True Love

 DEVOTION

JUDGES

TRUE LOVE

Judges 16:4-14

4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver." 6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued." 7 Samson answered her, "If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I'll become as weak as any other man." 8 Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. 9 With men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered. 10 Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied." 11 He said, "If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I'll become as weak as any other man." 12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads. 13 Delilah then said to Samson, "Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied." He replied, "If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric [on the loom] and tighten it with the pin, I'll become as weak as any other man." So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric 14 and tightened it with the pin. Again she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.

NIV

This is a one-sided love, for we can clearly see from this narrative and the rest that will follow that Delilah was not in love with Samson, but was motivated by her own self-interest. She wanted that twenty-eight pounds of silver from each of the rulers of the Philistines. She had no commitment to Samson, and we would think that he could see right through her constant asking, or nagging, what his secret that gave him such strength. At first, he seemed wise to her persistence in wanting to know his secret, and with each time having the Philistines come upon him. He had to know by now that she was not interested in his well-being, but her own. Yet she kept on nagging, and he kept on keeping his secret, at least for now. We know what is going to happen, but our lesson today is about this one-sided love. We have often thought that within a relationship that is not established with mutual or equal love, the person who loves less controls the relationship. However, when love is mutual or equal, each is looking for the benefit of the other, giving instead of taking. Yet, while both give, each receives, and both are benefited by a union that is established by God. Samson would give in to this one-sided love he had for Delilah, as we are never told that she fell in love with Samson. Perhaps because the times were different and it was not necessary for a woman to love her man, but to obey him, yet Delilah didn’t obey Samson either, but had her mind on all that silver. In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he tells him that the love of money is the root of all evil. There is no question that Delilah’s love for that silver drove her to evil deeds against Samson. When we are in perfect harmony with each other because of mutual love, and our lives are dedicated to the Lord and not to this world’s wealth, we then see the absence of evil within our relationships. However, if we look to the ways of this world, if we desire the things of this world, the wealth, positions, power, looking for the esteem of men, rather than from God, evil lurks at the door of our hearts. When we take to heart the definition Paul gives, under the inspiration of the Spirit, of love in the letter to the Corinthians, then we see the love of God that we should emulate in our relationships with each other. Then we will know true love.