<p>1:15 <i>Then the lust, when it has conceived, carries sin; and the sin, when it is fully grown, brings death- The</i> lusts inside our mind are being likened to an attractive woman enticing us. Thus the instinct to illicit sexual attraction within us is seen as a type of all wrong attraction to sins of any kind. It is a repeated New Testament theme that the punishment for sin is some kind of burning by fire. To the Old Testament mind, this image of being burnt at judgment day would have connected with the command to burn a whore (Lev. 21:9); thus all types of sin are to be seen as prostitution against God. The same process in sexual attraction of a wrong thought taking root, constantly preying on the spiritual mind, resulting in our allowing it to grow under the excuse that we are still in control, eventually bringing forth gross sin, is repeated time and again as we are faced with the spiritual temptations of life every hour. The same figure occurs in Num. 15:39 speaking of 'going a whoring' &quot;after your own heart and your own eyes&quot;, as if our natural mind is a whore.</p><p>Our carnal mind being likened to a whore or glamorous woman is a strong theme of Proverbs. The important thing to note is that Proverbs emphasizes that it is obedience to the word which will keep us from the lusts which the woman represents. &quot;The lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil... hear me now therefore (says the wisdom / word), O you children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from her&quot; (by listening to wisdom's words); Prov. 5:3,7,8. &quot;For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light... to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman&quot; (Prov. 6:23,24). Prov. 7:1-5 is an even stronger emphasis: &quot;Keep my words, and lay up my commandments... keep my commandments... My Law... that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the stranger which flatters with her words&quot;. The woman was &quot;subtle of heart&quot; (v.10), recalling the serpent, and had a guise of spirituality: &quot;I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows&quot; (v.14). She reasons that &quot;the goodman is not at home, he is gone on a long journey: he has taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed&quot; (v.19,20). This is almost certainly the basis of the Lord's parable of the talents, revealing that the reasoning of the one talent man was that since the Lord was not physically around, he need not develop. Thus that man does not represent just the lethargic Christian; but the man who consciously indulges in sin because he cannot feel the Lord's presence. &quot;The goodman&quot; is further equated with the Lord in Mt. 20:11. Notice the emphasis in the three Proverbs passages mentioned on the words of the woman being her means of attraction. Prov. 7:21 is explicit: &quot;With her much fair speech (cp. the serpent again, and 2 Cor. 11:3; Rom. 16:18, which connect the fair speaking, the whore, the serpent and the Judaizers) she caused him to yield&quot;. Words are a reflection of the mind (Mt. 12:34), again indicating that the woman represented an epitome of fleshly thinking. The parable of the prodigal son is clearly meant to show the path which we all take whenever we sin. The women upon whom he wasted his (spiritual) substance represent our giving way to sin in its various forms (Lk. 15:13).</p>