I realize his chapter is about adultery, but I strongly believe that all sins are appealing. That is why I am drawing conclusions out of these 3 verses and applying them to our sin struggle as believers.
To start off today's blog post I want to tell a true story. If I don't, this post might be a little too short for my taste, and this story I believe has good applications.
One day I was walking up to my dorm room and crossed paths with a buddy I had made. For the sake of his privacy we'll call him Frank. Frank and I had hung out a bit in the past and he had told me some pretty dark things about what he had gone through and what he was dealing with now.
As I was walking upstairs he was just getting back from the workout room. The stench of a hard day's work followed his every step and as we got closer he kindly asked me if he could have a water. I told him he was more than welcome to have one. When we got to my room I opened my quaint mini-fridge and pulled out a nice cold bottle of Walmart's finest bottled H2O. He swiped it out of my hand and in 20 seconds was walking to my trash can to throw away what was now an empty plastic bottle.
Instead of heading off to his dorm he chose to stay and chat. I asked him how he was doing. He told me the same answer anyone would give. He was fine, classes were boring, he was a little tired. Eventually we got on the topic of faith. I love those moments when there's a perfect segway. Unfortunately, I don't remember ours. I asked him where he stood and he said he was fine living in "evil" as he called it. He enjoyed sinning. But the one thing I remember him saying was this: "It takes a stronger man to do evil." My immediate response was "no" and this sort of caught him off guard. I proceeded to tell him that making the right choice is usually the hardest way to go. He agreed in reluctance as I continued on. We sat there for about 30 minutes and it was so evident to me that he was entangled by sin. Stuck in a snare that he felt he couldn't get out of. It really was sad and still is to me. I even offered to pray with him, but he declined and politely stepped out of my room.
In Proverbs 5 Solomon is warning the reader that the adulteress is cunning. Her words are sweet, but lead to death. He says that we need to drink from our own "cistern" (our own wife). We need to delight in her. It is not a sin to have sexual desires toward the one you are married to, but it is a sin to lust after a woman you are not married to. Are those who have placed there faith in Christ not also tied to Him? When you give your life to Christ you have "life in His name" (John 20:31). Just like in marriage we take on the name of Christ. At this point we ought to delight in Him. We are no longer identified with sin. The price has been paid.
Now when we sin it is as if we were cheating on Jesus. We are not perfect, we still have a battle to fight against the enemy (Satan), but we now feel convicted. We realize the weight of our sin. We understand that it pains God when we miss the mark. We need to find ourselves intoxicated with the relationship we have with Christ. Although the path toward death is intoxicating, we need to be aware that the "prize" at the end of that road is destruction and total separation from God.
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