4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend, 5 to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. 6 For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, 8 passing along the street near [the adulteress’] corner . . . And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. 25 Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray onto her paths, . . . her slain are a mighty throng. 27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down into the chambers of death.

Proverbs 7:4-27 (ESV)

Opening the envelope, he read the cover of the card: “Finally a special day we can call our own . . .” Inside he found the following message: “I am so glad we found each other . . . You are so special to me. I can’t imagine not having you in my life to share my innermost thoughts, my dreams, and my love. All the love I’ll ever need I found in you. Happy Anniversary.” Is this the language of love? No, it’s the language of adultery. These are the words printed in one of more than a dozen new cards in the Secret Lover greeting card series made for those in an illicit affair.1 This is how low we’ve sunk as a culture.

While Solomon paints a vivid image of the wiles of the adulterous woman, his warnings could apply equally to the adulterous man. The pattern here is nearly universal. First, the adulterous woman waits like a lioness for her prey (v. 6). She hunts best in the cloak of darkness (v. 9). Her dress is provocative, the uniform of a prostitute (v. 10); she is exciting and flirtatious (v. 11). She may even be outwardly religious, reminding her prey that she “had to offer sacrifices” and pay vows (v. 14).2 Assuring him that her husband will be out of town for a season (vv. 19-20), she draws him into her lair like “an ox to the slaughter” or “as a bird rushes into a snare” (vv. 22-23).

Most noteworthy is the description of the woman’s victim as “simple” and “lacking sense” (v. 7). One of the chief audiences of the book of Proverbs is the simple person. After all, the book was written, in part, “to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth” (1:4). Wisdom is personified as a woman who cries out in the streets: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?” (1:22). The simple person in Proverbs is not evil, but naïve and easily led astray to his own destruction (1:32). He desperately needs God’s wisdom, and, graciously, wisdom promises that if the simple person turns to her she will pour out her spirit on him and make her words clear (1:23).

Instead of being enticed by the adulterous woman, Solomon tells the young man that he must “Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister,’ and call insight your intimate friend . . .” (7:4). The appeal to calling wisdom his “sister” is probably an indication that he is to become endeared to wisdom. He is to become mature, discerning, and intimate with wisdom. Only then can he resist the temptations of sin, including the temptations of the adulterous woman.

Sadly, our culture thinks it is sexually wise; but in reality ours is a naïve and simple culture. Westerners tend to embrace the myth of sexual liberation, thinking that in freedom, so-called, they will find happiness. In fact, study after study has shown that faithful, married love brings the greatest happiness, the most robust health, and even the greatest financial well-being to those who are committed to it.3 Yet, terrifyingly, Scripture has ominous things to say about a lifestyle of sexual immorality. The unrepentant fornicator or adulterer will not inherit the kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 5:29 and 1 Cor. 6:9). Frankly, adultery is crazy!

Men and women of wisdom heed the warnings of Solomon. They understand that sexual purity and covenant marriage are the ways of happiness, health, and well-being. Each time a minister performs a marriage, he celebrates the way of shalom before a watching world. The Church should never apologize for her stance on sexual purity and her dedication to heterosexual marriage. In a “simple” greeting-card culture like ours, the Church’s commitment to sexual purity and monogamous marriage will seem as strange as it is wise.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  The Secret Lover Collection Website, http://www.secretlovercollection.com/index.php (accessed January 16, 2006).
 
2  Interpreters vary in their understanding of this verse. Some, as with the NIV, suggest that she might have a festal meal at home, having offered a peace offering. More likely, she is saying that her offerings are due and she needs money since her husband is away and took the bags of money with him. In either case, she is a religious woman. See Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs, in New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1993), 103.
 
3  Maggie Gallagher has chronicled these facts in three volumes, including: The Abolition of Marriage: How We Destroy Lasting Love (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1996); Enemies of Eros: How the Sexual Revolution is Killing the Family, Marriage, and Sex and What We Can Do About It (Chicago: Bonus Books, 1989); and with Linda Waite, The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
from Kairos Journal

Perryville, First Baptist Church is located across from Principio Health Center on Rt. 40 east of Route 222