Proverbs 5:8 Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house.

We have reached the end of our week and I’m sure this wasn’t the encouraging word you were looking for today. Oftentimes, we read God’s Word only for what we can get (something reassuring) and not looking for what we gain (something everlasting). What’s so everlasting about “keeping yourself” you may ask. Well, obedience to God requires faith in Christ and without faith (in Christ) it is impossible to please God. Now some of you may say faith in Christ was not an Old Testament tradition but we see in the book of Hebrews the “hall of faith” were filled with Old Testament believers. So in the text, Solomon shares a warning, some wisdom, and sound teaching regarding refraining from entertaining the adulterous woman. He urges his son and all who reads to first keep himself away from her. It is harder to fall into temptation when you don’t keep company with a tempest.

If we are honest, the times we have fallen short in any area of our lives is because we forfeited the opportunity to make a better decision. This is what keeping yourself away looks like in the practical sense. We see this in the life of Joseph in how he fled from sleeping with another man’s wife. Even with this in mind I want us to take it a step further. Those who claim to love God but still flirt with the enemy are also adulterers and we should have no company with the likes of them as well. God’s Word is true and after while bad company will indeed corrupt good morals if we allow it. So many times we try to overestimate our finite ability and underestimate the enemy’s power against our feeble flesh. God has given us the power to choose good over evil. He didn’t give us the power to choose evil and still try to be good.

There is no reasoning with evil only refraining and rebuking! God has always been serious about how we live out our faith in obedience to Him so much so that He said. “Don’t go near the door of her house.” So, we are to not walk with them in agreement nor are we to be near the very place where her evil deeds are housed. What does this mean? It means most likely God isn’t sending you to a gentlemen’s club to minister or a brothel to witness. Oftentimes, we give excuses for sin because we act like our hearts were in the right place. Meanwhile completely ignoring the fact that God knows our hearts. The One Who fashioned it in our mother’s womb knows it better than we do which is why He warns us to not even go near the place the evil is happening. Sure, it can mean her literal house but we have to remember that adultery isn’t just isolated to husband and wife but also God and man. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible is full of stories reflecting both relationships and how we are to remember our first love and only drink from our spouse cisterns.

Let this be your reminder to take pause and evaluate who and what you have allowed in your space and in your heart. Have you kept yourself from sinning against God? Do you have idols that have robbed you of your time and replaced God’s place in your heart? It’s easy for us to answer these questions with a quick yes but I implore you not to rush through this. Let God search your heart and be ok with whatever He may share and expose to you. Know that He loves you enough to correct you and keep you on the straight path to everlasting life. However. we have to adhere to His correction more than we want His blessings because in our obedience there is much life but chasing behind the doors of the adulterers is darkness and destruction. Choose wisely and resolve to live righteously unto God.

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