October 7, 2008

Today's Reading - Proverbs 7
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Following Scripture Verses

1. My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
2. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
3. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
4. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
5. That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
6. For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,
7. And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,
8. Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
9. In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
10. And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
11. (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
12. Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
13. So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,
14. I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
15. Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
16. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
17. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
19. For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
20. He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
21. With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
22. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
23. Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
24. Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
25. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
26. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
27. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

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"Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves." - Proverbs 7:18

We have spent most of our time in this chapter looking at the steps that were taken that led to this immoral relationship. In today's verse we see another issue: a misunderstanding of what true love is.

Twice in this verse the woman refers to her relationship with the young man as "love". Yet they seem to barely know each other, and they have no Biblical relationship at all. He apparently believes that she loves him, and perhaps thinks that he loves her as well, for she uses the pronoun "us" in her appeal to him. In addition, we know from verse 21 that it is her "fair speech" that causes him to surrender his purity to her, so undoubtedly her reference to "love" helped to push him over the cliff of adultery.

There are two things that we need to notice. First of all, many a woman has been seduced into an immoral relationship by a man who told her that he loved her. Here is something that we must never forget: if someone truly loves you, he or she will not ask you to do something that is unscriptural. I Corinthians 13:5 tells us that charity "doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own", and verse 6 adds that Biblical love "rejoiceth not in iniquity." Anyone who asks you to do something sinful is motivated by selfishness, not love.

Second, the world has blurred the distinction between love and lust. Love is a sacrificial giving of yourself to someone else. Lust is a desire to have your own needs and desires met. Immorality is always based upon lust: one partner wants to have the illicit relationship even though it will hurt the other person emotionally and spiritually. He doesn't care about the other person, all he cares about is himself. When the ungodly speak of love they are usually talking about that which makes them feel good themselves, which is lust. It is rare that they are talking about sacrificing their own desires for someone else, which is what true love is all about.

Confusing love and lust is a dangerous thing. Be careful to exam your emotions from a Biblical standpoint.

Pastor Mark J Montgomery