“This is the pursuit of godly wisdom: magnifying the fear of the Lord in your life according to all that God teaches in His Word. Take Him lightly—which is the opposite of godly fear—and your life will be marked by compromise and ineffectiveness for the Lord. The way of wisdom is aptly named, for there is no better way to live. Cultivate the gift you received when you became Christ’s and leave no provision for the flesh.”

“…(W)e can see that our work is not actually for ourselves. Rather, we are slaves to Christ. Likewise, Christ does not desire just any conduct in our work, but that we ‘do God’s will from your heart.’ Thus, every bit of our work involves our whole selves (which the heart depicts), and all of our work is to be done as for the Lord: that we may do His will…”

“This keeping of our hearts for singular loyalty to God is to be done in every area of our lives, whether it refers to maintaining sexual purity, or as we will see in chapter 6, putting up financial security for another, maintaining good stewardship, or watching even our speech and way of life. So, the topics of sexual purity, finances, stewardship, and conduct are all areas that we need to be careful to guard our hearts for the Lord practically and diligently. All of these areas—even all of life—are included in living out the wisdom of God, which is built on fearing the Lord, obeying His commands, and cherishing His Word in our hearts for as long as we live.”

“God is watching how we conduct ourselves in this life, not only in the institution of marriage, but in all the ways that we relate to Him (whether for good or for evil). Will we honour Him and increasingly reflect His glory, or will we debase our image of Him?”

“All of this shows sharp distinction between the way of life and the way of evil. The sharp commands are not to simply avoid doing the deed itself, but to avoid even the slightest hair of compromise to the adulterous woman’s way of life. In other words, this is the pursuit of utter, singular loyalty to God. God takes even what may appear to us as small compromises very seriously, since He knows the proper end to gratifying those desires. So, dear Christians, guard your hearts and keep far from her ways. Yes, even from every wicked desire, regardless of how innocent or harmless it may appear to you at the start.”

“Let wisdom be more to be desired than anything that the world can offer, for the world and its desires lead only to death (verse 5). Why is that? Because of God, of course! God is the source of all goodness, joy, happiness, and yes, He is even the source of all life. Sin is what works to rend us from the source of life itself, and living in our sinful desires is itself a willful rejection of God as our source of life.”