Jude 1-4 a Commentary

During seminary I had the task of translating Jude among other books in the New Testament and I was toying with the idea of writing a commentary and I decided, why not? Jude it one of the shorter books in the Bible.  So here it goes Jude in five blogs: 

Jude 1 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹ Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
² May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
³ Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴ For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

1Now Jude is obviously not Judas who betrayed Jesus and traditionally neither is it the other disciple named Jude. This is accepted to be Jesus' actual brother Jude. This is the brother to James the guy who wrote the other book in the New Testament, also not one of the twelve. The cool thing here is that obviously the message got through to Jesus' own family. James and Jude become leaders in the first church and even the disciples seem to value their opinions as we see at the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. This is quite a different attitude from the brothers who almost are chiding Jesus on when they try to get him to go to the festival from John 7. Jesus responds that the world doesn't accept him but that world accepts them, clearly making a distinction between himself and them.  So when this book is written clearly they have witnessed the power of God and come around to the idea that their own brother was sent from God.  So much so that Jude now considers himself a servant of Jesus his brother and he identifies as the brother of James rather than just saying the brother of Jesus. In part b of this verse he communicates the audience as other people called loved in God and kept in Jesus Christ.  The term kept in Jesus Christ is interesting, It may be alluding to the verses that are coming where he makes the distinction of those who will not be kept or held, but who are being kept in judgment.

2 Not much needs to be said here, he is praying for mercy, peace, and love to be multiplied to the readers of the letters obviously this could just be a greeting, but it may also be what is needed as the book goes on to talk about false teachers. A need for peace and mercy in the midst of their situation may be just what they need as an aid in their trial. 

3 Now this is interesting, Jude admits that he wanted to just write a letter about the common salvation that he and the readers possessed but that given the situation he felt much more urgency to write to them about the need to fight and defend the faith. There was something going on of such import that Jude changed his mind about what to write.  He wants them to understand that their faith is under attack and that they need to defend it, in other words, that apologetics are important. Part b of this verse is also important in that it backs up the notion that the cannon and revelation are completed for the faith. This is not to say that God doesn't speak anymore but that the Bible contains all things for life and practice already. This is also a reminder that the new revelation coming from the false teachers is not in accordance with the already delivered revelation to the saints. This is reinforcing the need for credible teachers and prophets as we will see in the following verses. 

4 Here are the people that he was warning about. Some people have crept into the church and are not easily identified other than their theology. It is their theology that causes them to stand out. The other interesting thing is that Jude identifies this as people who were designed for a certain kind of judgement that he will get to in the following verses. A key aspect of their theology? They pervert the grace that God has given and turn it into sensuality. In other words they confuse the idea of God's grace, for license for their own sinful desires. In doing this they pervert the message and end up denying the master Jesus Christ. Why? Because their message flies in the face of everything that Jesus taught and ends up undermining him as the authority. Therefore he can say that they are ungodly. They have a special condemnation as we will see in the following passage. 

What commentary is complete without a little application?  I believe the obvious one here is about false teachers, who pervert the truth of the gospel into sensuality. Does this sound at all familiar? We are currently living in a culture where some churches are deciding whether certain sins that the bible spells out to be out of bounds, are as they say, "in bounds".  These sins are of course of the sensual nature. In other words people have found teachers that have answered their itching ears and longing hearts that want to have their Jesus and sexual sins too.  Jude even nails it on the head here when he says they pervert the grace of God into sensuality. This is exactly the message: Since God is about love and grace then people should be allowed to "love" each other no matter how perverted it may be. Either Jude is a prophet or this book was just written yesterday.

thanks

 

Upon the Bible can I only claim

I was hoping to mop up all the messiness from the last entry in a self contained blog. But this problem is so big that it could not all fit in one entry.  I hope I made the case that our current problem is our need to be accepted on both sides of the debate. It was inevitable that Christians would be outed as having issue with sin. But Christians have fallen for the very thing that homosexuals want: cultural acceptance. 

This blog is for Christians to understand the Biblical view of this, if this was for homosexuals the conversation would be very different. Not in truth but in presentation. The Gospel trumps discussion of mastering personal sin. 

This was never supposed to be about this specific sin but the way the cultural war has gone we cannot but comment at this point because we will inadvertently being backing a specific world view. At this point if we do not stand on the Bible on this issue we will be backing the worldview that makes it out to be not that big of a deal. This is about acceptance, if it would stay there that would be one thing but it will not and has not. It is coming to the point where Christians either cave or are bigots, as if honest communication is not an option anymore. Well it will not be if we continue to only capitulate or say nothing. 

As I mentioned we all want to be accepted and all want to fit in. That is normal. And the Christian job is not to make people feel uncomfortable, however it may be that we are being called to that discomfort ourselves. If we stand for something that the culture does not like we should expect blow-back. The way we know this is because the Bible calls for us to be humble on what it teaches. It says we will suffer as he did. We are not free to seek comfort over what God asks of us. So let's look at why we are not free to capitulate on a topic that is so culturally hot that we would want to.

1 Thessalonians 2:4
But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.

Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

John 12:43
For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Homosexuality is a hot topic not just because it is current but it affects the very lives of people, the very lives of people in a very intimate way.  As I said before it also speaks to where we are culturally. This is something that the church has failed to recognize. We think it is a simple sin issue but it affects the way people view themselves and the way they find intimacy.  It also is indicative that the culture is already in quite a different place. This is why we need to be clear on why we believe what we do, because it has such impact. And when we communicate it to non-believers we have to understand the sub-text of what we are saying and the depth that is affects people.

It is difficult, yes. It was a thing in the nineties to say that Christianity was counter cultural. It was fun and almost cool to say that, but well, it finally is.

But God doesn't ask people to combat sin, that is why he conquered sin in death himself. The Gospel is not "Straighten out your life and then come to me!" The message is "You can't straighten out yourself so you need to come to me." It does involve addressing the sin for sure but if we tell people about their sin problem as if it is something they need to fix without presenting it humbly within the context of the Gospel we leave people in a feeling of helplessness. If this is something that someone identifies with an identity then they are going to feel doubly lost aren't they? In order to present the Gospel to homosexuals or anyone really we have to understand what the Bible says about it. Why they need the Gospel.

So what does it say, is it really a sin?

Now a common objection is that the command against homosexual activity is given in the Old Testament. The Old Testament! case closed, right? Why aren't we more upset about all those other silly laws?  This objection is not the smoking gun that is assumed. A lot of Americas saw the program West Wing when the fictional president gave this very objection to the fictional conservative talk show host condemning her to also focus on pigskins and mixing fabrics, oh my! So unless we want to impose all those other uncomfortable laws we are out of luck, or at least hypocrites?

Well the issue is this, not only does the New Testament reiterate this specific command, but the very issue of what Old Testament laws gentiles-Christians needed to follow was addressed in the Jerusalem council in the book of Acts chapter 15. Also Paul also wrote a book about it called Galatians because this was a big topic in the first century.  The conclusion of the council was this:
Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

The apostles teach that new converts still must uphold and continue to avoid idolatry, sexual immorality, and food that was strangled and from blood. Idolatry is continued to be avoided by the church and rightfully so.  As far as strangulation and blood, the issue was a strangled animal would not have been drained of blood. So drain the blood and then cook it, we pretty much already do this. But Paul speaks to this as well, if we do not know about the food preparation do not make inquiry unless a weaker brother is conflicted.  In order for unity and love to continue. 

But the central issue here is the gentile Christians are still to hold to the rules of sexual immorality. The question is where do rules for sexual immorality come from? Well rules for immoral sexual practice come from Leviticus 18 and 20 and there are rules for marriage covenants as well, which is always between a man and a woman. This is where the Jewish person is going to go for these instructions, this is where the Jewish person would point the Gentile wondering what defines sexual immorality. The Law does inform these practices. This is why Paul reiterates homosexuality, and why Jesus repeats adultery, and why Paul gets mad at the Corinthian church for allowing a man to have his Father's wife. Why not simply allow this if they are loving consenting adults? Why not let grace abound on this Paul? Paul knows that this act is specifically mentioned in this list. This is also why incest and bestiality is also still prohibited, despite what interests our culture.

To argue that this list is not still in vogue is to tell Paul he can't be mad about adultery, incest, bestiality, and specifically this episode from first Corinthians. This is to tell Paul that when he mentions homosexuality many times that he doesn't understand grace and certainly not love. Jesus furthers clarifies this list when speaking to the underlining problem of lust. Lust makes them all out of bounds, this is why pornography is also a problem. Lust makes sex about us. Lust means we throw off the commands of love and sex and demand our own ways. Lust says "This is how I feel", not what is right. Lust means we want it our way and we do not care about what the creator of our bodies and of sex says. In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul further tells us that sexual sin seems to have a special problem for all people:

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

This type of sin, sins against the temple of the Lord. The questions is are you a temple of the Lord or not? If so then you should avoid sexual immoral practices all the more. The non-Christian doesn't believe they are a temple so why belabor the point? Paul even mentions homosexuality specifically in the lists of sins that people who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God. This should be scary enough to avoid. But if a homosexual does not believe in God or the Bible then they should simply say "Well I don't believe that." But instead what we get is reasons why it should be OK. Well to a Christian I have all the reasons I need. Just as I have all the reasons to believe that Jesus is Lord. If God created us then he gets to set the standard. If he is Lord then he gets to tell me "Yes" or "No" . Again these are Christian truths based on a Christian worldview.

As a Christian I have to agree with what God says about the way he designed sex to work. As I Christian I am not allowed to practice homosexual sex. As a Christian I am not allowed to practice adultery. As a Christian I am not supposed to have sex outside of the marital covenant. As a Christian I am not allowed to have sex with animals. As a Christian I am not allowed to have incestuous sex. If any of these pose a temptation, we have to recognize that and give it to God to be nailed to the cross, not identify with it.

 ¹³ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

This doesn't mean you will not fail but that there is a way out, if you are interested. And we remember...

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

There it is! The problem is that the wadges of sin is death. So the answer to our why question is that sin distances us from God and leaves us in eternal separation form him. The message here is not "God hates Fags!" It is that God hates people to die without relationship to him. He desires that none should perish. The reason that God has such strong language against sin is because it robs people of relationship with him. 

If people are unwilling to even acknowledge sin, then they aren't going to be interested in the savior from it.

If homosexual sin is enticing to you, then that is your temptation, but you have to face it the same way a heterosexual man or woman faces their own sexual temptations: in obedience or rebellion, in humility or pride. As a Christian I have a responsibility of obedience because I am not the King, and the good news is when I fail there is a God who forgives. But a Christian needs to hold to what the Bible teaches on such matters. A non-Christian does not, that is their choice.

But our sinful proclivities do not excuse our acquiescence to them. God is inviting us all to himself if we will only come.

thanks 

Do you believe in Magic?

Ronald MacDonald has taken what the Lovin' Spoonful (1965) has given us and delivered it to us between two hamburger buns. Yes we believe in magic, the world wants to believe, but is that OK with you dear Christian?

As I mentioned previously I read all the Harry Potter books and watched all the movies. They were great!  That obviously tells you a bit of the direction I am going in, but let's talk about why.

The arguments seems to go well don't your read your Bible? Haven't you read Deuteronomy 18:9-14

⁹ “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer ¹¹ or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, ¹² for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. ¹³ You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, ¹⁴ for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

Well yes, yes I have. The question is what does this mean for us today? This seems pretty straightforward, do not practice the stuff.  Do not consult mediums, do not seek out fortune telling, do not use tarot cards, etc.  This is not simply the case in the Old Testament because these practices are condemned in the New by Paul in Acts 13.

When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water they thought they were witnessing magic calling him a ghost. When the people saw the miracles performed by the disciples they may have thought they were witnessing magic, a magician tried to pay money for it. Pharaoh tried to duplicate God's miracles with Magicians.  Magic is a real thing and that is why God warns against it. There is real power behind magic fueled by the enemy.  The Pharisees accused Jesus of doing his miracles by a very real but other power. Jesus then explained to the Pharisees what blasphemy is. It concerned Jesus when they equated his power with the power of Satan to say the least. The difference seems to lie in the source of power. The question becomes where is the power coming from? The Bible paints the picture of either from God or from the enemy. True enough.

So there is good power to be tapped from the Holy Spirit and evil power from the enemy. So some may ask the question about white magic versus black? The response is the Bible does not distinguish, both are not from God. God gives his own power and the enemy tries to duplicate it.  Actual power, actual sources.  If you are engaging in actual sources, seeking actual power then you are in violation of the Bible and you are opening yourself up to other worldly spirits. 

The New Testament warns us about even blaspheming the heavenly beings of which we have little understanding. (2 Peter 2:10, Jude) Do not engage them, do not seek their power or influence, they are real, but we are protected from them.  Our God is greater.

OK, but what about reading a book that has it in it? Or a movie that includes it? Or playing a game that uses it as a game-play mechanic? What is that exactly, how does that work? Now that is a good question.

So how does this translate to works of fiction? Fiction creates worlds and world views and fantasy is not based in reality. For example, is the force from Star Wars demonic? Or is it George Lucas's way of communicating a world view in which his story is framed? A different world view perhaps?
"The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together." --Ben Kenobi to Luke Skywalker aboard the Millennium Falcon. (1977). Good scene!

This is essentially the main story element to the Star Wars Universe.  Now this has obvious eastern philosophical thinking influences.  But does that mean George is pushing Hinduism? No, he is simply creating a backdrop for telling the story of the Skywalkers. I am free to take away what I want from the story, for instances: Light sabers are cool, The Force is cool, and Han Solo is cool.  The question becomes is this OK for the Christian to read, watch, enjoy? Well the answers seems obvious, no? Star Wars is fine, leave Star Wars alone!  Houdini!

Jude borrows ideas from the book of Enoch. The book of Enoch is as superstitious and magical a book as they come, there is a reason it is not included in the Cannon, but it still useful for understanding Jewish traditions. Paul even quotes from Greek poets and philosophers to get his point across in Acts which would be considered foolish superstitious idolatry in and of itself, but he found it useful for the gospel.  So how it is used is also important. 

But what about other works of fiction that are not so conspicuous?
Harry Potter sets up a universe where magic is real and there are witches and wizards living right under our noses. Magic in this case is simply a story telling feature that gives supernatural elements a defining and working set of rules. Magic is what describes the powers that these individuals have. It is setting up a world view where this is the norm, this is not about Satan versus God. The magic is a part of the world, simply hidden from view. It does have good versus evil, there is a difference.

Back to the Star Wars example. It is the same with science fiction. In science fiction the magic factor is how the author solved the problem that science can't in the real world answer. Just give it some sort of future sounding technology and move along. How do you blow up a planet? The Death Star obviously. But to use a more extreme example? Super hero movies, where do the powers come from? Often from an accident or an extreme circumstance. But to push our "Christian" rote answer would be to say "Is the power from God, no? Then it is from Satan!" Therefore do not watch or read comic book hero movies. Do you see how this line of reasoning doesn't engage the mind very well, and will never reach a culture that does?

Some would then say well magic is different it is named in the Bible. Like I said, the point is the source of power. If in real life all actual magic comes from Satan then fine I agree. But if an author sets up magic as part of the governing rules to communicate the way his universe works, we should not equate that with Satan and God. An author is allowed to think outside the box. The author who creates gets to set the stage and decide. Now obviously an author can choose to equate magic with the demonic, that is different. But this is not often the case because even authors know what Satanism represents and often want to distance themselves from it. But even in cases when authors do use Satanism in books it is usually the easy way to communicate "Well this person or movement is just plain Evil." They are trying to sell books after all.

So if an author uses a setting with Magic, we need to realize this is their attempt to explain something away. There is no reason to attribute this to actual evil. Even when an author does use the demonic and angelic they are typically setting up a dualism which still fails to capture the reality of magic, the world view is still different. Also for a Christian to hold rules this strict is to condemn C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien. What we really end up saying is that some parts of culture simply cannot be redeemed. But the Christian should be redeeming culture as C.S.Lewis and J.R. Tolkien did to fantasy, not condemning them for using magic and wizards as a narrative tool.

What we really end up saying is people are not free to use their imagination.   

What the Bible is getting at is contacting the powers behind the magic which again comes back to the source. If authors are getting rid of those sources of power and creating something else we should not force them to take up the demonic side because of our failure to engage. As Jesus reminds in Mark 9, if someone wants to do good let's not condemn them because it doesn't look specifically like a Christian good.

I agree with the Bible, avoid contacting the powers, and avoid pagan cultic practices, and if any of these stories do encourage you to do these then by all means cast them away. Or if in a certain case the author is trying to influence you then by all means burn the book. But perhaps it does create a temptation for you, then realize this is an example of the individuals temptation. So if they create a temptation for you then by all means distance yourself but do not condemn a brother who does not also feel tempted. But watching a stage magician or illusionist is not different from reading fiction with magical elements in it. They are both fake. The Bible is concerned with the actual spirits and powers not the mere labels of magic being added to make-believe.  

This is like saying all secular music is from Satan and all Christian music is from God. A Christian needs to think in broader categories than this. There are more colors than black and white and I am not talking about the many shades of grey. The Christian needs to evaluate all his entertainment with wisdom not with rote fear. A Christian needs to properly evaluate all aspects of life, we have a tendency to throw out the baby with the bathwater on a lot of things. Maybe someone in your life has had a bad experience with this or that issue, then please, safe guard yourself. But let's not create new laws for others in order to distance everyone from the actual commandments as the Pharisees did. Jesus always brought them back to what was written not what they believed. 

Next time you are watching or reading something and start to freak out because there is a mummy on screen or talk of the force or someone is casting a lightning bolt at a goblin, pause, take a breath, and ask yourself these questions: If anything, what is this encouraging me to do, causing me to feel? Do these violate Christian principles? Then apply as appropriate. But allow God to move differently in others as far as your temptations go.    

So go out there and cheer for Gob Bluth on his merits as a magician, not just because his job does or doesn't incorporate magic. I really believe that the Christian needs to take the time to examine what is going on in their entertainment, by critically thinking about it, not simply by running from it.

Christians should be engaging culture not getting ready for the next witch hunt. 

thanks

On Love and Haircuts

With Valentines here a lot of people get excited and a lot of people groan. This is not a deep without words groaning that the spirit does while making intercession for us.  No, this is because we think the holiday is stupid or pointless or merely a paycheck for hallmark. Some are excited for a night of romance, some want connection, some are depressed, some are worried about paying for it all , some don't worry because they have convinced their significant other that it is pointless. And some are actually excited for the 50 Shades of Grey movie?

So why groan? May it be because relationship are hard, or perhaps some of us are bad at them, and worse at learning about them? The Bible has something to say about that.

The Bible tells a story of a man who was driven by his passions. Samson is probably one of the best examples of a hopeless romantic in the bible. He seems to try and make it work with the wrong woman over and over again.  It ended very badly for him.

Here are some examples of the way Samson acted when blinded by lust:
Samson saw a daughter of the philistines and wanted to marry her despite her not being from their own people. Then Samson when to a prostitute in Gaza. Then he went to the valley of Sorek to live with Delilah a woman who continually betrayed him to the Philistines. 

What is wrong with this guy? But do we do much better?  What's wrong with us?

The Song of Songs is a book celebrating the love that God has gifted to a man and a woman. An underlining theme may be that perhaps we are bad at this? The book reminds us not to awaken love before it's time. But Samson would not have it. He wanted this girl no matter how much of a bad decision that was. He did not know it would cost him his life, as proverbs 7 reminds us.

to keep you from the forbidden woman,
    from the adulteress with her smooth words.

⁶ For at the window of my house
    I have looked out through my lattice,
⁷ and I have seen among the simple,
    I have perceived among the youths,
    a young man lacking sense,
⁸ passing along the street near her corner,
    taking the road to her house
⁹ in the twilight, in the evening,
    at the time of night and darkness.

¹⁰ And behold, the woman meets him,
    dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart... 

Solomon warns his son about how a man is easily enticed by what he sees.  And Solomon knew what he was talking about after all he had over 500 wives and concubines. In some ways this makes him both over qualified and perhaps also disqualified, but the advice is sound either way. In the book of proverbs he warns us about how to act when the temptation arises, because the end is always the same...

²¹ With much seductive speech she persuades him;
    with her smooth talk she compels him.
²² All at once he follows her,
    as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
²³     till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
    he does not know that it will cost him his life.

Sometimes reaching for love before you are ready can have a tragic end. But it will always draw your heat away from God.

For us love and relationships are such a touchy subject. Because nobody is going to tell us who we can love! We just feel what we feel, right? We know this girl/dude is different! We feel it inside and that is all that matters to us. But God does have somethings to help us out with in this area. Perhaps he wants to spare us some heartache. 

I think Samson while an incredible story and important character used by God, he teaches us something about relationships.  

Look hard before you buy.

With Valentines here this is an important message.  Love is indeed in the air, but where are you sticking your nose?  The Bible has a lot to say about love and relationships if we will but listen. 

It's speaks to the timing of love.   Songs 8:4
It speaks to character of love.  1 Corinthians 13
It even speaks to the type of people to love.   2 Corinthians 6:14, 1 Corinthians 5:33, Proverbs 31
It even hints at the confines of love.   Proverbs 5:18-19, Genesis 2:24, 1 Peter 3:7, Mathew 19:3-9

If love hasn't arrived for you yet, this Valentines don't be on the look out for "love", instead work on being a person capable of loving and being loved. The time will come when love comes to town, but don't miss it because you are preoccupied with needing a date for the holiday not wanting to feel lonely. Don't let a holiday or a bad movie tempt you into making a bad decision when it comes to this area. Decisions of the heart last a long time. Don't be like Samson who ran after what his eyes told him was best, nor should we listen to Roxette for that matter and simply listen to your heart. No the Bible teaches us to engage our minds on this one. Probably because our hearts have a tendency to go overboard with this stuff.

But if love has already come to town for you then be a person worthy of being loved. Be excited because if your significant other is excited about Valentines and you both get to celebrate each other. Then read the Song of songs for some advice. Be prepared to love back despite your feelings on the holiday. When you don't, you make it about yourself, when it is about you, well then you are acting like Samson. 

Don't miss the point, the point being the other person who is excited about the day, not the day itself. 
Love isn't about you, love is about them. Your job is to love them. If you don't yet have someone make sure the other person is worthy of your heart. If you do then make sure you are taking the time to be worthy of their love. 

So as Samson failed to do, make sure the next time you let a girl cut your hair that she has your best interest in mind. 

thanks