Evil in the Midst of the Congregation

Proverbs 5:8-14 KJV
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

The whole chapter is a warning of the dangers of strange women which, in the context of the Word of God, I believe could also have reference to false doctrine and religions. The Word of God warns to remove from her "lest"[1] and then goes into verses 12-13 which were the point of my reading today.... The strange woman destroys the flesh and leaves its victim weeping:

I have hated instruction
There are those who are so caught up in their false professions of faith; whether pseudo-spiritual and so called atheist, that they hate instruction in the way of holiness. Many times they hate instruction of any sort

I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers
All of us have teachers. Most of us have had teachers at one time or another who genuinely cared for our well being. To not obey their voice is to our own hurt

I have succumbed to all evil and that in the midst of the congregation
And this is where my attention was arrested.
Even in the midst of God's people.
Even while surrounded by the people of God
Those who have bitten the apple offered by the strange women of worldly religions, demonstrate a terrible propensity to sin in the most gruesome of ways. The problem is not with the people of God and the problem is not with their spiritual teachers. The problem goes back to the root; they are drinking from the waters of strange women. Unless they obey the voice of the teacher in this chapter, they will continue to destroy their own soul and do evil in the midst of the congregation until they die without the instruction of God in their soul.

We are to be a separated people. We are to remove ourselves from the immoralities of this world, and not only physical ones, but the spiritual ones as well. We have lived at peace with the false teachers so long they have consumed us and we have not seen it. We have accepted it so long now that we can’t believe God would ever really want us to leave its embrace. Lord, open our eyes that we may see!
[1] (vs 9-10)