Don’t Empty Your Chest to Fill Your Stomach

There once was a mighty man. The mightiest man who ever lived, and he performed great deeds. While he was obedient to God, he was unstoppable. Once, he singlehandedly defeated an entire army. However, his strength and virtue did not satisfy him. His flesh hungered for and desired something else. His first step was to compromise his virtue. He pursued various women to appease his desires. He degraded himself and betrayed what he knew was right, and in the end his strength, in turn,abandoned him when he most needed it. He had let his stomach, his fleshly desires, consume his chest, his virtue and strength. Of course, this man was Sampson, and his desire was for Delilah and his strength was represented by his hair which was in turn a representation of a vow of virtue. We know how the story ends, Sampson repents and God grants him one last feat of strength to defeat the Lord’s enemies, but that was also the end of Sampson. We are left to wonder, how much more could Sampson have achieved if he had not betrayed his vow. How much could we achieve if we do not compromise our values or abandon our virtue, to satisfy the appetite of our flesh?

Perhaps you say, “It won’t hurt if I indulge myself.” If that is you, you are following the cautionary tale of Sampson. If we give into our flesh, we compromise our spiritual strength.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would… Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like…” – Galatians 5:17, 19-21a

You might respond “I haven’t committed adultery or murder! I’m not doing anything that bad.” However, the Bible says when you look with lust it is the same as committing adultery(Matthew 5:28) or when you hold hatred in your heart is to commit murder (1 John 3:15). We must steadfastly resist the temptation to satisfy our flesh. Instead we must hold true to our faith.

Unlike Sampson, Christians are not called to take Nazarite vows. Yet, we are still called to follow virtue. In contrast to the works of the flesh, “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.To produce these spiritual fruit, we must put our flesh to death. “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Galatians 5:24. If we do so, we have a promise from God:

Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. – Luke 6:47-49

Is the life you are building set upon the rock or on sand? Are you building strength or feeding weakness? You must choose to feed the spirit or the flesh.

We cannot expect ourselves to maintain virtue while indulging vice. We drain our chests to fill our stomachs, and we are shocked when we find ourselves spiritually feeble. C. S. Lewis put it this way, in his Book the Abolition of Man, “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” So, remember the next time you are tempted to make a little compromise, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:7