Proverbs 5: 20 “For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman,
And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?”

This poignant rhetorical question goes to the heart of our struggles as men (and as of late, our women). The 21st century finds us inundated with sexual fantasies, sexual immorality and or sexual fixations. Sexual desire and sexual passion have hijacked the minds and hearts of our youth, our teens, our men and our women like never before in our lifetime. Greener grass is not about the other side of the fence but the other side of sexual freedom, sexual expression and personal sexual fulfillment.

Proverbs 5 is chocked full of warnings and instructions germane to one’s sexual proclivities. I discovered this chapter during my early years of marriage, and it caused me to remain focused on the wife of my youth even to this day, after some 44 years of marital felicity. Truly, this verse arrested my attention and engaged my mind in a life changing way. Note the following: John A. Kitchen (Proverbs, A Mentor Commentary; Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2006. Pg. 29) states “we must understand that, by their very nature, the proverbs are truth stripped to the essentials. They are seldom qualified, balanced by surrounding statements, or extensively defined. They are stripped down, stated, and left to stand—all with the goal of arresting our attention and engaging our minds.”

Whether married or single; whether honoring God’s calling of celibacy or waiting to fulfill God’s call for marriage, we will encounter issues around sexual purity at some time in our life. These “struggles” will, most likely, find their roots in being enraptured or being embraced by an immoral woman (or man) or beckoned by the arms of a seductress or a male tempter.
The Hebrew word for enraptured means to ravish, to stray, to stagger, or to do wrong, to misled, or to lead astray. To embrace is to clasp, to be embraced in, fondle, to fold the hands. Notice that the plea; “why should you…”. For all practical or reasonable purposes there is no reason to find ourselves tasting the fruit of anyone other than our God-given mates in the safety and sanction of marriage. Joseph answers the seductress known only as Potiphar’s wife ((Genesis 39: 9b) exclaiming “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” His answer was— “I can’t” and “I won’t” as he exited stage right so rapidly that Mrs. Potiphar was left with an air-filled robe and a whiff of Joseph as the only evidence of what could have been.

So, on the matter of “Why” indulge our sexual fantasies outside marriage or the marriage bed; try this on for size… “I cannot give a good reason because God is watching”!! For there is no good (as in godly) reason that we would be led astray or be found in the arms of an immortal woman or an immortal male tempter. There should be no reason because we will have obeyed God’s command to flee youthful lust, heeded the wisdom of Solomon and understood Proverbs 5:

21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD,
And He ponders all his paths.
22 His own iniquities entrap the wicked man,
And he is caught in the cords of his sin.
23 He shall die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.