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Augustine: Confessions, Book II §iii.8
Satan seduced him “because [he] was in the mood to be seduced.” How often I fall into temptation because I wanted to, and I didn’t admit it to myself until it was too late.
Augustine mentions that neither of his parents tried to restrain his sexual exploits through essentially forcing him into marriage, but I wonder if he would have respected that bond if his soul were not illuminated by Christ. Rules and bonds of all kinds seem to be put in place specifically so we can break them, when we have no higher authority to which to pay honor and respect. If the highest bond we consider is a social convention, or a pledge to one’s spouse or parents or self to remain faithful to one person, then arguably, we shan’t. But if we remain faithful to a spouse because it is God’s perfect plan that it should be so, and that through marriage we may illustrate the relationship between Christ and His church, we are likely to stick to that bond out of love for God.
“There was no strict discipline to keep me in check, which led to an unbridled dissoluteness in many different directions.” That whole sentence sums up my life when I am not faithfully feeding myself on God’s Word. When I stop reading the Word, I gradually lose the ability to prioritize, to discern what is most important, what is frivolous, and what is detrimental or a waste of time; and then I end up throwing up my hands, stressed out, thinking that there’s no time to get it all done. (This is not the same as when one overcommits and there really is not enough time to get everything done; but this is another sin of itself, IMHO.)
References.
Augustine, St.
Confessions. Henry Chadwick, trans. ISBN
0-19-283372-3 (Paperback).
