 » Free yourself now!
( 6:1-5)
Today's application ... don't be a guarantor for loans? If you did then try to free yourself!
Do everything possible to free yourself ... this is not only important but URGENT! ... do not give sleep to your eyes (6:4-5) ... try to free yourself now!
 » Be an ant (6:6-11)
Do not say, "Let me sleep a little longer!" It may be too late. Lazybones, wake up now! (c.f., 10:5)
In what ways is ... poverty like a vagabond (i.e., a robber)? ... need like an armed man?
Are 6:6-11 and 6:1-5 related? Possible common threads:
(1) Work hard (i.e., do not sleep) to free yourself from surety
(2) Poverty comes about because you have to fulfill the obligation for someone else's debt
(3) There would be no need for debts if we had anticipated our needs and gathered for winter
 » One, two, three, four, five, six ... seven abominations (6:12-19)
(1) speaks with a false mouth ... see abomination #2 below
(2) devises evil ... signal with eyes, feet and fingers ... see abomination #4 below
(3) spreads strife ... see abomination #7 below
... sudden calamity will come upon this person ... God's judgment?
~ Seven abominations ~
(1) haughty eyes
(2) lying tongue
(3) hands that shed innocent blood
(4) heart that devises wicked plans
(5) feet that run rapidly to evil
(6) a false witness
(7) one who spreads strife
 » Worse and worse off than a thief (6:20-35)
Do not desire her beauty in your HEART (6:25) ... lust, the starting point down a slippery road to death/Sheol? (c.f., Matt 5:28)
Are you so foolish not to know that when a man takes fire in his bosom that he would be burnt? (6:27-28,32) ... has to face a jealous and angry husband!
6:30-31 sandwiched in the context of adultery ... why?
(1) a man who goes in to his neighbour's wife likened to a thief ... taking what is not his
(2) a thief who steals to satisfy his hunger is not to be despised; but a married man who commits adultery is to be despised because he can meet his sexual needs legitimately ... with his wife (c.f., 5:15-20)
But what if you (the wife) is not in the mood (or whatever reason) do not want to have sex?
3 The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.
4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
1 Cor 7:3-5
On the basis of 1 Cor 7:3-5, I would say to the wife, "Make a decision (as an act of the will) to meet your husband's need for sex and intimacy".
Husbands, do not use 1 Cor 7:3-5 as a basis for "sex on demand" because you are governed ...
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, ...
28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, ...
Eph 5:25-30
If your wife is not in the mood for sex then you should respect her desire (not to ...), cherish and love her; put her interests above yours.
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Phil 2:3-4
(3) a man caught in adultery will be punished just as a thief who was caught ... give his wealth to the aggrieved (6:31 c.f. 6:35) ... the only difference is that the aggrieved husband will not be satisfied.
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