Samson Forfeits his Office (2): A Foolish Game

Samson’s game has a fatal flaw built into it: it does not take into account the enslaving power of sin or the holiness of God. If we sin once, we sin again; sin becomes a habit, a pattern. The sinner tells himself that he can stop whenever he wants, that he will not go too far in sin, and that sin has no effect upon him. He tells himself that he can stop sinning when he feels that the time is right to retreat. But sin is deceitful: it draws us into its web until we are hopelessly trapped. That was Samson’s experience: first, he married a Philistine; then he slept with a harlot; and now, he is in the bedroom of Delilah playing a dangerous game. With every question he gets closer to losing. 

We must flee from Samson’s game. We do not ask, “How many sins can I get away with?” but “How can I best glorify God?” We want to be as far away from sin as possible, not as close to sin as we dare.

Samson Forfeits his Office (1): A Wicked Plot

The enemy asks, “Tell me how your witness as a Christian might be utterly ruined, so that you make yourself utterly ineffective as a Christian, and even come under church discipline. Tell me how Canons 5:5 might become true of you. How might you very highly offend God, incur a deadly guilt, grieve the Holy Spirit, very grievously wound your conscience, and sometimes lose the sense of God’s favor for a time?” “Tell me how hypothetically such a thing might happen.” 

The Christian must not say, “Well, you could tempt me to commit a terrible sin, and you could drive me on in my impenitence until I am hardened in my sin, so that I refuse to listen to the admonitions of my fellow church members, my family and friends, and the elders. That would accomplish your goal.”

The Christian must flee from such a question, he must flee from the Delilah who would ask such a question, and he must flee to Jesus Christ. “Lord, help me; sin tempts me; I feel its allure, its attraction. Strengthen me by the power of thy Holy Spirit given in the cross.”