Proverbs 5:12-14

You will say, “How I hated discipline! If only I had not ignored all the warnings!  Oh, why didn’t I listen to my teachers? Why didn’t I pay attention to my instructors? I have come to the brink of utter ruin, and now I must face public disgrace.”

“I can’t believe I did that! That was so stupid! I’m such an idiot!” A friend of mine, who has done a lot of public speaking as a pastor and a leader, likes to remind his audiences, “We are all one decision away from stupid.” How true that is…especially when it comes to sexual immorality.

Scripture is pregnant with warnings about sexual immorality. If you have been a student of the Bible at all, you know this to be true. So, why don’t we “listen to our teachers”? Why don’t we “pay attention to our instructors”? Why do we “ignore all the warnings”? Perhaps we don’t really believe what we have been told. Maybe we think we have gotten away with sexual immorality in the past and so we really don’t fear “utter ruin” or “public disgrace” now or in the future. Or, perhaps we have never really tried doing it God’s way with respect to sexual purity and so we have never experienced the blessings of obedience.

Once again, God is lovingly taking us to the edge of the abyss to show us what trouble lies ahead if we don’t follow His lead. Matthew Henry sums it up nicely:

We do not make a right use of the reproofs that are given us for that which is evil if we do not turn from it to that which is good; for this end the reproof was given. Turn! That is, return to your right mind.  Turn to God. Turn to your duty. Turn and live.