My son, obey your father's commands, and don't neglect your mother's teaching. Keep their words always in your heart. Tie them around your neck. Wherever you walk, their counsel can lead you. When you sleep, they will protect you. When you wake up in the morning, they will advise you. For these commands and this teaching are a lamp to light the way ahead of you. The correction of discipline is the way to life.
These commands and this teaching will keep you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of an adulterous woman. Don't lust for her beauty. Don't let her coyness seduce you. For a prostitute will bring you to poverty, and sleeping with another man's wife may cost you your very life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap and not be burned? Can he walk on hot coals and not blister his feet? So it is with the man who sleeps with another man's wife. He who embraces her will not go unpunished.
Excuses might be found for a thief who steals because he is starving. But if he is caught, he will be fined seven times as much as he stole, even if it means selling everything in his house to pay it back. But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool, for he destroys his own soul. Wounds and constant disgrace are his lot. His shame will never be erased. For the woman's husband will be furious in his jealousy, and he will have no mercy in his day of vengeance. There is no compensation or bribe that will satisfy him.
Proverbs 6:20-35 (NLT)
Keep your heavenly Father’s commands close to your heart for He will never lead you wrong. Heed His Word and follow His Spirit. He will keep watch over you at night and protect you during the day.
Of course, the preceding paragraph is only applicable to those who have accepted Jesus Christ as both their Lord and Savior; thus, making God their Father. “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).
Let God’s Word be a light unto your path, leading and guiding you throughout the rest of your days. Meditate upon His Word as you lay upon your bed at night. Feast upon His Word early in the morning. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments” (Psalm 119:105-106).
Men, keep your feet far from the adulterous woman and do not lust after her beauty. Let not her flattering tongue of seduction entice you into her web of destruction. Succumbing to the allure of an adulterous woman will destroy your soul, so stay far away. Protect yourself by heeding God’s warnings!
“I discovered that a seductive woman is more bitter than death. Her passion is a trap, and her soft hands will bind you. Those who please God will escape from her, but sinners will be caught in her snare” (Ecclesiastes 7:26, NLT).
Sex sins destroy. Jack Hayford wrote the following, “The first and foundational reason why sex sins are worse than others is because sex sins stain the root of an individual’s identity (Fatal Attractions – Why Sex Sins Are Worse Than Others).
God does not hate sex sins more than any other sin. But sex sins often are more demeaning and devastating. Many times, these types of sins have farther-reaching and longer-lasting consequences than other sins. People’s personal identities and their positive self-images can become lost under a pile of sexual pollution. Those lost identities and damaged self-images are difficult to heal.
Raunchy Hollywood, best-selling novels, musical lyrics, and even some worldly churches treat sex sins as common and normal, when those very things can destroy your life. You can become desensitized and lose the “blush factor”; thereby, accepting abnormal behavior as normal behavior. Sex sins are not acceptable and those sins will bring dreadful consequences.
Marital infidelity breaks the bond of trust between spouses. That is a sacred trust, one that was originally created and ordained by God. The shattering of that type of trust should not be treated lightly. God says of the foolish man, “His shame will never be erased” (Verse 33).
Satan encourages you to break God’s laws, including the matrimonial design for one man and one woman. Satan, that wicked fallen angel, will entice you to break vows and cheapen the matrimonial union by a selfish act of the flesh. He will attack you through the lust of your eyes and by the lust of your flesh. And if along the way, he can cause you to demoralize another person as well as yourself, he has succeeded in planting his seed of destruction. Don’t scoop that fire into your lap—you WILL be burned.
Matthew Henry writes in his Bible Commentary, “It will be a wound to his good name, a dishonor to his family, and, though the guilt of it may be done away by repentance, the reproach of it never will, but will stick to his memory when he is gone. David’s sin in the matter of Uriah was not only a perpetual blemish upon his own character, but gave occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme His name too.”
Readers, do not look longingly upon the wicked ways of this world. Do not be enticed by the allure of sin. The fleeting seduction of sin can lead to the eternal death of your soul. Turn from that wicked harlot.
You have heard that the law of Moses says, “Do not commit adultery.” But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye—even if it is your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hand—even if it is your stronger hand—causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Matthew 5:27-30 (NLT)
Three Key Concepts:
1. Keeping God’s commands will protect your soul.
2. Sex sins are often the most demeaning and devastating types of sins.
3. Continual bombarding by sin can cause people to lose the “blush factor.”
