Proverbs 5:10 Commentary and Bible Study

She does not really care what happens to you. You have sold out, you do not know what has happened to your sorrowing tender bride, she has had to go to her family, but your property has been lost. The adulteress has seduced you, and now you are her servant.‘Thy labours’ includes all your efforts, your youth, your energy. I must be frightened of that. If I look back over the last years and think how much of my time has been concentrated on things which are passing, on business, on pleasure; how much of it has gone to benefit things that are passing, worthless, irrelevant? And how much of it was in the service of the Saviour? Now, there can be no wisdom unless we have this desire. Supposing a man is running a business and he is completely careless about it all, so that instead of being frugal, he pays more for his goods than he gets for them. Well, of course, he is not going to make a profit, he cannot survive. If his business is just one great big muddle and he does not care about whether he is getting value for money from his suppliers, whether he is being swindled or not – what is going to happen? Of course, if he thinks like this and he has not got control, he will go down. But many people live their spiritual lives like this. The firstfruits of their life should be for their spiritual service and their spiritual profit. They must be making a spiritual profit, but they are in such a muddle. They never stop and keep an account and look back and say, 'Well now when I work out my substance, my energy, my time, my years – has the vast majority of it been frittered away on passing things, or has it produced something for the Lord?