Adultery: The Poison That Tastes Like Honey

The book of Proverbs provides many strong warnings against adultery. Consider some of the following excerpts from chapters 5-7:

Although the beginning of an affair will undoubtedly be exciting and sweet like honey, the end is a bitter poison. A terrible price will be paid for brief moments of forbidden pleasure. Friends, don't buy the ticket without first understanding the destination!

The wise will not buy into the myth of "greener pastures" elsewhere but will invest in their own spouse with zeal and renewed dedication as the marriage bond ages and the circumstances of life turn. One's rightful marriage bed can perpetually be the sweetest of all honey with continued effort and commitment.

Along with the warnings, Solomon also sets forth the solution for how to avoid adultery:

"Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be only your own, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountains be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love. For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, and be embraced in the arms of a seductress?" (5:15-20).

Married love is like drinking clean water from a fresh well whereas pursuing sexual immorality is like drinking polluted water from a sewer. Will you choose purity or pollution? Don't be a fool; satisfy your thirst wisely!

A married man who drinks "water," so to speak, from his own well exclusively will rightly become intoxicated with his wife. Our faithful and magnificent Lord is still turning water into wine as married love blossoms! What begins as pure water in the infancy of marriage becomes the most satisfying wine as the delights of marriage grow into maturity and unmatched joy.

This is God's way, dear friends, and the Creator of all certainly knows what is best. God does not forbid adultery (or any form of sexual immorality) to deny us some blessing but to spare us from harm and ruining ourselves. Things are often not what they appear to be on the surface. Run from office flirtations and any type of sexual advances that aren't coming from your spouse. Don't follow your passions to destruction; follow God's path to holy satisfaction.