18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, 19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breast fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. 20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? 21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.

Proverbs 5:18-21 (ESV)

What wife can compete with the carefully crafted images of young feminine beauty the media throws at men daily, even hourly? As they mature, few women can match the fleeting appearance of models in the bloom of youth. But it is a competition the Bible forbids. For the righteous husband, the beauty contest is over before it begins. He declares his wife the winner and happily devotes his heart to her.

In this, he is not condemned to settling for second best. When his heart is godly, the husband finds all the delight he can manage—and more. Indeed, he knows intoxication (v. 19) in the presence of his spouse—and this at every stage in life. Womanhood is a splendid work of God, and surpassingly fortunate is the man to whom the Lord has entrusted a wife. To look beyond her is both unnecessary and unseemly, for she alone has treasures enough to reward the faithful gaze.

Some men delude themselves by counting pornography harmless, so long as it does not lead to physical fornication or adultery. They suppose that the generation and entertainment of fantasies is innocent so long as they save their bodies for their spouses. But the Bible insists that they save their minds for their beloved as well.

The Bible condemns drunkenness, but not marital intoxication. In the realm of marital intimacy, the wife should find her husband beside himself with passion. If, though, he is inattentive, if his manner is distant, then there is a very good chance that he has sought his intoxication elsewhere. In seeking satisfaction with forbidden women (v. 20), he has cheated his wife of her rightful place of admiration.

It has been said that love is blind since lovers are often drawn to people that many would find unattractive. The Bible suggests that the opposite is true when it comes to married love. For in the conjugal relationship, love is soundly sighted, keenly aware of the partner’s winsome features that others may have missed.

article from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church is located in Perryville, one and half miles east of Route 222.