The Seductions of the Adulteress

Proverbs 6:6, 9 ESV

 

“Go to the ant, O sluggard;

    consider her ways, and be wise…

How long will you lie there, O sluggard?

    When will you arise from your sleep?”

 

This lesson, this instruction in wisdom, is not for the person who makes no profession of faith in Jesus Christ. It is for the person who professes faith in Jesus Christ but who is habitually and spiritually inactive and lazy, who is living for self and for self-pleasure and not for the will of God.

 

This is a call to the one professing faith in Jesus Christ who is not living according to the faith he professes to consider the ways of the ant who is diligent in taking care to provide for her needs and perhaps for the needs of her family members, too. She is a worker, not a sluggard.

 

So, this is a call to wake up! It is a call to leave the ways of spiritual laziness and wastefulness and of self-indulgence, and to work for the Lord, and to do something useful and productive and fruit-bearing for God’s eternal kingdom. It is a call to repentance and to faithful obedience to Christ.

 

Proverbs 6:12-15 ESV

 

“A worthless person, a wicked man,

    goes about with crooked speech,

winks with his eyes, signals with his feet,

    points with his finger,

with perverted heart devises evil,

    continually sowing discord;

therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;

    in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.”

 

This person, who represents many people, is worthless (fruitless) for God’s eternal kingdom, for he is self-absorbed, doing what pleases him, not what pleases God. He is wicked because he plots evil on his bed, and he devises wicked schemes for his own sinful pleasure.

 

His speech is crooked because his mouth is full of lies, mostly for the purpose to cover up his wicked behaviors and scheming, and also for the purpose to present a false image of himself so that others will think that he is righteous and that he is not wicked.

 

So, he diverts attention from the evil of what he is doing by charming others, by making them laugh, by deceiving and manipulating, and by lying against those who are a threat to his wickedness out of fear that they might expose his evil deeds for what they are.

 

Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV

 

“There are six things that the Lord hates,

    seven that are an abomination to him:

haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

    and hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked plans,

    feet that make haste to run to evil,

a false witness who breathes out lies,

    and one who sows discord among brothers.”

 

But the Lord hates lies. He hates deception and manipulation. He hates the prideful heart and lustful eyes. He hates hands that take advantage of others and that hate and that murder the innocent, literally, or figuratively by their lies and by their abuse and slander.

 

He hates hearts that devise wicked plans, especially wicked plans against the innocent who have done them no evil, but good. And he hates feet (walks, lifestyles) that make haste to run to evil, to their adulteries, to their slander, and to their wicked schemes they devise against the innocent.

 

And he hates false witnesses who breathe out lies against others, in order to sow discord among believers in Jesus Christ. Usually this is done out of jealousy or to get even with someone they hate and/or who they perceive as a threat to their secretive and sinful lifestyles.

 

Proverbs 6:23-25, 32-33 ESV

 

“For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,

    and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

to preserve you from the evil woman,

    from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

    and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes…

 

“He who commits adultery lacks sense;

    he who does it destroys himself.

He will get wounds and dishonor,

    and his disgrace will not be wiped away.”

 

So, the counsel here is to keep the Lord’s commandments, for they will preserve us from the evil woman, the adulteress, who is attractive, and who captures people with her eyelids or eyelashes, i.e., with her seductive ways. And here the Lord gave me some insight into this.

 

An eye is a symbol of judgment, discernment, wisdom, and/or belief. And lashes have to do with bonds (chains, addictions) or strokes (flattery, smooth tongues, charming). So, this is a warning against the wisdom or the beliefs or the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

 

Although this is certainly a caution and a warning against being allured by an actual literal prostitute (male or female) or adulterer or adulteress who would lure you into committing actual physical adultery with him or her, there is also another kind of adulteress we need to be warned against.

 

She represents a false belief, a false gospel which is smooth-tongued, is very attractive to human flesh, and is seducing and alluring many people into “bed” with her, into an adulterous relationship that is against God and against the purity of what should be our relationship with him.

 

Just like a prostitute, a porn star, or an adulteress is a cheap substitute for the real relationship a person should have with his or her spouse, this cheap grace gospel, which is a cheap substitute (replacement) for the true gospel of grace, is seducing many people into “bed” with her.

 

And many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are being seduced into uniting in heart and mind with this adulteress (the cheap grace gospel) so that they can continue living in their wickedness, in their adulteries, and in their secretive sins, without guilt or remorse.

 

So, they, in essence, have united with a prostitute by uniting in faith with this cheap grace gospel which is a replacement (the supplanter) for the true gospel of grace. She has become their mistress, and they are addicted to her charm and her beauty, for it feeds the lusts of their flesh.

 

Thus, the commandments of the Lord (his gospel), if we walk in them, and if we let them lead us, they will preserve us from the evil woman, from the false gospel which seduces people into believing that they can believe in Jesus, be assured heaven as their destiny, while they continue deliberately and habitually in their wickedness.

 

So, this is also a warning here to not be captivated by the charm and the attractiveness of the cheap grace gospel which does not call for turning away from our lifestyles of sin, which does not call for obedient walks of faith in Jesus Christ, and which does not call for us to honor Christ as Lord.

 

For, those who follow this adulteress (the cheap grace gospel), they will be destroyed. For, if we walk according to the flesh, and sin is what we practice, and righteousness is not what we practice, and so we don’t walk in obedience to the Lord, that leads to death, not to life eternal with God.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:7; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10]

 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

 

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

 

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

 

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

 

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