Samson essentially played games with God. He looked good in his long hair, which let everyone know he was part of church, and being good, and fitting in, and earning him praise with the church-people, but he was cheating on God with the world. He was godly and worldly, and that never works.
I know people who go to church to pick up girls. I was at a conference not that long ago and some of the teenagers in my church heard some of the youth leaders discuss the young teen girls and give them marks out of ten. Then immediately go on and minister in the gifts and teach the Word. Godly and worldly – it never works.
I saw a lady once in come to a prayer meeting. I know she had just been having an affair, cheating on her husband, but she strode into the prayer meeting, speaking in tongues and prophesying over people. Godly and worldly – it never works.
Playing games with God is when you are godly and worldly. And one of the hallmarks of people who play games with God and have a split personality is sexual immorality. Samson walked through the town with his long hair, letting everyone know how godly he was, but he wanted to marry an unbeliever. His own dad was stunned by this duplicity, and was stunned his son didn’t want to marry a godly woman.
I have seen men come to our church to get a woman, and then have nothing to do with God as soon as they are married. Split personality, playing games with God, godly and worldly. And it never works.
How could a person ever think of marrying an outsider when you are believer separated to God? What a dangerous place to be in – marriage is not a game, it is a lifelong covenant. You should desire to be married not just to another believer, but to someone utterly on fire fire for God.
Samson is a case study in contradictions because he was very godly, and very worldly. If it wasn’t for the grace of God, this could never happen, and if you don’t understand the grace of God, you will marvel it could happen, but the truth is that the Spirit of the Lord moved Samson (Judges 13.25). Samson was the pastor of the nation of Israel, the judge, the political leader, the spiritual leader, the champion – all of it – for over twenty years, yet in all that time he never stopped being a play boy.
I’ve met pastors like that sadly. I’ve met people who commit fornication then go straight to church, it doesn’t affect them at the time because they have a split personality. They come to church and are the most expressive in the church! They are godly and worldly at the same time.
Samson even used prostitutes, one woman after the other. Yet, God’s Spirit was still on him. For twenty years he was a minister playing games with God. It is very dangerous to be godly and worldly.
Now, with my next post, I want to answer the question how do we handle people like that when we encounter them. It may be later today, or it may be in the week, but watch this space.
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