We ought industriously to avoid everything that might be an occasion of the sin of adultery or a step towards it, for it is destructive of all the seeds of virtue of the soul and those who are entangled in it have but a step between them and hell.
Proverbs 5
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 ¶ For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 ¶ Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.
18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 ¶ His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Proverbs 5:1-14 – J. Vernon McGee
Proverbs 5:15-20 – J. Vernon McGee
Proverbs 5:21-23 – J. Vernon McGee
Proverbs 5:1-14 – Quicksands! Keep Off!
It is a matter for great thankfulness that the Bible, which is God’s book rather than man’s, deals so strongly and wisely with one great evil, which has manifested itself in every age and in every state of society. It speaks boldly and plainly; and all who will meditate on its teaching with a prayerful heart, will be saved from many a painful snare. If we fall it will only be due to our having refused to heed the voice that speaks to us from paragraphs like these.
The one great caution that we must all observe is in the control of our thoughts. The soul must never lie open to the tide of suggestive thoughts that break along its beach. As of old the watchman kept the gate of the medieval city so soon as darkness fell, so must the purity of God keep watch and ward at eye-gate, ear-gate, and touch-gate, lest some emissary of evil gain entrance and betray the citadel. Let Christ be the custodian of thy soul, whether thou be man or woman, old or young, and let Him impart to thee His own divine and human purity. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Proverbs 5:6, 21—Ponder the path of life. He pondereth all his goings.
It is a remarkable expression, “the path of life”; and there is great comfort in knowing that God is ever before us, leveling our pathway, taking insurmountable obstacles out of the way, so that our feet do not stumble.
It may be that you are facing a great mountain range of difficulty. Before you, obstacles, apparently insuperable, rear themselves like a giant wall to heaven. When you cross the Jordan there is always a Jericho which appears to bar all further advance, and your heart fails. But you are bidden to believe that there is a level path right through those mighty barriers; a pass, as it is called, in mountainous districts. The walking there is easy and pleasant if only you will let yourself be led to it. God has made it, but you must take it. How we dread the thought of those steep cliffs! It seems as though we could never climb them; but if we would only look at the Lord instead of at the hills, if we would look above the hills to Jehovah, we should be able to rest in sure faith that He will show us the level path of life.
Your path is not level, but full of boulders which have rolled down upon and choked it. But may this not be partly due to your mistakes or sins-to your willfulness and self-dependence? There are sorrows and trials in all lives; but these need not obstruct our progress. The text surely refers to those difficulties which threaten us with their arrest, putting barriers in our way. When Peter reached the iron gate he found it open; when the women reached the sepulchre door they found the stone gone. What an awful indictment against the child of sensual pleasure, “She findeth not the level path of life!” —Our Daily Homily