The Sanction of Sin

By Justin Poythress - Posted at Time and Chance:

“She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him, “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows.” – Proverbs 7:13-14

Does a wolf in sheep’s clothing know what he’s doing? Of course. That’s what makes it so terrifying when you catch the glint of teeth inside the fleecy face. He came to eat sheep. But he knows if he comes leaping and snarling, his targets will scatter. He has to look nonthreatening. He has to look like one of them. He has to earn their trust. That’s sin.

The story of this chapter follows a foolish young man wants to be seduced and then is seduced into adultery. What’s striking in the verses above is that the prostitute heads off the objection before it comes. She doesn’t set off alarm bells. She doesn’t surreptitiously pounce on the poor guy from behind a corner. She walks straight up to him, kisses him, then drops in these lines about God, and faith, and her devoted spirituality.

She’s just like him. They believe the same things. She just offered sacrifices. She worships God. She’s got her Bible memory verses and missions trip tee shirt. She’s not trying to draw him away from Christianity. She just wants them to have some fun together. The power comes in her offhanded delivery. At their initial encounter, the subtext is uneasy, electric with forbidenness. But then she casually disarms the security system—nothing to fear on the spiritual front; we’re on the same page there.

Continue here.

See also:

• A Word to Young Men (gentlereformation.com)