Adultery Consequences
Verses 13-14
These verses teach us the result, if we live for our desires. In the end our wrong desires will ruin us. They will bring us to despair.
Solomon warns his son. He explains what will happen to a foolish son. The son will become an old man one day. Then the son will ask himself what his life achieved. He will see that he achieved nothing. He ruined his life, because he did not serve God. Instead, the foolish son served his emotions and desires. He wasted his energy on cruel people (verse 9). His strength brought wealth to another man’s home (verse 10).
We should think about our lives. Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 7:24-27. A wise man built a house on rock. When the storms came, the house was strong. A fool built his house on sand. When the storms came, the house fell down.
We should be like the wise man in Jesus’ story. We should build our lives on a strong base. That base should be God. When problems come, God will protect us. And he will help us.
If we build a house on something weak, the house will fall down (Matthew 7:26-27). In the same way, our lives need a strong base. Our emotions are not a strong base for our lives. If we trust our emotions, we shall become very weak.
Let us build our lives in God’s way.
Paul wrote about sex in 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. He said, ‘Your body does not belong to you. Jesus bought your body, for a price.’ (Paul means the price of Jesus’ death for us. We belong to God.) ‘Therefore, use your body to give honour to God.’ (1 Corinthians 6:19b-20)
Few experiences are as typical for mankind as looking back, with regret, on good advice we failed to take. Especially when judgment falls, sinners wish they had listened to godly wisdom. It is not the instructors' fault that students go astray, it is the fault of those who fail to accept the instruction. Few people who fall into deep sin can say, with any truth, that they were never warned about the consequences they would face. This verse continues the mourning of someone shattered by sin, who realizes exactly how they came to their fate (Proverbs 5:11–12).
Without a doubt Jesus was the best teacher in history. He spoke the truth, and His words were authoritative and life giving. However, not everyone who heard Jesus' instruction accepted it (John 5:39–40). The scribes and Pharisees rejected it, and at one point masses of people turned away and no longer followed Him (John 6:66). Jesus taught that God's Word, like scattered seed, doesn't fall only on good ground. Sometimes it falls on stony ground or among weeds and is unproductive (Matthew 13:18–23). Paul told Timothy the time would come when children would flagrantly ignore their parents (2 Timothy 3:1–2) and "people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions" (2 Timothy 4:3). The results of that ignorance will be painful.
This passage warns against the sin of adultery. Specifically, Solomon is explaining the deep regret and painful consequences which come from that sin (Proverbs 5:7–13). One of the consequences already mentioned is a loss of reputation and honor (Proverbs 5:9). It's curious that even in sex-saturated modern culture, which celebrates casual promiscuity, there is still stigma