SEDUCTION BY LUST, EVERYONE’S ACHILLES HEEL
by dale l. koons
May 29,2007
Throughout history, lust has been the “Achilles Heel” of person after person, without respect for spiritual achievement. Bathsheba did not seduce David but rather it was the un-checked lust in David himself that seduced him. As often the case in today’s world she was the excuse, not the cause for his failure.
Over and over in the twenty plus years I investigated sexual crimes, this seduction of self has occurred repeatedly in men and women without regard for age, race, nationality or religious faith.
I remember one offender, a devout Christian, which became sexually involved with his young teenage daughter. The daughter confided in her step-mother who in turn confronted her husband. He readily admitted his failure. To his credit even though he’d been seduced by his own lust and acted contrary to his faith, his Christian convictions prevented him from denying the truth. His confession propelled him to prison.
The underlying fact in these situations is that men and women each share a universal weakness, lust. Each day, many are seduced and face the prospect of serious consequences for their weakness, often failing to understand it is their own uncontrolled lust that ensnared them. They will deny this truth while blaming wives, the other participant, pornography addiction, sex addiction, alcohol, drugs, the internet, etc. Some simply avoid responsibility or guilt by suggesting that everyone desires to do these things but some do a better job hiding it. The unfortunate soul just got caught! Uncontrolled lust in any person’s life or marriage can and most certainly will lead to devastating, sometimes criminal, consequences.
The lure of lust is so strong in the nature of man that God repeatedly addressed it in His Scriptures. In 1992 I began a journey through these scriptures in hope of better understanding the nature of that which my professional life was so intertwined. My study revealed more than anticipated. I began to not only understand the nature of sexual perversion but also to realize how to better protect myself from the seductions of lust that lead to perversion. During this journey I mapped an outline of significant scriptures. The following is that outline, without commentary, and it will provide a reliable roadmap for all those walking, perhaps sometimes stumbling, along the path of Christian Faith.
I. ADULTERY
A. Exodus 20:14
1. You shall not commit adultery.
B. Deuteronomy 5:18
1. You shall not commit adultery.
C. Leviticus 20:10
1. If a man commits adultery with another man's wife--with the wife of his neighbor-- both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.
D. Jeremiah 3:8
1. I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all of her adulteries.
E. Matthew 5:27, 28, 32
1. (27) "You have heard it said, 'Do not commit adultery.'
2. (28) But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart...
3. (32) But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery."
F. Matthew 15:19
1. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slanders."
G. Matthew 19:9, 18
1. (9) "I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
2. (18) "....Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony..."
H. Mark 7:21-22
1. (21) "For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft murder, adultery,
2. (22) greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy slander, arrogance, and folly."
I. Mark 8:38
1.(38) "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
J. Mark 10:11, 12, 19
1. (11)"Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her."
2. (12)"And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery." "
3. (19) You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"
K. Luke 16:18
1. "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
L. Luke 18:20
1. "You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"
M. John 8:3, 4
1. (3) The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
2. (4) and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery."
N. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
1. (9)Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
2. (10)nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
O. Hebrews 13:4
1. Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
P. 1 Timothy 1:8-10
1. (8) We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.
2. (9) We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,
3. (10) for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine.
Q. James 4:4
1. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?
R. 2 Peter 2:14
1. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed, an accursed brood!
II. CURSED
B. Deuteronomy 27:20-26
1.(20) Cursed is the man who sleeps with his father's wife, for he dishonors his father's bed. Then all the people shall say, Amen!
2.(21) Cursed is the man who had sexual relations with any animal. Then all the people shall say, Amen!
3.(22) Cursed is the man who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother. Then all the people shall say, Amen!
4.(23) Cursed is the man who sleeps with his mother-in-law. Then all the people shall say, Amen!
III. DEBAUCHERY
A. Romans 13:13
1. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
B. 2 Corinthians 12:21
1. I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
C. Galatians 5:19,20,21
1. (19) The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
2. (20) idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
3. (21) and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
D Ephesians 5:18
1. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
E. 1 Peter 4:3
1. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do-- living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
IV. DEPRAVITY
A. Ezekiel 16:47
1. You not only walked in their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they.
B. Romans 1:24-28
1. (24) Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
2. (25) They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
3. (26) Because of this God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
4. (27) In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
5.(28) Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be.
C. 2 Peter 2:19
1. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity, for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
V. DISHONOR
A. Leviticus 18:6-24
1. (6) No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.
2. (7) Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.
3. (8) Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father.
4. (9) Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter; that would dishonor you.
5. (10) Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you.
6. (11) Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister.
7. (12) Do not have sexual relations with your father's sister; she is your father's close relative.
8. (13) Do not have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative.
9. (14) Do not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.
10. (15) Do not have sexual relations with your daughter- in-law. She is your son's wife; do not have relations with her.
11. (16) Do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.
12. (17) Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son's daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.
13. (18) Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.
14.(20) Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her.
15.(21) Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
16.(22) Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
17.(23) Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
18.(24) Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.
B. Leviticus 20:11-21
1. (11) If a man sleeps with his father's wife, he has dishonored his father. Both the man and the woman must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
2. (12) If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. What they have done is a perversion; their blood will be on their own heads.
3. (13) If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
4. (14) If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that no wickedness will be among you.
5. (15) If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be put to death; and you must kill the animal.
6. (16) If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
7. (17) If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off before the eyes of their people. He has dishonored his sister and will be held responsible.
8. (18) If a man lies with a woman during her monthly period and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them must be cut off from their people.
9. (19) Do not have sexual relations with the sister of either your mother or your father, for that would dishonor a close relative; both of you would be held responsible.
10. (20) If a man sleeps with his aunt, he has dishonored his uncle. They will be held responsible; they will die childless.
11. (21) If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless.
C. Ezekiel 22:10-11
1. (10) In you are those who dishonor their father's bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean.
2. (11) In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor's wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father's daughter.
VI. EVIL
A. Matthew 15:19 (See under adultery)
B. Mark 7:21 (See under adultery)
C. Romans 6:12
1. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so
that you obey its evil desires.
D. Colossians 3:5
1. Put to death, therefore, what ever belongs to your
earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust,
evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
VII. HOMOSEXUAL
A. 1 Corinthians 6:9 (SEE ADULTERY)
VIII. IMMORALITY
A. Numbers 25:1
1. While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women.
B. Jeremiah 3:9
1. Because Israel's immorality matters so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.
C. Proverbs 6:23, 24, 25, 26
1. (23) For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life,
2. (24) Keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife.
3. (25) Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes,
4. (26) for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.
D. Matthew 15:19 (See Adultery)
E. Mark 7:21 (See Adultery)
F. Acts 15:20
1. (20) Instead we should write them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
G. Acts 21:25
1. (25) As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.
H. Romans 13:13 (See Debauchery)
I. 1 Corinthians 5:1, 9, 10, 11
1. (1) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife.
2. (9) I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-
3. (10) not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
4. (11) But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
J. 1 Corinthians 6:9, 13, 18
1. (9) Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders-
2. (13) Food for the stomach and the stomach for food--but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
3. (18) Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
K. 1 Corinthians 7:2
1. (2) But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
L. 1 Corinthians 10:8
1. (8) We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.
M. Galatians 5:19 (See Debauchery)
N. Ephesians 5:3, 5
1. (3) But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.
2. (5) For this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person-such as a man is an idolater-has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
O. Hebrews 12:16
1. (16) See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.
P. Hebrews 13:4
1. (4) Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Q, Colossians 3:5 (See Evil)
R. 1 Thessalonians 4:3,4,5,6
1. (3) It is God's will that you would be sanctified: that you would avoid sexual immorality;
2. (4) that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable,
3. (5) not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God:
4. (6) and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins,
as we have already told you and warned you.
S. Jude: 4, 7
1. (4) For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
2. (7) In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
T. Revelation 2:14, 20, 21
1. (14) Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.
2. (20) Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
3. (21) I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.
U. Revelation 9:21
1. (21) Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
IX. IMPURITY
A. Romans 1:24 (See Depravity)
B. Galatians 5:19 (See Debauchery)
C. Ephesians 4:19
1. (19) Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
D. Ephesians 5:3, 5 (See Immorality)
E. Colossians 3:5 (See evil)
F. 1 Thessalonians 4:7
1. (7) For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
H. Revelation 21:27
1. (27) Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
X. INDECENT
A. Romans 1:27
1. (27) In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
XI. LUST
A. Colossians 3:5
1. (5) Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
B. 1 Thessalonians 4:5 (See Impurity)
C. 1 Peter 4:3 (See Debauchery)
D. 1 John 2:16
1. (16) For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world.
E. Romans 1:26
1. (26) Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
XII. PROSTITUTION
A. Numbers 15:39
1. (39) You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.
B. Proverbs 6:26 See (Immorality)
C. Proverbs 7:10, 21,22,23,27
1. (10) Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent.
2. (21) With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk.
3. (22) All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose
4. (23) till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.
5. (27) Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.
D. Proverbs 23:26, 27, 28
1. (26) My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my ways,
2. (27) for a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
3. (28) Like a bandit she lies in wait, and multiplies the unfaithful among men.
E. Proverbs 29:3
1. (3) A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.
F. 1 Corinthians 6:9 (See Immorality)
G. 1 Corinthians 6:15, 16
1. (15) Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
2. (16) Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh."
XIII. SENSUALITY
A. Ephesians 4:19
1. (19) Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
XIV. SLAVERY
A. Romans 6:19
1. (19) I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
XV. UNFAITHFULNESS
A. Proverbs 11:6
1. (6) The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires.
B. Proverbs 13:2, 15
1. (2) From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things, but the unfaithful have a craving for violence.
2. (15) Good understanding wins favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard.
C. Proverbs 23:28
1. (28) Like a bandit she lies in wait, and multiplies the unfaithful among men
D. Proverbs 25:19
1. (19) Like a bad tooth or a lame foot is reliance on the unfaithful in times of trouble.
E. Jeremiah 3:20
1. (20) "But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so have you been unfaithful to me. O house of Israel,” declares the Lord.
F. Matthew 5:32 (See Adultery)
G. Matthew 19:9 (See Adultery)