In Rom 6:16, Paul tells the believers at Rome (and believers today) that they are slaves to whatever they obey. While the believer has been set free from the power of sin by the Holy Spirit, he can become a slave to sin if he walks according to the flesh rather than the Spirit. Through the Spirit, we can become slaves of righteousness. Paul, of course, is not discussing what we need to do in order to attain eternal life. He is discussing Christian living.
I recently saw an outstanding example of this teaching in the OT. Samson was a man with supernatural power. Judges 16:1-3 records that when the Philistines in the city of Gaza tried to seize him, he took the gate of the city and carried it away on his shoulders (v 3). It probably weighed around two tons. It is a little difficult to translate the phrase, but he may have carried it thirty-eight miles.
Samson had great power at his disposal. But he was walking according to the flesh. The reason he had been in Gaza was that he “saw a harlot there, and went in to her.” Later, he fell in love with another Philistine woman named Delilah. Like the first woman, she may have been a prostitute.
It is a well-known story. Samson’s lust was his downfall. Delilah tricked him. Because of that treachery, the Philistines took him to Gaza as a slave (Judg 16:21). The verb took is the same one used to describe how Samson had taken away the gate of the city. He had been powerful in Gaza. Now, he was a slave there. The words Gaza and took connect the two passages. The strong man in vv 1-3 is the pathetic figure in v 21.
But it got even worse. The Philistines blinded him by putting out his eyes. Since he was a slave to his sexual desires, God disciplined him by making him a slave mocked by his enemies.
Samson was spiritually blind to the consequences of his fleshly desires. Now he was physically blind. Metaphorically, he was a slave to his fleshly desires. Now he was a literal slave in Gaza. I am sure he never saw it coming.
What an incredibly sad picture. The most physically strong man in the OT is reduced to a blind slave. But Paul says in Romans 6 that a believer can be just like Samson. When we walk in disobedience, we are blind to what is happening. We might think we are free to do as we please, but in reality, we are slaves. Samson gives us a clear example.
Samson is a sad figure because he was given such great power but was brought so low. One would think that someone so powerful could not become enslaved. Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, the believer has also been given great power. Spiritually speaking, every believer is a Samson. But if we walk in disobedience, we will also be blind, pathetic slaves.
