Nazarite Vow

Today at church we heard about the church at Ephesus that had lost their first love. One quick thing that was mentioned in Acts 18:18 was that Paul cut his hair before going to Ephesus. He had taken the Nazarite vow (Numbers 6) and that included not cutting their hair and abstaining from alcohol. You know Samson? He was a famous Nazarite. (Delilah, you're so mean.) The minister's opinion to why he cut it was because Paul did not want to seem hypocritical on preaching the end of the law through Christ and then still be practicing it himself. I like Beth Moore's opinion in her book To Live is Christ. Paul had just been in Corinth and the city was immoral with pagan practices, perversion, and lust. He had taken the Nazarite vow, because a) he was a Jewish Christian and at times he still applied Jewish practices as wise choices, not legalities and b) he was faced with a difficult situation and needed extra help and concentration on God. She says if they would forget, all they needed to do was glance in the mirror and remember their vow. Do you picture Paul primping in front of a mirror? Not me. Anyways, he took the vow for extra help while at Corinth, then on his way to Ephesus, he cut it off signifying the end of the vow. Okay, the funniest part and the reason I told this is because Drew leaned toward me grinning, when he heard this and said "Cool, Mom! I'm a Nazarite! Can I grow my hair longer, pleeeeease?" This coming from my son who refused to sign the "Say No to Drugs and Alcohol" pledge at school because he would like to drink a beer someday when he's older.

P.S. He did finally sign the pledge after a frantic phone call from another mom who's child didn't sign and we explained the legal drinking age and that this pledge was for kids.