King Saul and Repentance

King Saul started out knowing God's will and following it. Later in life he turned to and continuously sought his own good, even when it was in contradiction to the will of God. He did not completely destroy the Amalekites as he was told to, instead he allowed some of the people to take plunder for their own benefit, though he said it was for sacrifice. Then he sought to kill David - who was to be his successor - though David proved over and over again that he was faithful to Saul's leadership and would be till he died. He continued to ignore God's law. He slaughtered a whole city of priests in his pursuit of David, and even threw a spear at his oldest son, Jonathan, because of his friendship with David. Finally God ceased to speak to him at all. In I Samuel 28, the Philistines gathered their forces to come against Israel. After seeing the army of the Philistines, Saul decided to seek God, presumably because he was afraid they were too much for him. But God did not send any message, not by a dream, or by prophets. Even the Urim, a device used by the priests, was silent. Then Saul went to a medium, a person who talks with dead people. This practice is expressly forbidden in the law of God. That worked, sort of. However, Saul never showed any real repentance for any of his sins and he died in that battle, along with all of his sons.

Musings on Sexual Purity

Perhaps in emphasising physical virginity when talking about purity, some Christians are putting emphasis on the wrong thing. Not that physical virginity is wrong - it isn't. But the gospel is not about the outward law - the law still applies, we ought to be obedient to God and faithful to our wives, whether future or present - but we have to remind ourselves and others two things.

First, purity and obedience are not just about physical virginity - most of us are probably "damaged goods" sexually or relationally in some way. Its not hard for us (Christians) to lust after someone that is not ours, and many Christian men, including me have struggled with the sin of looking at pornography or nude photos of women. Being pure includes our minds and we all have to repent and put the impurities to death.

Second, we have to recognize that there is forgiveness from our sin – when the Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery to our Lord Jesus, He did not ignore her sin or trivialize it, but He did say in John 8:11 “go and sin no more.” This was a common refrain that He told to those He healed and met. He had compassion and then warned them to go but sin no more. This should be common with us as Christians – we ought to warn people compassionately what actions are sin, but the next breath (or paragraph) should remind people that there is forgiveness for them in Jesus' death on the cross.

Third, we should be ready and willing to forgive others of their sin and help them to put it to death, starting with those closest to us – our spouses or significant others.