Self-Control or Sin-Control?

Samson has always fascinated me. His strength is literally out of this world. It tickles my mind as to how he caught 300 foxes or single-handedly killed 1000 men.

Here in this story, we can see that the enemy is always waiting for the perfect moment to strike us and trap us just as the people of Gaza waited for Samson outside the city gates as he went to the prostitute's house. Satan is always waiting to tempt us, deceive us,..to drag us away from God.

In the familiar story of Samson and Delilah, Samson repeatedly plays with Delilah and leads her closer and closer to the secret of his power. He plays to see how far he can get to telling her without fully letting the secret out until he finally just gives in and tells her. We see from Samson's story that we must never play with sin, especially lustful sin. Playing with sin almost inevitably sets us up for failure. Furthermore, playing with sin deludes us. Each time Delilah asks Samson to tell her his secret, she deliberately tells him that she wants to know for the purpose of tying him up. While any clear-headed person could have seen the mal-intent in her request, Samson was so taken over by his lusts that he simply was delusional to what Delilah was doing.

Where exactly did Samson go wrong? Obviously Samson went wrong when he told Delilah the actual secret to his strength. We all would agree on that. But we can see from this passage that self-control is not a one-time act when a huge sin comes our way. Rather, self-control starts at the very beginning. For Samson to show self-control he should have never toyed with Delilah in the first place. In fact, for Samson to show self-control he never should have even give in to the desires of his fleshly lust beginning in Judges 13. Each time he followed the desires of his flesh, he was simply setting himself up for failure. So how should we exercise self-control? By making sure that our strength is found in Him alone and never, not even for a moment, play with fire and test the boundaries of where sin is. To get rid of sin, we must kill it at the very point where it starts, in our hearts. When we play with temptations, we are controlled by sin.

Let us stop playing with sin this very moment. Hebrews 3:12-15 says, " 12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15As has just been said:
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.""

So let us show self-control starting this moment, not by only not committing "sin", but also by not playing with temptations which delude us--For when desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin.

Instead, let us focus on our growth in God and commitment to Him. When we do such, we can be sure that we are in the right place. So do we need to be fighting sin? Yes, definitely, but moreso, focus on your walk with God and persevere! This will attack the root of the problem. So we also see in verse 21-22 that Samson had to face the consequences of his sin--his eyes were gauged out. Luckily, this might've helped stop some of his lust, thus killing some of his fleshly desire. And we see that by God's grace, his hair began to grow out again. I'm sure that this signifies his re-commitment to God and this re-commitment is what allows some of his strength to return.

Samson's strength was found in his hair, which was a sign of his commitment to God. Our strength is also found in God. So don't be sin-controlled. Instead, show the opposite. Self-control? Yes, show self-control, but I might venture a step even farther for farther-thinking's sake. Let God control. Let yourself be controlled by God by reading His Word daily and coming before Him humbly in prayer. If we simply try to control our sins by ourselves because it is the correct thing to do, we will fail. But luckily, by the grace of God, we have victory in Christ alone. The enemy is always waiting by the city gates to trap us, but we have victory through God.

Don't let sin control, instead show self-control, but through it all, let God control.

Created about 2 years ago