Proverbs 7:1-5 (ESV)

[1] My son, keep my words

and treasure up my commandments with you;

[2] keep my commandments and live;

keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;

[3] bind them on your fingers;

 write them on the tablet of your heart.

[4] Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

and call insight your intimate friend,

[5] to keep you from the forbidden woman,

from the adulteress with her smooth words.

This passage warns against the seduction of a prostitute, but the application goes far beyond sexual immorality. It warns us of how to deal with the many temptations to sin that so often bombard us. How easy it is to get sucked in, not just to immorality, but to all kinds of what Hebrews 12 calls sins and weights. How does one protect against the powerful seduction of wrong behavior? This passage offers two solutions.

First, the passage warns us to “keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart” (Prov 7:2-3). As believers, we need to be intentionally meditating on God’s Word and thinking about God’s ways. The question that should always be before us is this: Does this glorify God? That simple question lies at the heart of several other questions: What would Jesus do? What reflects the character of Christ? What does God’s Word say? What clear instructions do I have from the Lord? I need to not just know God’s Word, I need to value it. I need to treasure it. I need to love what God loves. I need to keep his directives for life continually before me.

Second, I need to recognize that sin starts in the mind and heart. Sin is not just something I do. Solomon warns, “Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths” (Prov 7:25). The heart turns aside before the feet turn aside. We need to learn to run from temptation. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee from sexual immorality.” 1 Corinthians 10:14 warns us to “flee from idolatry.” Paul warns Timothy, “Flee the evil desires of youth” (2Tim 2:22a). He then goes on to say, “and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the LORD out of a pure heart” (2Tim 2:22b). We need to quickly recognize temptation and run. Victory is not found in resisting temptation, but in fleeing it. We “resist the Devil” (Jas 4:7). We “submit…to God” (Jas 4:7). We flee temptation.

Make it the intentional goal of your heart to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace” (2Tim 2:22). Keep the truths of God’s Word ever before you. Learn to quickly recognize and flee the destructive and seductive temptations that so quickly lead us astray. Let us “fix our eyes” on that which is eternal (2Cor 4:18). Let us fix “our eyes on Jesus” (Heb 12:2).