Unleashing Samson

Every Monday we’ll post something to do with personal purity. Hope it helps.

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Unleashing Samson

He was strong and impressive; a clever Nazarite who could spin riddles, destroy lions barehanded and conquer a thousand men with a donkey’s jawbone. He was Samson, and he was not to be messed with. Yet this man of strength eventually found himself tied up, blinded and put to work at a grindstone like a common mule. What happened? Compromise.

Samson was bound by a vow to abstain from drinking wine, eating unclean meat, and cutting his hair. So long as he was faithful to this vow of separation, he retained his strength. But when presented with an aggressive beauty named Delilah, he broke his vow and integrity, never imagining the nightmare a simple compromise would bring. As soon as he foolishly told Delilah the secret of his strength, she betrayed him to the Philistines, who immediately tied him up, gouged out his eyes, and put him to hard labor.

Christian man of 2011, please take note! Samson’s strength came from faithfulness to God’s design of separation. That’s what much of scripture reminds us of, you know – God’s call to us to be separated men. Separated from the world; separated from idols; separated from our own particular Delilahs. You have yours; I have mine. But I think you know what I mean.

Your own Delilah doesn’t care any more about you than Samson’s did. Whatever your weakness may be – pornography, commercial sex, affairs or anonymous encounters – you can be sure it will only weaken and betray you. Look what it’s done so far. Look at how it’s affected your confidence, your judgment, your general ability to perform. Be honest about this. Has sexual sin done anything for you, other than to weaken and limit you?

It certainly weakened Samson. His compromise came from breaking from God’s design and his own integrity, but thankfully, that wasn’t the end of his story. When he allowed his hair to grow back, his strength returned, and with it came a determination to once and for all destroy the enemies who had so brutally kept him from his potential.

It needn’t be the end of your story, either, so if his compromise mirrors your own, take heart. Because his final victory can mirror yours as well. I hope you’ll begin by recognizing that, apart from a consecrated relationship with God, you’re very much like Samson at his weakest. But in returning to Him through repentance and a commitment to knowing Him and His will for you, your spiritual and emotional potential will return as surely as Samson’s hair grew back.

Unleashing Samson involved repenting and waiting for his power to return. So take heart if you’ve allowed yourself to become a compromised man. Your compromise has been foolish and destructive, to be sure. But your potential, like Samson’s is still waiting to be unleashed.