Proverbs 6: 20 – 29

Today’s verses are another warning to young men about committing adultery. From the repetition that the Bible uses in this area, God must really think it is one of the most important things a young person can learn about, as we have discussed in prior studies. Here are today’s verses:

Proverbs 6: 20 - 29 (NIV)
Warning Against Adultery

20 My son, keep your father's commands
and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
21 Bind them upon your heart forever;

fasten them around your neck.
22 When you walk, they will guide you;

when you sleep, they will watch over you;

when you awake, they will speak to you.

23 For these commands are a lamp,

this teaching is a light,

and the corrections of discipline are the way to life,

24 keeping you from the immoral woman,

from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife.
25 Do not lust in your heart after her beauty

or let her captivate you with her eyes,
26 for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread,

and the adulteress preys upon your very life.
27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap

without his clothes being burned?
28 Can a man walk on hot coals

without his feet being scorched?
29 So is he who sleeps with another man's wife;

no one who touches her will go unpunished.

The first four of today’s verses remind us that our “father’s commands” and “mother’s teaching”… the lessons a good parent would continually impart to a young person throughout their youth (spiritual or physical) IF REMEMBERED and ACTED upon, will shine for others to see, guide them throughout their lives, give them comfort so they can sleep peacefully, etc. They also remind us, in verse 23, that “the corrections of discipline are the way to life…” As we have seen in other studies in this area, proper “discipline,” done in a wise way, is to be expected to keep us on the right path. If we listen the first time, we don’t have to have a harsher discipline later on.

Verses 24 thru 29 cover this chapter’s warnings on adultery. The first verses we looked at tie together with these, as we see in verse 24. Both types of adultery are mentioned in this verse… a man turning to a prostitute or immoral woman, and a man having an affair with a “wayward wife.”

NOTE: During Bible times, “prostitutes” and prostitution was often a form of Temple worship employed by many of the religions of that time, so this sin also often had spiritual implications involved that would, of course, be another problem as far as God was concerned.

Verse 25 talks about a “lust of the flesh” that is activated by the eyes in this case. Remember, our senses are wonderful gifts of God, but as with all of His gifts to us, we need to keep them under HIS control, and not ours.

Verse 26 tells us that to a prostitute, a person is simply a way to make money for food, etc. There is no love involved to feed that person’s soul. It goes on to say that getting involved in adultery can get you killed, as the penalty in this time period was death by stoning. Adultery also sucks the life out of people for it causes them to live a life of lies, and we have seen who the father of lies is in past verses.

The last three verses go on to give word pictures of what adultery is like, ending with another warning. It equates it with “scooping fire into his [a person’s] lap,” and “walking on hot coals.” Playing with fire WILL end up getting a person burned, and God says it will NOT go unpunished! ALL parties will be burned sooner or later...