Proverbs 5
1 My son, give attention to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding;
2 That you may observe discretion and your lips may reserve knowledge.
If you want to be someone that people will look up to and listen to then you must ensure that you gain their respect. People will lose respect for you if they observe that you are unable to control your sexual urges.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey and smoother than oil is her speech;
4 but in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Sexual urges are very alluring; they promise great pleasure, but in reality, if you try to satisfy them in a way that is not honoring to God, you will only find heartache and pain in the end.
Put something very bitter in your mouth, and experience the feeling – that’s a picture of how things will go down.
Grab a sharp two-edged sword with your bare hand, and feel the pain as you pull and let it cut you – that’s a picture of how things will end if you let your sexual urges direct your ways.
5 Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold of Sheol.
When you don’t satisfy your sexual urges in ways approved by God, you are running towards the doom of Hell.
6 She does not ponder the path of life; her ways are unstable, she does not know it.
Don’t expect the other person to demonstrate sensibility and stability – they might be just as foolish as you, if not worse.
7 Now then, my sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house,
9 Or you will give your vigor to others and your years to the cruel one;
10 and strangers will be filled with your strength and your hard-earned goods will go to the house of an alien;
11 and you groan at your final end, when your flesh and your body are consumed;
12 and you say, "How I have hated instruction! and my heart spurned reproof!
13 "I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to my instructors!
14 "I was almost in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation."
Perhaps, you’ve worked hard, over many years, to become successful, and wealthy, and earn the respect of others. The last thing you would want is to see all that effort go down the drain, right? Well, the easiest way to make it all go down the drain is to ignore God’s advice in the sexual realm.
In the year 2017, many women came out with accusations of sexual impropriety against many powerful men in the movie industry and the media industry and the government. Many well-known and powerful men lost their jobs, their careers and their reputation. Empires that they built over the years came tumbling down, and some of them ended up in jail. It was remarkable, and something that I had never seen happen before.
This chapter of Proverbs so aptly summarizes their situation. The sex drive in men is a distinct liability, a dangerous inner dynamite that is fickle to the extreme.
If you want your lips to preserve knowledge then you have to be careful how you channel your sex drive. You can’t put the blame on women who dress immodestly or flirt without shame or tempt without abandon. You can’t put the blame on what you see in the movies and on the Internet. Nothing tests your integrity and self-control more than your sex drive. Unless the Lord protects us, we will fall. This is where our humility is tested to its utmost – because our mind tells us one thing, and God tells us quite the opposite, and we have do decide whether we will listen to God or to our mind.
15 Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 As a loving hind and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; be exhilarated always with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
Learning to be content with what God has given you in the sexual area is a very important thing.
If you are married, your spouse may have all kinds of imperfections, and you may get attention from others who seem to be far more attractive and interesting than your wife. Sometimes, your relationship with your spouse may be strained, and there may be periods when you struggle to esteem your spouse.
What will you do in such situations? If someone else comes along and gives you the attention you seek, will you entertain a tryst or an affair?
21 For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He watches all his paths.
God watches how you handle things in the sexual area, and based on what He sees, He decides how important you will be in His kingdom. The wrong that you do here will greatly affect so many aspects of your life.
22 His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin.
If you take advantage of others in the sexual area, you will find that your actions become a noose that tightens around your own neck.
Some people will say and do whatever it takes (even if they have to blatantly lie) to persuade another person to meet their sexual needs. They don’t realize that God watches everything they do – and when it comes time for God to choose men and women to be great in His kingdom, if you have not been faithful here, He will pass by you and choose someone more noble than you.
23 He will die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.
Let God instruct you in the sexual area. Pay attention to what He says, and what He doesn’t say, and live according to His word; it is foolish to do otherwise.
If you don’t accept God’s instruction in the sexual area, you will suffer irreparable harm. Some people destroy their marriages and their families, and the families of others; some others contract lifelong disease; some even die; some destroy their eligibility to serve God and build His kingdom; many end up eternally damned – an integral component of wisdom is to learning how to deal with your sexual urges.
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