Classic KJV - Proverbs 5:10

Translation: Strength

The Hebrew word in the text for strength: כֺּחַ (kōaḥ, pronounced “kō-akh”), is sometimes translated as wealth. It refers to one’s capacity to produce “substance.” The same word is used in Deuteronomy 8:17-18 as the source of our ability to earn income, so it can be translated as power (ESV): “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth’. You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may confirm His covenant that he swore to your fathers.”

Huge Losses

The earnings of a lifetime can vanish from an illicit sexual affair. I know of executives who lost—and are losing—their all wealth because they violated their marriage vows, indulging in a single afternoon. All of Proverbs 5 is a warning against adultery. This text deals with the financial fallout, while other verses discuss the (hopefully educational) punishments inflicted on our emotions, social standing, and personal health.

Forbidden Women and Divorce

Who is the forbidden woman referred to in the text? The answer is simple, but unpopular: It could be anyone, anyone who is not God’s choice as your life-mate. While loose living leads to financial woes, the opposite is also true. Those faithful to their spouses are much more financially secure. Stronger marriages build stronger personal balance sheets. In his Notes on the Bible, Albert Barnes puts it this way: “Besides the loss of purity and peace, sin in all its forms brings poverty.”

Divorce will cost you half of your estate, period, scattering your potential productivity. This will wreck your children’s opportunities, not to mention their emotional stability and future lives. Sociological analyses prove a direct correlation between family breakdown and national productivity.

Multiple Losses

Moral bankruptcy leads to financial bankruptcy. The text reveals that “strangers” first pilfer the wealth of the corrupt, and then their “strength.” In other words, we first lose our money, and then lose our productivity, becoming a slave, working for another. When people go deeply into debt, they are slaves of the lenders, the banks or other creditors. They lose both their finances and their freedom.

Delayed Losses

God intended sexual enjoyment to be holy, private, and personal within the context of life-long marriage between one man and one woman. The mainstream media promotes the opposite. According to God’s word on this matter, anyone who is sexually immoral will later suffer financial hardship.

The Rich and Famous

What about the rich media stars? To many of them the word “adultery” is meaningless. They don’t appear to be suffering financially. How does this truth affect them?

First of all, some are not as rich as they appear. They are deeply in debt and choose to lower their moral standards to earn more. They are on a slippery slope. Second, there is always time between the crime and the fine. The stars of today are the street people of tomorrow. Third, some hold onto their riches, but lose their serenity, health, and honour. Finally, substance abuse and suicide are common among the rich and famous. For the rich and famous icons of immorality, who seem to get away with it, who seem untouched by trouble in this life, God speaks of judgment after the death of the body.

Inadequate Financial Planning

If the sexually promiscuous have greater financial troubles than their clean living counterparts, why doesn’t the financial planning community actively promote marital fidelity? Perhaps it’s too personal. People choose to ignore the cost of immoral behaviour, believing that the short-term pleasure is greater than the long-term pain—financial loss, sickness, regrets, death. The story is never over.

Our Maker, Saviour, and Friend

Jesus raises the bar even higher. He said even lustful looks can be disastrous: “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” Matthew 5:28. That’s terrible! It may be difficult to live in moral purity, but it seems utterly impossible always to think with purity. Why did Jesus give us such an impossible standard? Just another guilt trip? This issue goes beyond the scope of financial management. It touches on the basic purpose of the life and death of Jesus Christ. His purpose was not just to give us good rules. We already had enough rules.

Jesus came to do what was humanly impossible, that is, to live God’s commandments perfectly, and then more. He paid a debt that he did not owe – our rebellion against God, so we could go free. This new freedom is given not so we can sin more, but so we have the strength to overcome all sin.

Back on the topic of finances. If there are financial setbacks for physical immorality, what is the cost of mental immorality? What’s wrong with pornography? Daydreaming about a sports game reduces our productivity at work. Daydreaming about a sexual affair not only reduces our effectiveness, but then plant seeds for future destructive sexual activity. This erodes our wealth.

What is the financial cost of lustful looks? According to this text and Jesus, they’re not free.