Samson was born for the purpose of becoming a thorn in the flesh of the Philistines.
That meant he would be in constant and close contact with them.
But it did not mean he was to become as one of them.
The Philistines were his enemy, not his close buddies…
Even if some degree of polite rubbing shoulders with them was unavoidable.
The reason I point this out is because there are many missionaries who get closely involved with criminals, prostitutes, drug dealers or greedy and powerful businessmen.
In the beginning their intentions are pure.
They want to minister to the lost and bring them to the Lord.
But over time, something strange begins to happen.
The missionary begins to look more and more like those he came to rescue than the God who sent him.
I’ve seen this happen here in Japan where I’m living now.
A missionary comes to this country with high hopes of converting the lost population…
But more often than not, the excitement of the city life (especially the night life), the drinking culture and the allure of Japanese women take over…
And he ends up falling belly down flat on his face.
I’ve seen this happen more times than I can care to count…
And I won’t lie, it’s happened to me too.
Now isn’t this exactly what happened to Samson?
He grew more comfortable partying with the pagan Philistines than he did hanging around his own people.
That’s a sad testimony folks.
Because the way sin creeps up on us is so insidious, normally we are totally unaware of what’s happening to us.
We tell ourselves we’re buddying up with the pagans because we ultimately want to lead them to the Lord.
We’ll even quote Paul when he said “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some”.
Yeah, right.
The truth is, secretly inside, we’re beginning to enjoy hanging out with our heathen buddies and all the perverse pleasures connected to that.
The takeaway here is that such a comfort level with the gentiles can be downright dangerous and will lead to your downfall…
As it did with Samson.
If you start to grow more and more comfortable with the world and the lusts therein, it’s time for a spiritual re-evaluation homie.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Examine yourselves to see
whether you are in the faith;
test yourselves.
Do you not realize that
Messiah Yeshua is in you—
unless, of course,
you fail the test?”
-2 Corinthians 13:5
We see this today with so many churches accepting homosexuality, and not only supporting LGBTQ activities, but actually performing same-sex marriages in their church.
I have often said that when you work in a fish market, even if you aren’t handling the fish, you come home smelling like fish.
We need to be alight to the darkness, but it is essential that we are spiritually mature enough, and faithfully strong enough, to remain a light and not become dimmed by the surroundings.
And the way to do that is to recharge the battery by reading the Bible every day, communing with other believers, and spending as little time in the dark as we can.
True. The liberal churches and their agendas have strayed so far away from what’s clearly written in the Scriptures I wonder why they even call themselves believers anymore.