Today, I’ve transcribed a short clip in which Jentezen Franklin, the senior pastor of Free Chapel, based out of Gainesville, Georgia, outlines four consequences of sexual sin, drawn from the tragic story of the Biblical character Samson. Samson was a Judge in Israel. He was known for his superhuman physical strength, but he had a major lust problem. As the story goes, Samson revealed the secret of his strength–his long hair–to a Philistine woman named Delilah, ignoring all the obvious red flags. Delilah betrayed Samson, had his hair cut, and he was taken prisoner by his enemies and had his eyes gouged out. *Gasps* You can read the full story in Judges 13-16 of the Hebrew Bible.
According to Franklin, four generalizable consequences of sexual sin derived from this story are 1-) a loss of mission; 2-) a loss of common sense; 3-) a loss of fear, and 4-) a loss of the favor of God. You can find the full clip and transcript below!
If you like this article, check out The Story of Samson in the Bible. For more, see the complete archive of articles on integrity.
Transcript:
The consequences of sexual sin. Number one, notice that he [Samson] lost in sexual sin the loss of mission. The loss of mission. They cut his eyes out. He no longer had vision. I promise you, if you continue in sexual sin, it’s a matter of time before you lose your vision.
Secondly, Samson lost—this is a big one. Sexual sin will cause you to lose and come to a place that you have a loss of common sense. Haven’t yall seen that happen? Haven’t you seen people just starting to do things and you know—why?—they’re not even thinking. Four times, four times, four times Delilah said, “tell me your secret,” and he told her a lie, and said it was the secret. And every time he woke up, the Philistines were upon him, and he killed them, and he killed them, and he killed them. But when he really told the family secret, then suddenly, the power had left.
The point is this, at some point “tell me your secret,” “tell me your secret,” and you see she’s up to no good. Shouldn’t you have some common sense? The loss of common sense. But sin causes you to lose a loss of mission, a loss of common sense. [There’s] only four of these.
A loss of fear. He should have been terrified. He should have been hitting the breaks, not gassing it. He’s going faster and faster. That’s how sin does. You know you ought to be stopping. You know you’re not doing good. You know you’re deteriorating physically. You know you’re going to be found out. You know things are closing in. You know it, and instead of putting the brakes on, you’re gassing it. You’ve lost your fear.
Lastly, the loss of God’s favor. You know sexual sin will cost you the loss of God’s favor. All of the success you’re having right now is God’s favor on your life. You let that favor lift—the Bible says Samson woke up after he told her the secret, he shook himself, and said to himself, “The Spirit of the Lord is going to come on me just like he has always. I’ve always had it. I’ve always got it. I’ll always have it.” And he went to fight, and when he did, in the middle of the fight, it dawned on him, [the Spirit of the Lord had departed]. He had lost the favor of God.
It didn’t happen the first time, the second time, the third time, the fourth time–that is not God excusing your sin, it’s his mercy. But there will come a time when continual sin, habitual sin, in your life that the Holy Spirit has convicted you of, will cost you the favor of God.
