Proverbs 5 -- NOT Just About Adultery

My commentary set the tone well with something every person should know by now:  "Sin is attractive as a prospect, but hideous in retrospect."  When it's right there before us, being dangled before our noses, we seem to lose all judgment and discernment.  Then, if we fail to flee and instead indulge ourselves, we find that we hate ourselves in the morning.

One thing is made abundantly clear in verse 8 - we cannot even allow ourselves to toy with the prospect of sin.  From my commentary:  "There is no use asking God for deliverance if we insist on toying with objects or places that are associated with sin."

Verses 9 & 10 could have been written just for the Internet age.  They speak of giving your riches to others and the best years of your life to someone cruel, and letting strangers enjoy your wealth.  We may think and believe that the Internet brought anonymity to pornography, but the people who make it available on the Internet, plus any hacker who wants, can trace viewings back to an individual pc or cell phone.  They can then blackmail the user just as these verses describe!

Verses 12 & 13 speak of the lifelong effects that giving in to lust can have on us, for even though God can and will forgive and forget, we CAN'T, and we will find ourselves drowning in a sea of guilt and regret for the rest of our lives for our own stupidity.

Men may also tend to think that viewing pornography hurts no one and that they can keep their sin a secret, but verse 21 says what we know:  "God sees ALL sin."  "Secret sin on earth is open scandal in heaven," my commentary said.

Finally, verses 22 & 23 say, "An evil man will be caught in his wicked ways; the ropes of his sins will tie him up.  He will die because he does not control himself, and he will be held captive by his FOOLISHNESS."

Again, from my commentary:  "Sinful habits are hard to break, but if they are not broken, they will bind the client ever more tightly.... He finds that sin spirals in a downward cycle, pulling him along.  He is captured and tied up by sin's ever-tightening cords.  At length, he becomes sin's slave.... For lack of sense, he dies.  He would not exercise self-control."

Father, Satan tells us such clever lies, whispering "No one will know!" and "This won't hurt you!"  Yet You easily see through Satan's lies, and You desire for us to know the truth.  And even knowing it, I think we sometimes are even willing to bet that it won't happen to us!  Guard the minds of everyone who reads this, Father, including myself.  Help us not to give in.  Don't let us fill our lives with anything or anyone else but You.

Your Brother In Christ,