Proverbs 7

Here is our warning: sin comes out to meet us! It doesn’t ever leave us alone. Our culture and even our own minds attempt to lure us into sin. How do we prepare for such an onslaught? By filling our minds with wisdom! Which means we need to fill it ahead of time so that we are ready when temptation strikes. But just learning Scripture isn’t enough. We also have to be willing to yield to the influence of the Word and the Spirit in our lives when we are in the midst of temptation.

Sin is insidious and destructive, and the consequences can continue to impact us long after the event. A man in his late 80’s once asked me to come and visit him because he needed some counseling. I had some ideas about what it might be based on my experience, but I was completely wrong. When this man was a teenager being shipped off to war, he looked at what were considered pornographic images for that day and time. His problem was that, 70 years later, he still remembered those images and couldn’t get them out of his mind. It was taking away his peace and his joy. Unfortunately, that’s a perfect illustration of what sin, and particularly sexual sin, does to us. Guilt, shame, and pain can still affect us years later. In one way or another, it can cost us our lives.

Here are three additional ideas that this passage should cause us to consider. First, it’s very easy to find bad examples in the world. Why should we need to personally experience trouble and distress when all we have to do is look out our windows (so to speak) and we can see the trouble that sin brings? I took a quick peak at the two most prominent news sites on the web and saw stories about human trafficking, abuse, shootings, war, and theft. And, on top of that, we can see what’s happening within our communities and to our family and friends when bad choices are made. You would think that seeing the consequences of certain actions would deter us. Unfortunately, that’s not usually what happens. Second, it’s implied that if you are older then you are more mature and you know better than to do dumb things. However, sometimes physical maturity doesn’t equate to spiritual maturity. Hopefully it does in our own lives. And finally, if you are trying to hide your actions (“in the middle of the night and in the darkness”), should you be doing what you are doing?

Thought for the day: In addition to everything we just discussed, other people also help us to keep from sin and its consequences.

Hebrews 3:13 (WEB) “but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called ‘today,’ lest anyone of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”