Sounds more like a bout with temptation. The whole thing is an extended metaphor The house although shakey was a house of God ("muttering a prayer"). This represents his faith in God.
He met a girl. She was likely a poor influence, judging from the state of his faith in her presence(disrepair). He laid the foundation of this relationship in the traditional Christian way (the oats), but she wanted more, sinful behavior (judging from this song, sex out of wedlock) and she left him. This left him very troubled, and he couldn't stop thinking of her.
He figures why would God want him to lose the girl and feel such pain so the house of God burns down, i.e. he loses faith. The Devil whispers if he succumbs to temptation and gives up God it won't be half as bad as losing the girl.
The girl comes back as a test, she comes back as though she was interested in him because of the original thing they had(the oats), but she brought along "a Friend", this could be any number of things, Lust, sinful ways, impurity etc. i.e. she probably wanted to have sex, and wanted to in the first place.
He doesn't give up his faith. He learns from this situation that there will always be people like this in his life and there will always be tempatation to overcome, "it never ends"
The whole album appears to be a series of tests of faith, this one being temptation of Lust.
Sounds more like a bout with temptation. The whole thing is an extended metaphor The house although shakey was a house of God ("muttering a prayer"). This represents his faith in God.
He met a girl. She was likely a poor influence, judging from the state of his faith in her presence(disrepair). He laid the foundation of this relationship in the traditional Christian way (the oats), but she wanted more, sinful behavior (judging from this song, sex out of wedlock) and she left him. This left him very troubled, and he couldn't stop thinking of her.
He figures why would God want him to lose the girl and feel such pain so the house of God burns down, i.e. he loses faith. The Devil whispers if he succumbs to temptation and gives up God it won't be half as bad as losing the girl.
The girl comes back as a test, she comes back as though she was interested in him because of the original thing they had(the oats), but she brought along "a Friend", this could be any number of things, Lust, sinful ways, impurity etc. i.e. she probably wanted to have sex, and wanted to in the first place.
He doesn't give up his faith. He learns from this situation that there will always be people like this in his life and there will always be tempatation to overcome, "it never ends"
The whole album appears to be a series of tests of faith, this one being temptation of Lust.