path toward a certain place, that’s where you’re going to arrive. If we choose the right way, we arrive at the right destination; if we choose the wrong way, we arrive at the wrong destination. The question all of us have to think about as we journey through life is: what path am I on? Is it the right path or the wrong way? The passage says that sometimes the way may seem right to us, but then it’s a wrong way. So the fact that you think it’s right does not make it right.
What are the things that we should be thinking about as we examine the pathway to determine whether it’s the right or wrong way? I’m going to talk about three characteristics of the wrong way. First, the wrong way is easy. The wrong way is usually accessible; it does not offer us much resistance. One reason the wrong way is easy is that many people are on it. As human beings, we are social beings; we like company.
So when a lot of people are doing something, we tend to follow along with them. If a lot of people are buying something, we think it’s right for us to buy it. If many people are behaving a certain way, we think we should also behave that same way. Because of that, the wrong way, when the majority is doing it, is very easy; everybody is doing it. That’s one reason why a way may seem right to us, but it’s wrong: because everybody is doing it. The reality of life, especially from the Bible, is that the majority are usually wrong. That’s the Bible’s concept — the majority are usually wrong — so the wrong way may seem easy.
Secondly, the wrong way is usually pleasurable. Normally, when something is pleasurable, it gives us pleasure; it’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s innovative. We assume it’s good. Some people will ask, «How can something that feels so good be wrong?» If it gives me so much pleasure and makes me feel good, how can it be wrong? We equate good feelings with being right, but you know that is the age-old temptation. In the Book of Genesis, the first temptation seemed good and felt good, but it was wrong. If you think that just because something is popular, or just because it is fun and exciting, it must be right, you will end up on the wrong path. Sin is always packaged as pleasurable. Come to think of it, would you commit sin if it were not pleasurable? No.
The third reason the wrong way is appealing is that it usually offers short-term instant gratification. It’s something that you do that makes you feel good right now or gives you a result right now because the wrong way doesn’t consider the end. It doesn’t think about consequences. For us as human beings, it doesn’t think about eternity, whether there is a heaven or a hell. Many of us have banished heaven and hell to ancient myths, as if there are no eternal consequences to our actions. If you’re not thinking about eternal consequences, most likely you are doing the wrong thing.
So that’s what we learn about the wrong way. Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, deliver me from self-deception. Help me to see life from an eternal point of view. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»