Proverbs 5:9 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is another prerequisite for wisdom. This is all of a piece, this instruction and it is saying that to have wisdom I must treasure the stewardship principle. If I am born again, if I am washed by the blood of Christ, if I am truly a child of God, then I must rate very highly the fact that I belong to him, and everything I have is his and the object of my life is to bring glory to him and to serve him and not myself. I must treasure the stewardship principle. If I do not, I cannot have wisdom, I shall be lost. Here is the burning thing which should govern me. I must be afraid of giving my honour (that is to say, my substance and my victory), my time, my years, my labours to the world.As soon as you get entangled with this world you are in trouble. What is your honour? Well the idea here is that the person has been seduced, and the adulteress has taken him away, and his home is spoiled; the tender bride of his youth is now a broken woman, and the homestead cannot be maintained, his affairs have gone to pieces. He no longer looks after the farm, he no longer pursues his trade, he has followed after the adulteress, and he has given her all his money, and his goods, and his home is in a state of collapse. So his honour in the ancient imagery is his substance, everything he is worth. He has given his chastity, he has given his character, he has given the tender loving bond that he had with his wife and his children, he has given his wealth, his substance, his home, his business. Effectively he has lost it all, and he himself has passed into the service of this adulteress. And when of course the gifts which he has given her have been spent, and he then has nothing more to give, he is her slave virtually; she keeps him, she is the wealthy woman, and he is just an appendage. Soon he will be physically unattractive to her, and he will grow old, this is pursued in the picture language, and then she will cast him off.