Dangers of Using Human Examples Over God's Guidance
Scripture warns against relying on human wisdom and tradition when they displace God's revealed guidance. Paul instructs the Colossian church: "Beware lest any man make a prey of you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" [1]. This caution addresses a fundamental tension in Christian life—the temptation to substitute human reasoning, cultural patterns, or inherited customs for divine instruction.
The Inadequacy of Human-Made Religion
Jeremiah confronts the absurdity of human attempts to construct religious systems apart from God: "Can a human make for himself gods? Yet they are not gods!" [3]. This rhetorical question exposes the futility of self-directed spirituality. Human beings lack the capacity to generate authentic divine knowledge or create legitimate objects of worship. When communities or individuals craft religious frameworks based on their own preferences rather than revelation, they produce counterfeits that cannot bear the weight of genuine faith.
The historical record demonstrates this pattern repeatedly. Josephus observes that even divinely appointed kingship in Israel became "ungovernable and tyrannical" when rulers departed from Mosaic law, requiring God's severe discipline to maintain "some degree of obedience" [7]. The institutional structures meant to serve God's purposes became instruments of corruption when human ambition overrode divine statute. This trajectory illustrates how human examples, even initially legitimate ones, become dangerous when they function independently of God's ongoing guidance.
The Corrupting Influence of Human Association
Scripture identifies specific mechanisms by which human examples lead believers astray. Alliance with those opposed to God's ways is explicitly forbidden: "Forbidden -- Ex 23:32; 34:12; De 7:2,3; 13:6,8; Jos 23:6,7" [2]. These prohibitions recognize that such associations "lead to idolatry" and "provoke the anger of God" [2]. The danger lies not merely in abstract influence but in concrete behavioral patterns—human examples normalize practices that contradict revealed truth.
The Fall narrative itself demonstrates this dynamic. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown notes that Eve was "cajoled by flattering lies," and the sin involved "a preference of the creature to the Creator" [10]. The serpent's appeal worked precisely by offering an alternative interpretive framework—a human (or creaturely) perspective that contradicted God's explicit command. This pattern recurs whenever believers prioritize human reasoning or cultural consensus over scriptural authority.
Selfishness and Self-Deception
Human examples often fail because they reflect and reinforce fallen human nature rather than challenging it. Torrey's compilation identifies selfishness as "contrary to the law of God" and notes that "the example of Christ condemns" it [4]. When believers model their lives on unregenerate human patterns—"being lovers of ourselves," "pleasing ourselves," "seeking our own"—they perpetuate the very corruption from which redemption offers liberation [4].
This self-referential orientation produces systematic distortion. John's epistle warns that claiming sinlessness makes God "a liar," denying both the "present GUILT remaining" from actual sins and "the SIN of our corrupt old nature still adhering to us" [11]. Human examples that minimize sin's reality or suggest self-sufficiency contradict the biblical diagnosis of human condition. All people "are born sinners," and while "the wicked indulge their sinful nature, the godly fight against it" [9]. Relying on human examples that ignore this struggle or suggest victory through human effort alone leads to self-deception.
The Proper Pattern
Josephus articulates the alternative: a legislator "should consider the Divine nature; and, upon the contemplation of God's operations, should thereby imitate the best of all patterns, so far as it is possible for human nature to do" [8]. This formulation establishes the proper hierarchy—human action derives legitimacy from conformity to divine character and command, not from human precedent or preference.
Paul's warning against "overmuch care about earthly things" reinforces this priority [5]. When believers become preoccupied with human strategies for security or success, they demonstrate practical atheism—living as though God's providential care and explicit promises were insufficient. The antidote is casting care "on God" and maintaining trust in divine provision [5], a posture incompatible with treating human examples as primary guides.
The danger intensifies when human examples carry institutional or traditional authority. False teachers use flattery to gain influence [6], and even sincere believers may claim prophetic authority to "exert authority over other people," constituting "a misuse of his name" [13]. The solution is not rejecting all human teaching but subjecting every claim to scriptural scrutiny, recognizing that believers "are but stewards of the manifold grace" [12] rather than autonomous sources of wisdom.
Sources
- Colossians “Colossians 2:8 (Webster) — Beware lest any man make a prey of you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Alliance and Society With the Enemies of God — Forbidden -- Ex 23:32; 34:12; De 7:2,3; 13:6,8; Jos 23:6,7; Jdj 2:2; Ezr 9:12; Pr 1:10,15; 2Co 6:14-17; Eph 5:11. Lead to idolatry -- Ex 34:15,16; Nu 25:1-8; De 7:4; Jdj 3:5-7; Re 2:20. Have led to murder and human sacrifice -- Ps 106:37,38. Provoke the anger of God -- De 7:4; 31:16,17; 2Ch 19:2; Ezr 9:13,14; Ps 106:29,40; Isa 2:6. Provoke God to leave mean to reap the fruits of them -- Jos 23:12,13; Jdj 2:1-3. Are ensnaring -- Ex 23:33; Nu 25:18; De 12:30; 13:6; Ps 106:36. Are enslaved -- 2Pe 2:18,19. Are defiling -- Ez”
- Jeremiah “Jeremiah 16:20 (LEB) — Can a human make for himself gods? Yet they are not gods!””
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Selfishness — Contrary to the law of God -- Le 19:18; Mt 22:39; Jas 2:8. The example of Christ condemns -- Joh 4:34; Ro 15:3; 2Co 8:9. God hates -- Mal 1:10. Exhibited in Being lovers of ourselves. -- 2Ti 3:2. Pleasing ourselves. -- Ro 15:1. Seeking our own. -- 1Co 10:33; Php 2:21. Seeking after gain. -- Isa 56:11. Seeking undue precedence. -- Mt 20:21. Living to ourselves. -- 2Co 5:15. Neglect of the poor. -- 1Jo 3:17. Serving God for reward. -- Mal 1:10. Performing duty for reward. -- Mic 3:11. Inconsistent with Christian love -- 1Co 13:5. Inconsistent with communi”
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Care, Overmuch — About earthly things, forbidden -- Mt 6:25; Lu 12:22,29; Joh 6:27. God's providential goodness should keep us from -- Mt 6:26,28,30; Lu 22:35. God's promises should keep us from -- Heb 13:5. Trust in God should free us from -- Jer 17:7,8; Da 3:16. Should be cast on God -- Ps 37:5; 55:22; Pr 16:3; 1Pe 5:7. An obstruction to the Gospel -- Mt 13:22; Lu 8:14; 14:18-20. Be without -- 1Co 7:32; Php 4:6. Unbecoming in saints -- 2Ti 2:4. Uselessness of -- Mt 6:27; Lu 12:25,26. Vanity of -- Ps 39:6; Ec 4:8. Warning against -- Lu 21:34. Sent as a punishment to”
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Flattery — Saints should not used -- Job 32:21,22. Ministers should not use -- 1Th 2:5. The wicked use, to Others. -- Ps 5:9; 12:2. Themselves. -- Ps 36:2. Hypocrites use, to God. -- Ps 78:36. Those in authority. -- Da 11:34. False prophets and teachers use -- Eze 12:24; Ro 16:18. Wisdom, a preservative against -- Pr 4:5. Worldly advantage obtained by -- Da 11:21,22. Seldom gains respect -- Pr 28:23. Avoid those given to -- Pr 20:19. Danger of -- Pr 7:21-23; 20:5. Punishment of -- Job 17:5; Ps 12:3. Exemplified Woman of Tekoah. -- 2Sa 14:17,20. Absalom. -- 2Sa 15:2-6”
- Project Gutenberg “Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, CHAPTER 14, section 13: And, indeed, since Saul had accepted kingly power, which naturally becomes ungovernable and tyrannical, as God foretold, and the experience of all ages has shown, the Divine settlement by Moses had soon been laid aside under the kings, had not God, by keeping strictly to his laws, and severely executing the threatenings therein contained, restrained Saul and other kings in some degree of obedience to himself; nor was even this severity sufficient to restrain most of the future kings of Israel and Judah from the grossest idolatr”
- Project Gutenberg “Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, CHAPTER 11, section 4: life well, and give laws to others, in the first place should consider the Divine nature; and, upon the contemplation of God's operations, should thereby imitate the best of all patterns, so far as it is possible for human nature to do, and to endeavor to follow after it: neither could the legislator himself have a right mind without such a contemplation; nor would any thing he should write tend to the promotion of virtue in his readers; I mean, unless they be taught first of all, that God is the Father and Lord of all things, a”
- Psalms (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Psalms 58:3: 58:3 All human beings are born sinners (see 51:5); however, whereas the wicked indulge their sinful nature, the godly fight against it (Rom 7:19-23; Jas 4:1-10).”
- Genesis (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Genesis 3:13: beguiled--cajoled by flattering lies. This sin of the first pair was heinous and aggravated--it was not simply eating an apple, but a love of self, dishonor to God, ingratitude to a benefactor, disobedience to the best of Masters--a preference of the creature to the Creator.”
- 1 John (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on 1 John 1:10: Parallel to Jo1 1:8. we have not sinned--referring to the commission of actual sins, even after regeneration and conversion; whereas in Jo1 1:8, "we have no sin," refers to the present GUILT remaining (until cleansed) from the actual sins committed, and to the SIN of our corrupt old nature still adhering to us. The perfect "have . . . sinned" brings down the commission of sins to the present time, not merely sins committed before, but since, conversion. we make him a liar--a gradation; Jo1 1:6, "we lie"; Jo1 1:8, "we deceive ourselves"; worst of al”
- Luke (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Luke 16:1: We mistake if we imagine that the design of Christ's doctrine and holy religion was either to amuse us with notions of divine mysteries or to entertain us with notions of divine mercies. No, the divine revelation of both these in the gospel is intended to engage and quicken us to the practice of Christian duties, and, as much as any one thing, to the duty of beneficence and doing good to those who stand in need of any thing that either we have or can do for them. This our Saviour is here pressing us to, by reminding us that we are but stewards of the manifold grace ”
- Jeremiah (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Jeremiah 23:36: 23:36 The Lord warned that no one should claim to have a prophecy from the Lord in order to exert authority over other people. Doing so would be contrary to God’s words and constitute a misuse of his name (Exod 20:7; see also Matt 20:25-28).”