Sexual sin kills. That’s what the wise father tells his son in Proverbs 5. If you give yourself to sexual sin, you won’t get happiness and life, you’ll get sorrow and death. This is the first post of a four part series. Each has a wise exhortation from the loving father found in Proverbs. Since sexual sin kills, first, pay attention; second, avoid the strange woman; third, embrace your wife; and finally, fear God.
Sexual sin kills so pay attention.
Verse 1 tells us to pay attention to wisdom. Look there, “My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding.” We live in a terribly distracted age. The enemy works hard to keep people going from one thing to the next. He does not want us to stop and consider the path that we are on. He does not want us to look up the the heavens and ponder why we are here. If you’re going to pay attention to wisdom, then, you’re going to be out of step with much of modern culture. You’ve been born into a society that couldn’t find wisdom if it smacked them in the face. They lack the tools required to get it. They lack the discipline and humility to learn wisdom. So if you’re going to pay attention to wisdom, then you must resolve to be a strange bird. You must learn a new way of fighting, completely foreign to your fellow citizens in this world.
Whatever funny names you might be called, it will be worth it for if you pay attention to wisdom you will be preserved. That’s what verse 2 says. You will be the one left preserving truth. You will have knowledge while others mock and jeer. There will be hope for the world because you will be a guarding of truth in a vast desert of lies.
But, we’re not only to pay attention to wisdom, verse 3 through 6 says that since sexual sin kills we must pay attention to the strange woman’s ways. The father does not want his son to be ignorant concerning her. How many children have been fed to the wolves because parents did not school them in the ways of wolves.
The father says to beware of her temptations. Verse 3 says, “For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil.” We long for the day when we won’t have to put up with her lying lips. But you will have to turn a deaf ear to her as long as you walk in this world. The father references the sweetest and smoothest substances known to ancient Israel. Which tell us she is very good at tempting her prey. Her appeal is not merely to the outer man, but the inner man. With her words, she will caress your ego. She will appeal to your distorted, fleshly masculinity. She will season her poisonous lie with sweet truths.
So, aware of her manipulations, we must pay attention to the truth about her. Verse 3 says she is painfully bitter. She is said to be as bitter as wormwood–a plant so bitter it was used to ward off maggots and moths. She will leave you suffering in unbearable pain. Like a two-edged sword she will cut your marriage into pieces, your manhood into pieces, and your faith into pieces.
Pay attention to the strange woman’s ways, the father goes on in verse 5, saying, “Look, she walks toward death.” She will not only leave you sick in body and soul, she will leave you dead. You might think, “I can recover from a stomach ache. I can patch back together the pieces once she has cut my character in two.” The father says, “Beware of those lies my son. There is no coming back from her destruction.”
We will also be helped by paying attention to her ignorance. Verse 6 says, “She does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.” The strange woman is lost. She certainly cannot lead you to life because she does not know where she is going. This is a powerful truth that will keep you from sexual sin. The adulteress woman is a lost soul. “You my son,” says the father “know the way of life. You ought to pity this poor woman. If you use her, you abuse her. You throw her into greater confusion, you throw her to hell.”
Here’s the truth: sexual sin kills. We can be spared if we pay attention to the truth. We must fix our eyes and hearts on what is really going on in this sexually sick world. Now there are so many lies around us about the topic of sex, that you might think, “Where in the world do I start?” Start with the truth of Scripture. Read the Bible as a family. God is not shy about teaching on this topic. Think and speak about His Word honestly in your homes. As you do so, the plethora of deceptions will become clear and you can steer clear of them.
