What does it mean that there is a way that seems right to a man (Proverbs 14:12)?
Answered from the commentary of William Kelly, Numerical Bible Notes, C. H. Mackintosh and 4 others
It means that a man may sincerely judge his own course to be right, yet be deceived: self-love and self-will cloud his judgment, and even a religious or respectable way can leave God out and oppose His way. For a man is accountable for his thoughts and ways, and his own estimate is no sure measure; God’s Word gives the standard by which his path must be judged.
The end of such a self-chosen way is death, even when it looks fair, wise, or religious. Therefore a person must not trust his own judgment or follow the multitude, but look to God’s Word and depend on Him for guidance; the way of wisdom is obedience to God, and Christ is its perfect expression.
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
v.12
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death.
v.10-12"The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger intermeddles not with its joy. "The house of the wicked shall be overthrown, but the tent of the upright shall flourish. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof [is] the ways of death." vv. 10-12.
Next we come to man's "ways," and the danger of trusting his own estimate of it. If it seems right to him, men say, Why blame him? He is sincere; and none is entitled to judge him wrong. Is there then no divine standard by which we may try our thoughts, no means of forming a sound and sure judgment? Why did God then reveal His Word, and early enough in an experimental shape? And why did His Son as man tabernacle long enough among men to reveal his nature and relationship in living perfection to such as have eyes to see and ears to hear? No; man is accountable for his thoughts and his feelings no less than his words and his ways; "and the end thereof is the ways of death." Man departed far from God and disliked Him, as Christ fully proved. Though He never was far from each one of us, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, for which the world gave Christ the cross. Man is accountable, whatever he thinks.
Self-love and self-will lead into self-deception, whatever be the honesty that would oppose a conscious wrong. We need therefore to look to Him who is greater than our heart, that we be guided by a wisdom above ourselves. How terrible to have trusted what one should have judged, lest, to one following a way that seemed right, its end should be only a way of death! He that hears and knows and follows the voice of Jesus finds Him not only the way but the truth and the life. Nor can one be too simple in listening to His words open to all. This is the Christian highway, and therefore is peace and joy, whatever the suffering and danger.
"The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul": converting," in the broader sense of the word, would not be wrong, — that is, turning it from any wrong path. Torah, "the law," means literally that which points out the way; and as "perfect" it is an infallible guide. Its certainty for guidance is therefore what is here declared. The soul as the impulsive part of man's nature is that which needs to be turned or restrained from following its own inclinations, and so is named here. How blessed to have the certainty which is found in listening to God's voice. It is the first point of all, clearly, for blessing. Apart from this, wisdom and folly, holiness and unholiness, are names, and nothing else. We seek to please God, and know not but we offend Him. The road we take to heaven may, after all, be the road to hell: for "there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, and the end thereof are the ways of death." (Prov. 14:12.) When God has spoken, and we have heard His voice, our path then becomes that of simple obedience; we are not left to prove it by results, which come all too late for help as to what is before us. Results, so far as these can be depended on even, testify but of what, being past, is already beyond recall.
Again, if I have no light on any given passage, this makes nothing of me. If we have no word from God, we can do nothing, because it is by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord that man lives. Paul did nothing for Epaphroditus. (Phil. 2:27) God healed him in His own way. God charges Himself with this care of us because we are in the wilderness where there is no way, that God Himself might be our way. He will not give us a way that nature can find out; His way is only found out in communion with the Lord. When we say "There is no way," this will throw us upon God, who will lead us in His own way. In the wilderness there are difficulties, and here is the trial of the spirituality of the saints. The moment we lose the sense of dependence on God we are left to ourselves. Then "there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Prov. 14:12) It is a solemn word, "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone." With us it should be not merely doing God's will, but doing it because it is God's will.