Dr Paul Allen

There are hundreds of passages in Scripture about abuse. Abuse is woven throughout Scripture, offering rich teaching on what abuse is, how it affects us, and how God responds to it. What is abuse? Abuse is a dark topic. But it can only be rightly understood against a positive backdrop: Abuse, at its core, involves the diabolical corruption of God’s very good creation. Genesis 1–2 recounts the magnificent way God made humans, male and female, in his image and likeness. That image gives us innate dignity and worth. Abuse attacks and distorts—though it does not eliminate—this. It strikes at the very essence of who we are as image bearers. God entrusts his image bearers with power. Abuse inverts this: Power is used to exploit and harm. Abuse is also always a misuse of our God-given power. In the creation account, the second command given to the man and woman involves having dominion over all of creation (Gen 1:28). God entrusts his image bearers with power—physical, relational, sexual, eco...

Samson and Delilah (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) With Samson it seems that even Spirit-given power, power that had been promised and given by God , can be misused and exploited for very questionable behavior.  I don’t think the narrator of these stories means us to assume that God necessarily approved of all that was done in the power of his Spirit.   There is a growing excess in Samson’s raging violence. Not every manifestation of spiritual power is unambiguously holy or wholesome. There is something mysterious about the manifestations of the Spirit of God at this earlier period of Israel’s life. The Spirit of God , it seems, can be very good, positive and enriching, giving people ability, competence and power, or filling people for skillful and creative tasks.  The Spirit can give people great powers of leadership and courage.   The Spirit can also be unpredictable, sudden and surprising.  The Spirit can be abused by those who run wild and ...