Proverbs 5:10-12 (ESV)
10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
11 and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and you say, “How I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!
If the son does not listen to the father’s wisdom, he will suffer consequences. Earlier, the father warned about evildoers who sought to take whatever they could from their victims. But in the case of sex outside of God’s design, if the son rejects the father’s counsel, he too will be a victim, but a victim of his own sinful choices. Jealousy, bitterness, anger, loneliness, depression, loss of reputation, disease, and financial burden are some of the costs that accompany sexual sin. We are all responsible to turn from temptation, and in the end, if we succumb, it is because of our own lusts. We cannot blame anyone other than ourselves. Although the “temptresses” of the world, anyone who lures another into sexual sin, will give an account for their evil actions, the person who yields to them will not be able to shift the blame when standing before the throne of God. Let’s take full responsibility for our thinking and behavior today. We can’t expect to make the changes God is calling us to while pointing to others as the reason for our sins.