Pitfalls of Immorality

Proverbs 5:3

I die devotional.

² That you may observe discretion
And your lips may reserve knowledge.
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.

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Seductress is an opposing force to the marriage covenant made between a man and woman. The covenant of marriage is a gift given by God (Gen 2:22-25). However, if our hearts lust after flesh even when married, for example… Solomon, according to the scripture presented below… then like Solomon, we’re in danger of doing evil.

1 Kings 11 —But King Solomon [defiantly] loved many foreign women—the [a]daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. 2 They were of the very nations of whom the Lord said to the Israelites, You shall not mingle with them, neither shall they mingle with you, for surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Yet Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart from God. 4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect (complete and whole) with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abominable idol of the Ammonites! 6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as David his father did.

I think it’s fair to assume that Seductress oppresses everyone with a sexual appetite, but how to resist the condition of lust that overtakes us when that appetite is raging — that’s the question isn’t it? I mean, our commentator seemed to express as much:

Those that are entangled in this sin should be reminded that there is but a step between them and hell, and that they are ready to drop into it.

~ Matthew Henry

Thankfully, by God’s grace, our ability to resist Seductress is made possible by faith in the Spirit of God within. At least, from my experience; I can testify to how the relationship between my faith in God and work of the Holy Spirit effectively causes Seductress to move out of my soul.

Now that does not mean that Seductress will not tempt by what pleasure I’ve experienced in sin, after all, it’s her nature to tempt. I think of her as the apostle John describes (Rev 17:4), and if my relationship with God be true… then there is no room for two; I will not compromise my soul with thinking I can have God and sexual immorality too. And the fact of my writing turning into a rhythm and rhyme, like a melody, should cause pause… because it’s not fine.

Whenever the soul embraces compromise for what is thought to be impossible to resist because of our nature to sin, we’re in danger to believing in vain, and stepping into hell.

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RESOURCE

Proverbs 5 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org | biblegateway.com

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COMMENTARY

Chapter 5

Matthew Henry (P5-V3) Commentary
1. That we do not listen to the charms of this sin. It is true the lips of a strange woman drop as a honey-comb (v. 3); the pleasures of fleshly lust are very tempting (like the wine that gives its colour in the cup and moves itself aright); its mouth, the kisses of its mouth, the words of its mouth, are smoother than oil, that the poisonous pill may go down glibly and there may be no suspicion of harm in it. But consider,

• (1.) How fatal the consequences will be. What fruit will the sinner have of his honey and oil when the end will be,
  • [1.] The terrors of conscience: It is bitter as wormwood, v. 4. What was luscious in the mouth rises in the stomach and turns sour there; it cuts, in the reflection, like a two-edged sword; take it which way you will, it wounds. Solomon could speak by experience, Eccl. 7:26.
  • [2.] The torments of hell. If some that have been guilty of this sin have repented and been saved, yet the direct tendency of the sin is to destruction of body and soul; the feet of it go down to death, nay, they take hold on hell, to pull it to the sinner, as if the damnations slumbered too long, v. 5. Those that are entangled in this sin should be reminded that there is but a step between them and hell, and that they are ready to drop into it.