Pr. 5: Adultery is Childish

Proverbs 5:18 "May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth."

Here is a warning against the hollow spirit of adultery. Yes, it is a commandment. But here we get a little deeper into the more practical side of sticking with a commitment, keeping a promise. There appears to be no deeper human relationship than that of a man and his wife.

This isn't to discount or ignore the initial draw of adultery. Her lips drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. Who wouldn't be taken in by that? Some wandering heart, who doesn't think he hears his wife say "I love you" in the things that she does and the way that she lives? It sounds nice, enticing. But the end is bitter as gall. Piss. Death. Unfulfilling. Anyone who has used pornography and regretted it knows the empty feeling and the guilt from giving into that printed or electronic temptation. The Proverbs say that the adulteress isn't into giving life. Only death and destruction. Robbing a man of his spirit, his "essence."

What a man has with his wife isn't meant to be shared, as that relationship grows deeper and more intimate. Drink water from your own cistern, it says. That is the only water that quenches thirst. How much greater it is to enjoy your life with your one-and-only, the "wife of your youth" as the Proverb says. That serious depth of intimacy will always be more fulfilling and real than useless flings with the adulteress.