Proverbs 5:1-21

The seventh commandment, as most of us know well, forbids far more than the physical act of adultery. It calls all of us–married or single–to a life of complete sexual purity. As Proverbs 5 articulates, sex within the proper confines of marriage is something to be enjoyed (see vv. 15-19), but the allure of sex outside of that context is destructive and deadly. Very few if any of us escape the powerful temptation that sexual sin presents, maybe particularly in our modern world. Borrowing some of the insights of the denominational report that’s soon to go before our annual Synod meeting, we’ll consider the call of the 7th commandment as it relates to four areas: marriage, singleness, pornography, and same-sex attraction. Like all the commandments, this one too throws us back onto the all-sufficient grace of Jesus Christ. And it’s as we more and more learn to see Christ as pre-eminently precious that the allure of temptation begins to lose its luster.