Proverbs 5:15-20 - The Sin of Lust.
Proverbs 5:15-20 (NLT) Drink water from your
own well - share your love only with your wife.
16 Why spill the water of your springs in the
streets, having sex with just anyone? 17 You should
reserve it for yourselves. Never share it with
strangers. 18 Let your wife be a fountain of blessing
for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. 19
She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her
breasts satisfy you always. May you always be
captivated by her love. 20 Why be captivated, my son,
by an immoral woman, or fondle the breasts of a
promiscuous woman?
WORD STUDY
Using the imagery of water, the joy of a
faithful marriage is contrasted with the disaster of
infidelity (vv. 9:14). "Cistern" and "well" refer to
the wife from whom the husband is to draw all
his satisfying refreshment, sexually and
affectionately (v. 9:17-18; Song 4:9-11). [MacArthur Daily
Bible 2003]
INTRODUCTION
In contrast to much of what we read, see,
and hear today, this passage urges couples to
look to each other for lifelong satisfaction and
companionship. Many temptations entice husbands and wives
to leave when marriage becomes dull in order to
find excitement and pleasures elsewhere. But God
designed marriage and sanctified it, and only within
this covenant relationship can we find real love
and fulfillment. Don't let God's best for you be
wasted on the illusion of greener pastures
somewhere else. Instead, rejoice with your spouse as
you give yourselves to God and to each other.
[Life Application SB]
COMMENTARY
Sin of Lust as a Strangeness; vs 15-17
The Hebrew word for the "adulterous"
woman (5:3) literally means the strange woman.
Married sex is likened to the refreshment and joy of
well water; but why have sex with strangers? This
is not saying you should have sex only with
someone you know. Rather, it is a claim that sex
outside of marriage is alien to your true nature.
Imagine going by rocket to Venus. If you got out and
inhaled the atmosphere, you would die. Why? Because
the clouds of sulfuric acid are alien to the
nature of your lungs.
"In the end, humans can no more live
outside God's moral order than can the fish
live outside God's biotic order. Outside the
ordinances of God we find not life but, ultimately,
death." When God says, "You must give yourself
sexually only to someone to whom you've given
yourself wholly, legally, and permanently in
marriage," he is saying, "This fits who you are, who I
made you to be." Sin leads to alienation from
your own nature and God's created order, and that
leads to destruction.
Why is the Christian sex ethic criticized
today? Can you give answers to those objections, or
do you believe some of them yourself?
Lord, when the church was new, its sex
ethic was considered crazy, narrow, and offensive.
Two thousand years later we are in the same
place. Help me to be as faithful and confident in
what your Word says about sex as that great cloud
of witnesses. Help me to understand, defend,
and practice it. Amen. [Gods Wisdom for
Navigating Life by Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller]
Sin of Lust as a Commodity; vs 18-19
In a time when marriage was most often
contracted to secure social standing, we are told that
being intoxicated with love should be the mark
of a marital relationship. Spouses are to give
themselves to each other in joyful abandon. When people
have sex outside marriage, maintaining their
independence and right to walk away at any time, it turns
sex into just a dispensed commodity, with both
persons remaining detached and in control. Instead,
sexual union should always and only take place
between a husband and a wife who share every other
kind of union - legal, social, financial,
personal - in marriage. Then sex becomes both a sign
of the union and a way to deepen it. When two
people are committed to be with each other -
through plenty and want, joy and sorrow, sickness
and health, repentance and forgiveness - sexual
intimacy becomes richer and richer. All your spouse
has done for you and means to you can somehow
pass into your lovemaking, and the two truly
become one.
In what ways does sex outside marriage
differ from sex within it?
Lord, you were willing to die for me. And
no one can have your love shed abroad in their
hearts unless they give their whole lives to you.
So protect your people from the tragic mistake
of thinking sex outside a marriage covenant is
somehow, sometimes all right in your eyes. It isn't.
Amen. [Gods Wisdom for Navigating Life by
Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller]
Sin of Lust as a Counterfeit Intimacy; vs
18-20
Marital joy includes sexual pleasure
(5:18-19) but much more. In the Bible no one is called
your blessing (verse 18) unless they have the
power to produce well-being in you and are deeply
connected to you in faith and social bond. Marriage
brings growth that is impossible outside of the
security of the bonded union. Because you cannot just
walk away when things get difficult, it brings
increased self-knowledge, emotional and spiritual
growth, deep mutual affirmation and support, and the
distinct joy you can have only in the presence of
someone with whom you have been through thick and
thin.
Sex outside marriage is "to exchange true
intimacy for its parody." A parody is a cartoonish
imitation. When you have given yourself wholly to
another in marriage, and the other person has also
made a solemn commitment that would be hard to
break, there is a new level of trust and thus
freedom from fear, and so you can, literally, lose
yourself in their love (verse 19). If you have not
done so, you may only lose yourself.
In what ways does the trust that a solemn
vow and a legal bond bring enhance love and
spiritual growth?
Lord, I see that true intimacy between
human beings depends not on fleeting "chemistry,"
sexual or otherwise, but on long-term commitment
and faithfulness to helping the other person be
all they should be before you. Let all my
relationships - and not just marriage - reflect this
insight from you. Amen. [Gods Wisdom for
Navigating Life by Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller]
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