Wednesday, June 8, 2011

June 6th – Proverbs 6: Simple Question, Simple Answer

“Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?” – Proverbs 6:27-28

Simple questions demand simple answers. Take this one for example: “Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?” The answer is of course, NO. Yet so many people live their lives trying to disprove such simple, ironclad logic. We make these elaborate excuses and reasons to explain away our faults and sins. Most all of them will come down to a simple explanation. Get caught in adultery? It’s because you have been playing with fire: Sexual immorality. Sexual immorality has a unique attraction to men and that is the context of the Proverb we’re talking about today:

“So is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.” – Proverbs 6:29

That immoral woman may look nice, she may talk nice and smell nice, but in the end, she’s another man’s wife! Touching her is like playing with fire! If you play with fire you WILL get burned, period. Why is it that we think we can flirt with danger and not get hurt? I’ve known men that feel good about themselves because they withstood a temptation that they should have run from! Many things that we are trying to bear up under simply need to be defeated by abandoning them!

I like what David Hogan said one time, “Things that have eaten my lunch in the past, I don’t let even sit at the table!” That is a wise position, if something has defeated you in the past, why even give it a chance in the future? If you struggle with sexual temptation, either in real life or with something like pornography, don’t try to bear up under the temptation, RUN from it!

“FLEE from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” – I Corinthians 6:18

Many men are frustrated because they can’t get and stay free from the temptation of pornography, largely because they are giving this DEMON too much of their time and energy. They have TONS of unaccountable time and energy and wonder why they fall into the trap? What’s happening is that they are dining with temptation instead of running out the door.

LIFE LESSON:
While playing with fire, you honestly can’t act surprised WHEN you get burned.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for this post Ryan. It helps to see temptation simply as a guest (an uninvited one) and simply flee nonetheless! Another way at looking at adultery is, you mess with her, you're messing with him (and by messing I mean...) since the two are one flesh!

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