Thought from today’s Bible reading from Proverbs 4-6.
“Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; whoever touches her will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 6:27-29).
This is one of several passages in the book of Proverbs that warns against adultery. The number of times it is addressed should make us realize how dangerous this sin is. Besides that, we all know of cases of a person, often one we would not expect, who has gotten caught up in this sin.
The world will tell us it is alright to look and lust as long as we do not commit adultery. The Scriptures teach us not even to look and lust because this leads to adultery (cf. Matthew 5:28; James 1:14-16).
The spiritual implications of this sin are obvious. Like any sin, it causes us to be separated from God and puts our souls in jeopardy (Isaiah 59:2; Romans 6:23). But besides the wrath of God being a factor in this, Solomon addresses the wrath of man as a deterrent to keep one from this behavior.
“Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry; but when he is found, he must repay sevenfold; he must give all the substance of his house” (Proverbs 6:30-31).
Solomon is not condoning one who steals to feed himself when he is hungry. He has still sinned and must repay sevenfold. But men tend to be more sympathetic toward one who sins in this way. There is no such sympathy, however, for one who commits adultery with another man’s wife.
“The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; he who would destroy himself does it. Wounds and disgrace he will find, and his reproach will not be blotted out. For jealousy enrages a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not accept any ransom, nor will he be satisfied though you give many gifts” (Proverbs 6:32-35).
If one steals from another man, he can make restitution. If one commits adultery with another man’s wife, there is nothing he can do to right that wrong. Instead of receiving sympathy like the hungry thief, he opens himself up to receive wounds, disgrace, rage, and vengeance for his sin.
Do not destroy yourself, either with men or with God. Keep from the sin of adultery. To do this you must start by guarding your heart. As the wise man wrote earlier, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
Tomorrow’s reading: Proverbs 7-9
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
While I can agree that there is a lack of good decision making involved in the sin of adultery, I would be very hesitant to make the title of my post in such broad sweeping terms. Having spent the last several years counseling people full time who are entrenched in this very sin, I know there is a lot more to the story than a lack of sense. Having watched tons of husbands and wives who have suffered sexual, physical, emotional abuse and neglect throughout their childhood and even adult years, I’ve come to believe that this kind of generalization is the very thing that stops a person from repentance. Affairs happen for a whole host of reasons and I would caution you on making your observations so boldly stated on a public forum. This type of title for a post only increases guilt for the accused. That’s not how Jesus spoke to the adulteress woman. This is your site and you can do as you will, but I would never write something like that, especially given the fact that I’m married to a woman who once committed adultery for a myriad of reasons and has now repented.
Derek, thanks for your comment. I’ve heard of your counseling work and I appreciate your efforts in that. It’s certainly important to help people deal with the effects of this sin.
From reading your comment, it seems that you took issue more with the title than the post itself. The title was not meant to be antagonistic or condescending, I simply pulled it from the Scriptures. While not a direct quote, it nearly is (“The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense” vs. “One Who Commits Adultery Lacks Sense”), and it does not misrepresent the context of the passage.
This idea of “lacking sense” is repeated in the book of Proverbs. One lacks sense if he commits adultery (6:32; 7:7), despises his neighbor (11:12), forsakes work for worthless endeavors (12:11; 24:30), rejoices in folly (15:21), and becomes a guarantor before his neighbor (17:18).
A good verse to keep in mind is Proverbs 14:15 – “The naive believes everything, but the sensible man considers his steps.” One who is not sensible (lacks sense) is not careful to avoid sin, therefore he easily falls into it. One commits adultery when he does not carefully consider his steps. The same is true for every sin we commit. When I look back on sins that I have committed, I can see that I did those things because I lacked sense. I did not carefully consider my steps, otherwise I would have avoided the sin. That’s why the Scriptures contain warnings like this so we can avoid sin in the first place.
You’re absolutely right that most sins, especially a sin like adultery, are committed because one became susceptible to them, whether through weakness, carelessness, problems in the home, stress at work, etc. Knowing these things surely makes us better equipped to help one overcome their sin, but these difficulties are not excuses for sin. There is a way of escape for every temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).
I absolutely agree with you that the scriptures are clear about this. That wasn’t my point. I take no issue with your article or the scriptures.
My point was that you didn’t use a direct quote in the title of the post. Because it lacked quotation marks, it didn’t look like scripture, but appeared to be your thoughts. It looked to me like you were casting judgement and belittling someone in adultery from the title alone. If I was caught in the sin of adultery, I wouldn’t have had any interest in reading further.
So, I guess it comes down to the goal of your teaching. If you’re writing to inform people who already know this, then your post may be helpful. But, if someone is caught in the sin of adultery, I would guess they wouldn’t read any further than the title.
Again, it’s your site. I don’t have time to engage this further, but am guessing that unquoted title will never produce repentance.