Proverbs 5:11
"And you groan at your final end, when your flesh and your body are consumed."
This is the final point of the consequences that are suffered from wanton promiscuity. It all feels so right when it starts and so wrong when it comes to a conclusion. This verse points out the health consequences that are a part of this foolishness.
Your flesh and body are consumed. Solomon and others saw the devastating effects of sexually-transmitted diseases ravaging those who had played fast and loose with God's boundaries on selfishness.
In our modern world, we have grown complacent to the effects of these diseases because of penicillin and other drugs, but the effects of these diseases still take a toll. And as these diseases become resistant to our drugs, they take an increasing toll.
Young people must be warned and constantly reminded that there are diseases out there that are specifically targeted to infect those who are promiscuous: Gonorrhea, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, Syphilis, Herpes, AIDS. These, and many other diseases, will do exactly what this verse says they will do – they will consume your body and flesh. Some will make you insane; some will give you cancer; some will render you barren; some will cause you to break out with painful lesions; some will ooze and rupture parts of your body. These are not to be treated as nothing; there is a price for promiscuity. Save yourself; it is the wise thing to do.
I remember knowing a man who was in the final stages of insanity from syphilis. It was not a pretty site. He had taken the comfort of prostitutes in his younger years and was unable to obtain the drugs required to slow the advance of the disease early enough. He walked around mumbling, swinging at imaginary enemies, bumping into the walls, drooling, and being almost completely incoherent. All the while his stick-like body was wasting away.
The answer is clearly lifelong commitment to one partner for sexual pleasure in a union called marriage. Sexuality is a pleasure that God gave to humanity, but he clearly states that the only container powerful enough to contain this pleasure without damaging the users is the marriage of one man and one woman.
Multiple partners open the door for flesh-consuming diseases. Do not be reduced to groaning near the end of your life, wishing you had held back from the fifteen seconds of intense illicit pleasure. Live your life fully, enjoying all the pleasure and joy that life brings using each blessing, gift, treasure, and pleasure in its God-ordained way. God is not trying to hold back on us. He is trying to have us enjoy the wonder of life without the pain.
Sexuality is like a fire and needs to be placed within the right container. Just because you are cold doesn't mean that you start a fire in the middle of the room. There would be just too much damage, and it would almost certainly get out of control and you would not be able to stop what it consumes. In the same way sexuality was meant to be contained within a lifetime commitment between a man and a woman. That is the proper fireplace to contain the fire of sexuality safely.
Any other form of sexuality is foolishness and a form of selfishness. And that selfishness – started outside of the proper fireplace or using different fuels – will damage and destroy.
It is for your protection and benefit that God puts boundaries around sexual expression. He is not trying to rain on your parade. He is saying this is how to enjoy this intense pleasure safely. Enjoy it.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz