"His own inequities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin"
This is the equivalent of the New Testament verse: You reap what you sow.
It is important to realize that what looks alluring and wonderful as a young person is actually a straightjacket of pain. The pathway that leads through adultery and free physical intimacy without marriage does not end up where you think it ends up.
What you are tempted by is what you will be captured by. You can be captured by good temptations or wicked temptations – they end up in very different places.
his own iniquities will capture the wicked
The word iniquitiesis the Hebrew word awonwhich means iniquity, guilt, punishment, and is related to the word which means twisting, distorting, or warping. The way a person warps the people and opportunities around them to serve their own selfish purposes will capture those who continue to practice them. These practices become addictions.
Remember that iniquity is a synonym of wickedness which is anything done repeatedly that is outside the boundaries of the Ten Commandments. An iniquity is one type or form or act of twisting a good gift of God into a selfish, morally destructive thing to serve your desires. When a person persists with these actions, then they can be labeled wicked. They no longer have regard for God's boundary structure.
We become enslaved to our habits. Many people will say that God is against me and that is why I have all these problems. No, God has built into the universe consequences for immoral actions. In the beginning it is these consequences that immoral people are feeling as their lives begin to be a dead-end. In fact, God – in the book of Romans – says that one of His punishments for people who persist in wicked behavior is to stop trying to hold them back and release them to the full measure of their lifestyle.
People do not escape from God's consequences or God's wrath. It is being revealed right now against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. It will also be revealed against all form of wickedness on judgment day.
he will be held with the cords of his sin
Like Gulliver in the famous tale, so the sinner is bound by small strands that individually might not enslave him but collectively hold him in a place he does not want to be. When we sin with a high hand and begin living in rebellion to God's moral boundaries given in the Ten Commandments, we begin to weave our own straightjacket that will keep us from enjoying life as it was meant to be lived.
Remember, young men and young ladies, if you give yourself to illicit romance and sexual license, you will become bound to it. Stop selling yourself so cheaply; hold out for the one whom God has selected for you. Remain pure; it is worth it.
The person who commits sexual sins throws spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, and relational ropes over themselves for the Devil to pull on and keep from God's best. Don't do this. It doesn't matter how much you think you love this person or how much you "need" to make love, don't trash your purity. If you have already given in, then stop now and begin to build purity in your life from this point forward.
Some of you will understand when you are much older that this was not all it was cracked up to be, and you changed the trajectory of your lives for a short romp. Use the power of Christ's forgiveness to break free of the cords that have held you since your teen years. Break free.
I have watched people who, after years of guilt and shame, have finally experienced God's love and forgiveness by confessing these sins to God and proclaiming to the Devil that you are, through Christ's death on the cross, canceling out any power he has in your life through those sinful acts.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz