Overcoming Sexual Temptation, part 3 - Proverbs 7:18

"Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning; Let us delight ourselves with caresses. Proverbs 7:18

As we continue our look at overcoming sexual temptation, we come to the direct statement of the harlot.  We need to look at this statement to see the deception and the encouragement of sin in it. 

She makes the fool an offer of sex - but the way she states it is having his fill of love until the morning.  The word she uses for love here is the one that is usually used in the Hebrew for "lover."  But what she offers is not love in the truest sense.  She offers a fullness of love - at least until the morning.  She offers fullness of love - at least until her husband gets home - or she finds someone else to be her sexual dupe.  But all the fool hears is that he has a lover for the evening. 

That is the problem with sexual temptation - it offers an immediate pleasure - but says nothing of the long-term cost.  Sexual tempation (and actually any temptation for that matter) always focuses on immediate gratification.  Our flesh wants immediate gratification - and calls out for it every day we live.  But immediate gratification may leave a wake of incredible destruction.  Therefore, the more we allow oursevles to be deceived into thinking there are no consequences for our actions - the more likely we are going to fall for the lies being fed to us. 

The adulteress says that a night of wonderful love-making awaits us.  But let's be perfectly honest about this.  That promise is for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Drinking our fill of love until morning is a euphamism for little more than 30 minutes of our time.  The destruction had in that brief period of time - lasts far longer - and I would submit the pain involved is far worse than the intensity of the pleasure promised.  I've walked with people through divorce proceedings that last months.  I've walked with men who made this fatal mistake - and even years later they were still paying a price when their wives struggled with trusting them when they were late from work.  But sin never talks to us in these terms - sin only speaks of the "now" moment of pleasure.  Wisdom considers the moments after - the days after - the months and years after.

Delighting oursevles with caresses is another call to live for our flesh, and the adulteress uses it craftily.  The word "delight" here is interesting.  It means to rejoice in something - finding pleasure in it - and delighting in pleasure by expressing that pleasure above all other things.  What is interesting about this word is that the Bible uses it of the pleasure that is found in the sexual relationship in marriage.  God actually blesses this delight in pleasure - but He does so with the boundaries of marriage fully in place.  We read in multiple places in the Bible that God fully desires for us to experience the joy of married sexual love.  God did not give us sexual organs, desires, and the ability to feel pleasure only to forbid it.  But He knows that when we do so outside the bounds of a committed marriage relationship, it will turn destructive.  Just delighting ourselves with caresses can lead to the idea of multiple sexual partners - which we know leads to sexually transmitted diseases.  It leads to a shallow love based on physical attraction and physical pleasure alone.  In its more perverted forms - this leads to homosexualtiy - and in its worst forms to things like incest and rape.  Living for the physical pleasure of anything alone will lead to a complete abandonment of wisdom.  Sins like gluttony, drunkenness, and drug abuse are all ways that we start with a desire for the physical pleasure of something alone.  They all end in a bondage to sin that is very difficult to break.

The call to sexual temptation is a call to live for our flesh - and for a rejoicing in pleasure alone.  It does not think at all beyond the moment - and misses altogether the bondage that awaits in the future.  The fool does not think ahead - he only thinks of now.  He wants his pleasure now and is deaf to any consequences that await him.  The way to defeat sexual temptation is to use something other than your physical organs to make your decisions.  It is to use God's Word as wisdom guiding your mind as you encounter various things - various people in life.  That way you do not wind up a slave to your senses.  Biblically Romans 6 reminds us that in life we are going to be either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness.  Sin will destroy us.  The wise man submits himself to God - to His Word - and to a life that promises pleasure and blessing beyond the next 30 minutes.