Drink From Your Own Well
by Pastor Steve Ellison
Verses 15-23 of Proverbs chapter 5 contain a series of related questions dealing with the issue of marital faithfulness. Really they are all part of the same question. The question is asked in three different ways in verses 16 and 20. In 17-19, God answers the question for us and gives us positive reasons for faithfulness. After rephrasing the question in verse 20, God gives three warnings of certain consequences to marital unfaithfulness. First, He reminds us that everything we do is in His full view, implying His certain punishment. Second, He reminds us that the sin we find so pleasing for a short time will indeed in the end trap us and hold us prisoner. Third, God predicts that this sin will result in our death. Finally, God minces no words in concluding that the whole blame is ours. It is brought on by our own inability to control ourselves because of our own great foolishness.
Read the passage carefully, let the truth of it settle securely in your mind and heart. The message is so clear and so important. The message from our culture is polar opposite. The policies of our government promote the opposite. The devastation to innocent victims is all around us. The consequences to the guilty are so real and so significant. It is all so completely avoidable.
Proverbs 5:15-23 states, “Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer — may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love. Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife? For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths. The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.” (NIV)
The casualties of sexual immorality are all around you. You see the innocent spouses living shattered lives. You see the innocent children growing up without a mother or without a daddy or both. You also see the suffering guilty. You see disintegrated families. You see the parents of foolish children struggling with how to love them without accepting and enabling their sinful lifestyles. If you will look closely, you will see something even more tragic; you will see children struggling with how to love parents without tolerating their sin.
If you think this is not a problem, try counseling a seventeen year old girl (as I had to do) who is not speaking to her mother because the mother walked out on the family and is living in sin with another man. Do what you can to bring about a return to Biblical morality. Live in purity yourself. Promote purity. This means using great discernment in your own life.
Refuse to be entertained by material which desensitizes you to sexual immorality. Refuse to tolerate sexual immorality in those you have influence with. Love people enough to gently restore them by lovingly telling them the truth. Pray for your friends and family. Pray for government officials who institute policies which for the most part encourage sexual immorality. Pray that consumers will reject entertainment that makes light of sexual immorality while ignoring its consequences. The devastation is real, do not ignore it.
