Counting the Cost of Sexual Immorality

I’m scared of sexual immorality. Am I planning on committing adultery? No!! I love my wife, she is more precious to me than anyone or anything else on this earth. I also know that God’s plans for sex are within marriage and that this is good. So why am I scared? Because I know the deceitfulness of my own heart and that I’m capable of great sin given the opportunity. My prayer is that God would keep me (and you) from impurity.

Randy Alcorn and Alan Hlavka have thought through specific consequences resulting from the immorality of a pastor. This really is essential reading. Here’s my plan:

1. Re-read Proverbs 6 (see below) and God’s wisdom on fleeing from adultery;
2. Re-read Alcorn’s blog post;
3. Copy it and customise it for me;
4. Print it out and put it in some prominent places;
5. Pray.

It might be wise to do the same!

Proverbs 6:20-35 is below…

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.

30 Men do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.

31 Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,
though it costs him all the wealth of his house.

32 But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment;
whoever does so destroys himself.

33 Blows and disgrace are his lot,
and his shame will never be wiped away;

34 for jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

35 He will not accept any compensation;
he will refuse the bribe, however great it is.

Proverbs 6

(h/t to Desiring God for link to Alcorn’s blog post)