Anticipate Losses Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Anticipate Losses ------------- Date: 11/10/1998 Keywords: “gains” “losses” “self-contempt” “self-control” Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. How to do this study: Read the following Bible passage, then answer the short questions. Consider the practical suggestions at the end of the study. Passage: Proverbs 5:1-10* 1. My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my words of insight, 2. that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. 3. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; 4. but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. 5. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. 6. She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths are crooked, but she knows it not. 7. Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say. 8. Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house, 9. lest you give your best strength to others and your years to one who is cruel, 10. lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich another man's house. Question According to verses 9 and 10, if you’re fooling around with someone who’s not your spouse, what do you get out of it?   Practical help What do you gain from an illicit relationship? Nothin’, according to verses 9 and 10. In fact, you lose plenty — vigor, youth, wealth and labor. The same warning is true for folks who fool around with online smut. It lets them have “virtual” sex, to varying degrees, with people who aren’t their spouses. Any temporary porn pleasure is more than offset by long-term losses in honesty, intimacy and satisfaction with one’s spouse, or if one is unmarried, with any future spouse. So how does one stem or prevent the losses? Post-porn self-contempt, almost as tempting as the smut itself, results in as many losses — namely sapped energy and strength. What works better is pre-porn self-control. According to the Bible’s wisdom literature, self-control leads not to losses but to gains in one’s well-being. So if you’re tempted to view web porn, anticipate and avoid the likely losses. Many folks have focused instead on the benefits of self-control and are standing stronger as a result. And they’re cheering you on to do likewise. You can do it! eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 1998 by eXXit *Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.