False and Genuine Love

LOVEST THOU ME?

“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with [their] lips; but their heart is far from me,” (Matthew 15:8) was and is the Lord’s complaint about His people in all times. The only reproach the One who holds the seven stars in His hand (Jesus Christ) has against the church of Ephesus, is that it has left its first love. (Rev. 2:4).

The heart is considered the seat of our feelings and the Lord expects us to love Him with all our heart, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deut. 6:5)

Love is not only very important in our relationship with God, but also with each other. Only love (agape), that heavenly principle, can keep us together in spite of difficulties, misunderstandings, disappointments, diversity of opinion and character.

The Lord, who “searcheth the reins and hearts” (Rev. 2:23) allows us to go through trials so that what is in our hearts may be revealed to us and to the whole universe, since we are a spectacle to the world. (1 Corinthians 4:9) Our salvation depends on our attitude to this revelation.

As human beings, we all need love and thirst for it because we know that love (and not money) is the power that makes the world go around and our life worth living.

“Do you love me?” is a question that we often hear addressed to ourselves or to others. Generally, this question is followed by a demand. “If you love me…” How many precious things have been sacrificed in the name of love! How many principles have been put aside in our attempt to prove that our love for someone goes beyond our love to ourselves!

“If you love me you will eat what I offer you,” and there go the health reform principles, temperance, and possibly our salvation. How many young girls have lost their purity and started on a path of sin, experiencing one disappointment after another in their attempt to prove that they love someone else more than themselves?

In Judges 16:15, we hear again this question, “And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart [is] not with me?”

From his mother’s womb, Samson was chosen by God to fulfil a very important mission: to free the Israelites from the Philistines. He was given a great responsibility and all his life, from the cradle up, he had to be prepared for this commission. Surely his God-fearing parents faithfully followed the angel’s instructions and brought up the child within the norms of health reform and temperance.

The Lord had promised His divine power to Samson if he did not cut his hair. He was a Nazarite, consecrated to God from birth. “The child grew and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol” (Judges 13:24, 25). These incursions into the enemy’s territory brought him in contact with the daughters of the Philistines and as it had happened before the flood, “that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they [were] fair; and they took them wives” (Genesis 6: 2), Samson met a woman of the daughters of the Philistines that pleased him well and married her, against his parent’s better counsel.

Finally the wedding feast takes place and it lasts seven days. His bride lived in an area well-known for its vineyards and without a doubt good quality wine was served at the table in abundance. Under the effect of alcohol man’s behaviour is changed, therefore the Word of God warns us, “Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh… Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things” (Proverbs 23:20, 33).

Samson starts being the center of attention, playing games and making promises which he cannot keep. He puts forth a riddle to the Philistines, which is impossible for them to guess. His bride induces him to confess to her, as a proof of his love for her, the answer of the riddle that would benefit her people and she tells him, “Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not” (Judges 14:16), when he refuses to reveal the mystery. Love is used as a bait to catch the imprudent young man. Although he incautiously fell into this trap, the Lord delivered him. But the use of alcohol and the continuous interaction with a heathen nation in whose heart dwelt hatred for the people of God abased Samson’s morals in the same way that Lot’s and his daughters’ moral standard was abased due to the fact that they lived among the impudent inhabitants of Sodom. After the tragedy of his marriage, “then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her,” (Judges 16:1) and he fell into the hands of the Gazites who intended to kill him, but the grace of God was still upon him and he could make use of the power of God.

“And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name [was] Delilah,” (Judges 16:4) and again the Philistines used her as a bait to entice him to reveal where the secret of his power was hidden. “Tell me, I pray thee…” (Judges 16:6, 10) was Delilah’s tender approach to her lover, and Samson gave her a very misleading answer. Every answer Samson gave her was being tested to see whether he was speaking the truth or not, but Samson had already started the game and could not retrace his steps. What a lesson and a warning for young men and women who so often quite unaware begin to play dangerous games!

Delilah insists by accusing Samson of mocking her and lying and asks him a third time to reveal her the secret of his strength. This time Samson comes closer to reveal her the truth and tells her, “If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web…” (Judges 16:13). He has entered the way of no return. Now the irresistible proof comes, “And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart [is] not with me?” (Judges 16:15).

Samson had been chosen by God, from his mother’s womb to fulfil a great mission. He was given a great responsibilityand the Lord was going to deliver His people through the power He had given to Samson. Delilah, a woman without scruples, was the bait the Philistines used to rob him of this power. She had to use all her womanly charm to seduce him and entice him to reveal the secret of his power and she would be richly rewarded. She was not a professional harlot, but “her love” had a high price.

“How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart [is] not with me?” The magic word was pronounced again. “If you love me…” It was not easy for Samson to betray His Lord and reveal to his enemies the secret of his power, thus losing the chance of ever fulfilling God’s plan for him. But Delilah had no compassion; she knew she was dealing with a man whose will power was so weak that he had become a toy in her hands, “And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, [so] that his soul was vexed unto death” (Judges 16:16). Samson could not offer any resistance any more; deep down he knew what he was doing, but had come to the point that he could not do otherwise. He had given in too often to the desires of the flesh for his spirit to be able to rule upon His will. He had closed all the avenues of the soul to divine influence by satisfying his senses with what the world had to offer him. He followed the lust of his eyes and chose a woman according to his superficial evaluation of beauty; he listened to her tender words promising irresistible sweetness, “For the lips of a strange woman drop [as] an honeycomb, and her mouth [is] smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword” (Proverbs 5:3). He satisfied his palate with the flavour of wine and unclean food, contrary to the instruction given to his parents at birth, and he became one flesh with a daughter of Belial. He had blocked the way to the influence of the Spirit of God upon his soul, therefore, “he told her (Delilah) all his heart” (Judges 16:17).

The greatest pressure was put upon his soul in the name of love. Certainly, the greatest emotional blackmails have been made in the name of love. This human, carnal love robbed him of the power that would make him capable to fulfil his mission, to carry a great responsibility.

“Lovest thou me?” was the question that Jesus asked Peter after His resurrection. Peter had denied his Lord and cried bitterly as he understood how far his carnal heart could lead him and he surrendered his heart to the Lord.

Jesus’ question, “Lovest thou me? is very different from the question Delilah asked Samson. Jesus’ love is not demanding; He does not want to rob us of anything, His love does not make us cripple. On the contrary, He wants to grant us His power, the power of His love and make us able to carry great responsibilities.

Jesus knew that Peter loved Him and therefore He made him responsible for his brethren, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17). In the power of God’s Spirit, Peter would fulfil the work the Lord had appointed him and in his speech to the Jews, three thousand souls were gained for the kingdom of God.
Samson had succumbed to the weakness of his character and “his strength went from him… the Lord was departed from him” (Judges 16:19, 20).

“But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house… Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand” (Judges 16:21). How sad it is to know that the weakness of character of the children of God helps to strengthen the heathen in their heathenism! Now Samson became a sport in the hands of the enemy. His physical eyes were darkened, and in the process of that ?painful humbling experience he had time to meditate and “see” how far his own ways had led him. Hatred for the enemies of God’s people started to grow in his heart. Those uncircumcised people from whom he had chosen his partners, ignoring thus the virtuous young women among his brethren, were a deceitful, false, cruel people. Surely his soul was grieved and his heart broken, and, “The Lord [is] nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18). But, nobody had noticed that “the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven” (Judges 16:22).

There were three thousand men and women in Dagon’s temple, but they were not converted by hearing the powerful speech of a child of God imbued with the Holy Spirit. They were watching how Samson was being made a sport, mocking and making fun of the heavily built, powerful blind Israelite who had fallen totally into the hands of his enemies and had been humiliated and denigrated in excess. Samson pleaded from the bottom of his heart to his God who had followed him with His loving and merciful eyes to the pit to which his sinfulness had sunk him, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once…” (Judges 16:28).

The Lord is faithful. He accepted Samson’s contrite heart and His salvation was accomplished through His appointedservant, as it is done today and will be done until the end of time through His chosen vessels.

“Lovest thou me?” When this question is asked by God it is always meant to exalt us and entrust to us a responsibility; when asked by men it may mean to debase us and make us unable to bear responsibilities.

May the Lord give us discernment to be always able to tell what is the motivation hidden behind the question, “Lovest thou me?”
Amen.

Teresa Corti