Category Archives: 1 Samuel

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Lucky Charm Christianity

It Makes No Sense to Take the Name of Christian and Not Cling to Christ

SYNOPSIS: Having God’s favor—his presence, power, and protection—is not a matter of what we receive in a certain moment of desperate need, it is the result of walking with him in a life-sustaining relationship over time. It is also the result of his sovereign hand that keeps us from danger or leads us into and through it, according to his will. We don’t have to twist God’s arm by chanting certain phrases, or unthinkingly repeating his name, or having perfect attendance in church, or praying three times a day, or giving to the poor, or whatever. Some of those activities might be good and fitting, but we don’t do them to get God’s favor. We do them because we have been ridiculously blessed by God’s favor.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 4:3

After the battle was over, the troops retreated to their camp, and the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord allow us to be defeated by the Philistines?” Then they said, “Let’s bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. If we carry it into battle with us, it will save us from our enemies.”

Way too many believers have what I call a “lucky charm” Christianity. They believe that if they robotically go through certain motions, or if they repeat certain spiritual phrase by rote, then God’s favor and protection will be guaranteed. For instance, that is what our friend does who makes the sign of the cross before stepping to the plate to take a swing at a high fastball with the bases loaded in the ninth with two outs and his team three runs down is using God as his lucky rabbit’s foot. But that is also what our friend is doing who mindlessly “pleads the blood” of Jesus to relieve a suddenly crisis.

I don’t meant to step on your toes if any of those things are precious to you, but having God’s favor—his presence, power and protection—is not a matter of what you do in a certain moment of desperate need, it is the result of walking with him in life-sustaining relationship over time. It is also the result of his sovereign hand that keeps us from danger or leads us into and through it, according to his will. We don’t have to twist God’s arm by chanting certain phrases, or unthinkingly repeating his name a billion times in prayer, or having perfect attendance in church, or praying three times a day, or giving to the poor, or whatever….

Though some of those activities are good and fitting, we don’t do them to get God’s favor; we do them because we have been ridiculously blessed by God’s favor. Some of the aforementioned things—like mindless repetition of his name—are simply learned behaviors. But they don’t make you more lovable to God. He loves you anyway—if you don’t do them, and yes, even if you do. While I might get irritated with your “rituals”, God’s love for you is not diminished.

Yet the truth remains that God wants an intimate, moment-by-moment, love relationship with you instead of rote ritualism. He doesn’t want it to be fear-based, routine, or works oriented. He wants you to be connected deeply with him so that his life can constantly flow to you. Jesus said it this way in John 15:5-9,

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

The Israelites didn’t get that. They didn’t abide in God’s love. In fact, they had removed themselves far from him. And as a consequence, godless enemies continually harassed them—in this case, the nasty, old Philistines. When the Philistines went to war against them, Israel mistakenly assumed they got walloped simply because they didn’t have the Ark of the Covenant with them in battle—their lucky charm. How wrong they were, for when they took it into the ark into the next battle, they found out that the it did not force God to show up and win the game for them.

God wanted a relationship with his people, but he treated him like a good luck charm. That never works. Just remember that.

God wants to be in relationship with you as a loving Father to a loving child. That is where the favor flows!

Going Deeper With God: Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you where perhaps you are exercising faith in a luck charm sort of way. If he doe, repent of it and simply ask him to reconnect you to the Vine!

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Hanging Around The Holy But Never Hearing The Holy Spirit

Get Hungry For God—He's Great!

SYNOPSIS: You and I live in a glorious time when the presence of the Holy Spirit is continual. We don’t need a priest to mediate the Lord’s presence or a tabernacle to be the place where God’s voice can be heard. Through our daily times with God and in the gatherings of our faith community, we should expect to receive the voice of God. God desires to speak to us, and that should be the ongoing experience of both our personal and our corporate Christianity. If we are not hearing from God; worse, if we are not even expecting God to speak, then something is amiss in our spirituality. If our kids are clueless about the voice of God, then we—and they—are missing a vital piece of what it means to be part of New Testament Christianity. Dallas Willard said, “Few people arise in the morning as hungry for God as they are for cornflakes.” Get hungry for God—He longs to speak to you!

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 3:1

Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.

I Samuel 3 introduces the Bible reader to Samuel. It is also the introduction to what will be one of the greatest periods of spiritual awakening in Israel under Samuel’s leadership. He will be the last and arguably the greatest of Israel’s judges. We actually met Samuel in the first chapter of this book that bears his name when the Lord granted his previously barren mother Hannah’s request for a son.

In fulfillment of a vow that Hannah made that dedicated Samuel to the Lord’s service, when the boy was weaned she took him to Eli the high priest so that he could serve as an assistant in the tabernacle. Samuel would grow up hanging around the holy. Our story today occurs most likely when Samuel is around twelve, and Eli is well into his nineties.

While the time of Samuel’s leadership will bring Israel back to God, it begins because of very dark conditions in Israel. Not only had the nation drifted from its spiritual moorings, Eli was a bad High Priest, and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were thoroughly wicked. Eli was lazy, and he had neither controlled his sons nor held them accountable for their immoral behavior. And the sons were so corrupt that the Lord has determined to slay them.

All of what I have just described will unfold in intriguing detail over the next few chapters. Samuel will be uniquely dialed into the voice of God. But in this chapter, he wasn’t. We could excuse his initial spiritual dullness because he was so young. And throughout his life, he would regularly experience the voice of God like few ever have. Yet on this occasion when God spoke, Samuel didn’t have a clue it was God.

So let’s focus on that very thing, and extract an application from it. We are told in the very first verse that Samuel was serving the Lord in the daily duties of the tabernacle. He was the high priest’s assistant. We are also told that any word from God was rare in those days. People were not receiving revelations—the prophetic voice calling Israel to repentance had been silenced. So rare was it that God spoke that when he finally did, Samuel was clueless that it was God. He actually thought it was Eli messing with him.

How sad. That anyone could hang around the holiness of God, administering his holy things, yet never hear the voice of the Holy Spirit—and in fact, not even be aware of the Spirit or crying out for a word from the Lord or expecting God to speak—that itself is a spiritual indictment of the worst order.

You and I live in a glorious time when the presence of the Holy Spirit is continual. We don’t need a priest to mediate the Lord’s presence or a tabernacle to be the place where God’s voice can be heard. Through our daily times with God and in the gatherings of our faith community, we should expect to receive the voice of God. God desires to speak to us, and that should be the ongoing experience of both our personal and our corporate Christianity. If we are not hearing from God; worse, if we are not even expecting God to speak, then something is amiss in our spirituality. If our kids are clueless about the voice of God, then we—and they—are missing a vital piece of what it means to be part of New Testament Christianity.

Few people arise in the morning as hungry for God as they are for cornflakes or toast and eggs. (Dallas Willard)

God wants to speak. If he isn’t, that is not his fault, it is ours. We have moved away from him. We have put distance between the Almighty and us. We have programmed the Spirit right out of our daily lives and our weekend gatherings. We are hanging around the holy yet never hearing from the Holy Spirit. When you think about it, how terribly sad is that!

If you are not hearing from God, the good news is, he wants to speak. So come before him with a repentant heart, realign your life to give time to hear his voice, get into his Word, begin to ask him to talk to you and then listen on a consistent basis, and he will speak.

You and I need a word from God, and he longs to give it. May God grant us a hearing of his voice!

Going Deeper With God: If you are not hearing from God, come before him with a repentant heart, realign your life to give prime time to hear his voice, get into his Word, begin to ask him to talk to you and then listen. Do that on a consistent basis, and God will speak to you.

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Intentional Parenting or Unintentional Consequences

Train Up a Child in the Way They Should Go

SYNOPSIS: The ultimate parental dereliction of duty is to allow the children to parent themselves. Your children need a dad and a mom who will give them definite direction in the way they should go. And the promise of scripture is that when they are old, they will not depart from it. That is quite a risky promise, but it is God’s, not mine.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 2:12-13, 22

Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels who had no respect for the Lord or for their duties as priests…. Now Eli was very old, but he was aware of what his sons were doing to the people of Israel.

Eli was the high priest of Israel as the period of the Judges was coming to a close. Arguably, there was no higher public role than his. Yet there was a job more important than being the Chief Spiritual Officer of Israel, and that was being a dad to his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

Now while these two were grown men and Eli was very old at the time of this story, it is obvious that many years had passed where Eli had been derelict in his parental duties. Hophni and Phinehas were very wicked men, even though they were priests of the Lord like their father.

The story of this family doesn’t give any details of their upbringing, except that as we have already seen, this was a time in Israel’s spiritual journey that God had been moved to the margins and people were doing whatever they thought best. (Judges 22:25) We don’t know what had happened, or what had not happened. We don’t know if Eli had been off shepherding Israel but not shepherding his own home. We don’t know if Eli was simply lazy as a dad, or if he had a pushover personality, or if his sons were just bad apples, or all of the above.

What we do know is that when we get to these early chapters in 1 Samuel, Hophni and Phinehas were abusing their spiritual authority. They were cheating people out of sacrifices that were meant to the Lord, they were seducing women who came to worship, and were using their role to benefit themselves, and they had deeply offended the Lord, who was now ready to end not just their ministry as priests, but their very lives:

Eli said, “You must stop, my sons! The reports I hear among the Lord’s people are not good. If someone sins against another person, God can mediate for the guilty party. But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede?” But Eli’s sons wouldn’t listen to their father, for the Lord was already planning to put them to death. (1 Samuel 2:24-35

Now like many parents, Eli had a heartfelt concern for his sons’ wicked behavior. But unfortunately, like many parents, his concern was not matched by action. And his dereliction of duty only allowed their evil to grow worse, until it reached the point where God had determined to slay them. Keep in mind that God didn’t predetermine that these two would be evil—that is not what the writer is telling us when he says, “they wouldn’t listen to their dad, for God was planning to kill them.” What he is saying is that because of their deliberately evil actions, the Lord allowed their hearts to grow beyond repentance. In other words, God had given them what they were determined to have, and now they would harvest the wild oats they had sowed.

Of course, the overarching purpose of this story is to connect the increasingly lawless times of the judges with the arrival of Israel’s monarchy. Interestingly, scripture takes quite a bit of space to do that, using Judges, Ruth, and the early part of 1 Samuel to make sure we know how awful society will get when God is not at the center. The account of Eli and his evil spawn is yet one more story that adds to this indictment.

Yet while that is the general theme, we can still extract some very important life applications from these accounts—including this one. One of those applications for me is the recognition that my highest call and chief mission in life is to honor Christ by being an effective father. Furthermore, the fruit of my mission will be seen in my kid’s and grandkids’ lives as they reach adulthood—it will be reflected in their own reverence for the Lord and the values of godliness they choose to live by. As they follow God of their own accord, that is the greatest tribute to what kind of dad I have been

Now that won’t happen just by virtue of being a parent to your children. It will be the result of intentional parenting and a determination to be the kind of mom or dad that honors God—especially the kind that honors God by insisting that your children give him the respect that is due.

Eli didn’t. He let his boys parent themselves until it was too late. The good news is, you can be different, especially if your children are still young. And if they are not, then start with where you are and exert the godliest influence you can. And with God’s help, your sincere efforts will have an effect.

The ultimate parental dereliction of duty is to allow the children to parent themselves. Your children need a dad and a mom who will give them definite direction in the way they should go. And the promise of scripture is that when they are old, they will not depart from it. That is quite a risky promise, but it is God’s, not mine.

Going Deeper With God: Have you ever shared your spiritual values with your children or grandchildren? If you haven’t, look for an opportune time to tell them what you believe and why you believe it. Believe me, it will leave an impression.

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Praise Your Way Through Pain

Worship Until Worship Becomes Your First Response To Life - God or Bad

SYNOPSIS: Learn to worship until worship becomes your first and best response to not only the delightful but to the devastating things in life. As tough as it may be to offer your praise to God when things aren’t going your way, it’s the best and only thing that will set your heart right. Brennan Manning writes in Ruthless Trust, “To be grateful for an unanswered prayer, to give thanks in a state of interior desolation, to trust in the love of God in the face of the marvels, cruel circumstances, obscenities, and commonplaces of life is to whisper a doxology in darkness.” The Old Testament Hannah worshiped her way through barrenness. May that be true of you, too. Wherever the barrenness is—in your relationships, your finances, your career, your ministry, or even your walk with the One you are worshiping—offer him your worship. He sees your way and he knows his plans to fulfill his purpose in you, and he will do it!

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 1:10-11

Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. And she made this vow: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime, and as a sign that he has been dedicated to the Lord, his hair will never be cut. As she was praying to the Lord, Eli watched her. Seeing her lips moving but hearing no sound, he thought she had been drinking. “Must you come here drunk?” he demanded. “Throw away your wine” She replied, “Oh no, sir! I haven’t been drinking wine or anything stronger. But I am very discouraged, and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. Don’t think I am a wicked woman! For I have been praying out of great anguish and sorrow.”

Nobody really understands the pain of desiring children but not being able to have any like the barren. Hannah was a childless woman in a culture where children meant everything—a woman’s worth and desirability to her husband, her bragging rights at family gatherings, the admiration of the other women at the market, her husband’s ammunition for one-upping the other guys hanging out at the city gates, as well as a whole host of other cultural notches on the belt that came with having kids. And there was one other benefit to having children that had an even more significant meaning to married couples in Israel: eternal life. You see, through posterity, the family DNA, the family name, the family’s unending future would be carried forth in perpetuity.

So in light of all that, Hannah’s grief over having no children is more than most of us could ever begin to understand—unless, of course, you have suffered the disappointment of barrenness yourself. Even her husband, Elkanah, didn’t get it:

Why are you crying, Hannah?” Elkanah would ask. “Why aren’t you eating? Why be downhearted just because you have no children? You have me—isn’t that better than having ten sons? (I Samuel 1:8, NLT)

Either he was a complete dolt and didn’t get it, or he was a complete dolt who also happened to be an insensitive brute. But Elkannah wasn’t alone in this matter: Even Hannah’s pastor didn’t fare too well in the Mr. Sensitive category. He accused her of being drunk as she silently poured out her heart to the Lord:

Seeing her lips moving but hearing no sound, Eli thought she had been drinking. “Must you come here drunk?” he demanded. “Throw away your wine!” (I Samuel 1:13-14, NLT)

Hannah was alone in her grief, and even worse, she had no hopes that things would be any different in the future, destined to a life of barrenness. So what is a misunderstood, hopeless, devastated, childless woman to do? Well, here’s what Hannah did: she worshiped.

You will notice in the story that Hannah went before the Lord year after year—she didn’t give up. She poured out her heart, time and time again—trusting that God would one day hear her. She faithfully presented herself in sacrificial worship before the Lord not only with her husband, but also with his other wife and her mean-spirited rival, Penniah (I Samuel 1:7)—she pressed into God. As difficult as her situation was, Hannah worshiped the One who had her life, including all its details, big and small, in his good hands. And finally, in timing understood only by God, he granted her request and she bore Samuel, who grew up to be the greatest of Israel’s prophets.

Hannah worshiped! That’s what you and I must learn to do, too, until worship becomes our first and best response to not only the delightful, but to the devastating things in life. If you are a childless woman whose pain and disappointment is understood only by God—worship him. He is your only hope and the One who knows his plans for your life—plans that are always good, even when you don’t particularly like them. And if you are suffering other kinds of barrenness—in your relationships, your finances, your career, your ministry, or even your walk with the One you are worshiping—offer him your worship. He knows your way, and he knows his plans for you. Jeremiah 29:10-14, one of the great promises for those who are in the midst of pain, promises,

This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”

As tough as it may be to offer your worship to the Lord when things aren’t going your way, it’s the best and only thing that will set your heart right. Brennan Manning writes in his great little book, Ruthless Trust,

To be grateful for an unanswered prayer, to give thanks in a state of interior desolation, to trust in the love of God in the face of the marvels, cruel circumstances, obscenities, and commonplaces of life is to whisper a doxology in darkness.

Hannah worshiped the Lord. May that be true of you, too!

Going Deeper With God: Today, whether you are in a delightful place, or wrestling with disappointment—even if you are in a pace of devastation—offer God your heart in worship. The saints of old would tell you that is the very best therapy.

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Courage!

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

It is precisely out of the darkest of times when someone steps forward to attempt the heroic that the courage of one lifts the hearts of the many. Courage! Every age, including this one, needs men and women of courage who will be sold out to certain convictions that drive them to act, not because they believe they will walk away with their lives, but because it is the right thing to do. That is courage, and in itself, it is victory.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 11:11-13

But when the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their mighty warriors traveled through the night to Beth-shan and took the bodies of Saul and his sons down from the wall. They brought them to Jabesh, where they burned the bodies. Then they took their bones and buried them beneath the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.

Courage! Nelson Mandela, a man of remarkable courage himself, wrote, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” Perhaps Mandela was describing the brave warriors of Jabesh-gilead.

We don’t know their names. We don’t know anything about them really. But the one thing we do know is what will cause them to admired as men for the ages: they were courageous. Risking all that they possessed—their homes, their families, their very lives—to invade the much larger and more powerful Philistine territory, they put their sacred honor on the line to honor God. They mustered the courage to rescue the abused bodies of King Saul and his sons, marching through the night straight into the enemy-occupied city of Beth-shan and through whatever resistance the Philistine guard may have mounted. Once they had retrieved them, they gave King Saul, Jonathan and the other brothers a proper burial. Moreover, they secured a moral victory in an otherwise dark time for the nation of Israel.

There is not much to cheer in 1 Samuel 31, just this courageous act. Israel is at a low ebb, and the prospects for brighter days is exceedingly dim. There has been no coronation of David as Israel’s new king yet—in fact, that is several years off. Furthermore, at this point, as far as anyone might know, David has sided with the Philistines. This is a dark time indeed for God’s people. But that is what makes what the warriors of Jabesh-gilead did so much more spectacular. It is precisely out of the darkest of times when someone steps forward to attempt the heroic that the courage of one lifts the hearts of the many.

Courage! Every age, including this one, needs men and women of courage. I want to be one, how about you? But where does it come from? Like the men of Jabesh-Gilead, it arise from three intertwined sources:

  1. Principle: They were sold out to certain convictions that drove them to act. N.D. Wilson wrote, “Sometimes standing against evil is more important than defeating it. The greatest heroes stand because it is right to do so, not because they believe they will walk away with their lives. Such selfless courage is a victory in itself.” It was the right thing to do, so they did it.
  2. Compassion: They cared deeply for what had been done to the people of Israel; they cared out of deep loyalty the royal family, and they cared deeply about the reputation of God. As Lao Tzu said, “From caring comes courage.”
  3. Anger: They were mad. They were morally offended. Their sense of godly pride had been challenged, and they had to respond. Much of the sacrifice to achieve a worthy cause comes from righteous indignation, and the men of Jabesh-gilead were that, fighting mad. Eric Hoffer rightly observed, “Anger is the prelude to courage.”

Courage! To paraphrase from Cicero, people of faith must be people of courage—unassailable principle, deep concern, and righteous indignation. May that be true of you and me.

Going Deeper With God: What is causing you to shrink back in fear? In the face of fear, step forth and do what is right. That is called courage, and not many people exhibit it.

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Find Strength in the Lord

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

If you are in a jam and no one is around to encourage you, strengthen yourself in the Lord. Assess your situation, ask God for wisdom and strength, be obedient in the ordinary requirements of the day, and express gratitude. That is called trust, and it catalyzes the strength of the Lord.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 30:3-6

When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.

David found out something about human nature, if he didn’t know it before this: the very men who flocked to his leadership now were ready to stone him when the tide was turned against them. Not everyone who loves you and follows your leadership will love you and follow your leadership when times get tough and sacrifice is required. Not everyone will stand loyally by your side when you make a mistake, especially if the mistake personally affects them.

When David’s small army went off on a raid, their camp was attacked and destroyed, and worse, their families had been carried off as captives. The men would have expected that their wives and children would be treated in the most brutal fashion. Understandably, David’s men were emotional.

What was David’s response to this desperate situation? He went to God. What did he do with God to get his strength? Who knows. For sure, he would have poured out his heart to God. Probably he recounted God’s call and His promises to David that he would rule over the people of Israel. Perhaps he recounted the many times God had delivered him, thus reminding himself of God’s unfailing love. Whatever David did with God, he was able to find strength in the Lord his God.

What a contrast to David’s response when he first moved to Ziklag (the scene of the Amalekite raid and the sources of David’s men’s misery). We are told in the text that he moved there because “David kept thinking to himself…” that Saul would eventually find him and kill him. (I Samuel 27:1). Once again he is in a tight squeeze, but this time he goes to God.

Even godly leaders can fall into the trap of humanistic thinking, or they can strengthen themselves in the Lord. In life and in leadership, that is a skill we need to develop. When the chips are down, and others are not there to lift us up, we must find ways to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. In his book, Keep in Step with the Spirit, theologian J.I. Packer gives a step-by-step guide for this very thing:

First, as one who wants to do all the good you can, you observe what tasks, opportunities, and responsibilities face you. Second, you pray for help in these, acknowledging that without Christ you can do nothing—nothing fruitful, that is (John 15:5). Third, you go to work with a good will and a high heart, expecting to be helped as you asked to be. Fourth, you thank God for help given, ask pardon for your own failures en route, and request more help for the next task. . . . holiness is hard working holiness, based on endless repetitions of this sequence.

Assess, pray, obey, thank—then trust that God is at work in your difficult circumstances, because he is. John Newton said,

Faith upholds a Christian under all trials, by assuring him that every painful dispensation is under the direction of his Lord; that chastisements are a token of His love; that the season, measure, and continuance of his sufferings, are appointed by Infinite Wisdom, and designed to work for his everlasting good; and that grace and strength shall be afforded him, according to his need.

How do you strengthen yourself in the Lord? The bottom line is that you offer old fashioned trust in the One who works things out for his glory and your good.

Going Deeper With God: If you are in a jam and no one is around to encourage you, strengthen yourself in the Lord. Assess your situation, ask God for wisdom and strength, be obedient in the ordinary requirements of the day, and express gratitude. That is called trust, and it catalyzes the strength of the Lord.

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They’ll Be Uncomfortable With You

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

There will be times—should be times—when those who are hostile to God are uncomfortable with us. Now we should not go out of our way to provoke their discomfort, as some do, but in the normal course of events, our faith will lead us into awkward places with unbelievers. Once in a while, if not a lot, our faith ought to lead us into a bit of trouble.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 29:6-7

So Achish, king of the Philistines, finally summoned David and said to him, “I swear by the Lord that you have been a trustworthy ally. I think you should go with me into battle, for I’ve never found a single flaw in you from the day you arrived until today. But the other Philistine rulers won’t hear of it. Please don’t upset them, but go back quietly.”

For some time, David and his men had been living among the Philistines, Israel’s arch-enemy. He had fled to Gath, the Philistine capital, to escape his own king, Saul, who was insanely jealous of David and was hell bent on killing him. Whether or not David should have put himself, his men and their families, along with the reputation of God at risk to live among God’s enemies is debatable. Be that as it may, he was among the Philistine when war broke out with Israel.

David was now in an awkward position: Fight for Achish, who had given him refuge, and go against Saul and the Israelites, or pretend to be with the Philistines but then turn on them in the midst of the battle to win back his status with Saul. We don’t know what he would have done, although I would like it to have been the latter. We will never know, because as they were getting ready to march out to battle, the Philistine commanders revolted and demanded that King Achish send David packing. They feared that indeed, David and his men would turn on them in the battle. So under protest, David and his men went home and sat out the fight.

That brings up a relevant question for you and me: Is there a time when those who are far from God ought to be uncomfortable with us because of our closeness to God? Should our loyalty to God rub them the wrong way at times? Ought not the stances we take for the ways of the Lord put us in an awkward position with the unbeliever ever so often?

Of course, we have to thread the needle here. Jesus, after all, was accused of being a friend of sinners. There was something about him that drew those who were utterly lost to his heart; he had something they didn’t, but desperately wanted. He didn’t go out of his way to condemn them or serve as a source of constant irritation when he was among them.

Yet he did call sinners to leave their lives of sin to follow him. He did call them to sell all they possessed in order to sell out for him. He did get killed, after all, because the dark cannot abide the light. And the man who knew Jesus as well as anyone, who walked more closely to him than any other human, John the Beloved, did sternly warn us, “ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15). James, the Lord’s flesh and blood brother, said, “Don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)

The point is, there will be times—should be times—when those who are hostile to God (whether they are conscious of their hatred or not) are uncomfortable with us. Now we should not go out of our way to provoke their discomfort—there are some believers who do just that, who wrongly think that it is their Christian duty to be irritating—but in the normal course of events, our faith will lead us into awkward places with the world. Every once in awhile, if not a lot, our faith ought to lead us into a bit of trouble.

Yes, we are in the world, but not of it. So if you find yourself rubbing the non-Christian the wrong way for the right reasons, congratulations! You are in good company.

Going Deeper With God: Don’t go out of your way to be a pain in the neck with people of the world. Just make sure you are humbly and graciously living out your faith, and then let the chips fall where they may.