Socially speaking Sampson has rejected his own people. When he goes to Judah it is usually in a cave. Where does he go to have fun and a good time? Who does he associate? Not the righteous people. It is the ungodly.
Socially, we pick the friends that we admire and like, who will not bug us about things we do not want to be bugged by. Doesn’t everyone sometimes have that desire to get away from parents and church people for they can be so stuffy and boring? They don’t know what it is to have a good time. Wouldn’t it be great to go out and live it up with nobody telling you what to do? Who are your friends that will participate in fun and excitement? What kind of friends do you have that make a difference? Be assured, who you hang with will influence your life, maybe not at first, but eventually they will.
Sampson spent his time with a prostitute. Then he dated Delilah. Those friends did not care at all about God. You too will soon be caught up in the things of the world. Like Jesus’ story of the prodigal son, those friends will use you for their temporary enjoyment and leave you. Temptation is at its worst when it comes from peer pressure to drink or do drugs or loan money or have sex. Especially in our younger years, people tempt us all the time to follow the crowd.
Delilah was a master at that time. She used the greatest tool of deception there is - the guile of love. Read Judges 16:6-18 noted above. What kind of power does this woman have over his passions. Catch verse 17 the worst verse in the chapter “how can you say I love you…when you don’t confide in me?" She nagged him. What a tragic misuse of love and friendship when you’re betrayed by it.
How often do you hear those words from perhaps a parent who wants to manipulate their child? If you love me, you would do this or that. Husbands and wives, are those words used in your home? “If you really loved me then you would do what I want.” Or again that young man in the parked car with his girlfriend,” If you loved me, you would let me.”
Beware friends, love never asks for evil, only for good. You do not use love to manipulate. Love never asks to be proven. Love is only demonstrated by definitions given to us in Scripture. “It does not rejoice in the wrong but rejoices in the right.” 1 Corinthians 13:6.
The only time Jesus objected was when Judas came up and kissed him in the garden at the Mount of Olives. “You would betray the Son of Man with a kiss? “Judas would you choose this very sign of love and friendship, a kiss, to betray me?
Love never has strings attached.
Application: Read Judges 16:6-16 Beware of social influences and temptations around you.
Prayer: I look to You Lord; You are Love. Guard my heart from worldly visions of what love is.
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