We all have two kinds of priorities – ones we say and the actual ones we live by. No doubt some men are better at making all their priorities real. We often have two types of reasons, too, for doing and not doing some things. We have the reasons we tell others, and then there are the actual reasons in our heart why we do or don’t do things. 

In 1 Samuel 15, God commanded Saul through Samuel to totally destroy the Amalekites and all their livestock because they laid in wait to ambush Israel when they came out of Egypt. Then Saul gathered the men and attacked them, but spared Agag the king and the best of all the livestock. When Samuel approached Saul, Saul said, “Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD” (1 Samuel 15:13). When Samuel confronted Saul about the livestock Saul blamed the people (under his command) and lied, attributing righteous motives for it. “They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed” (1 Samuel 15:15).

Sadly, like Saul, we can skillfully give good sounding reasons to justify sinful choices. May we be men who wholeheartedly love and serve the Lord Jesus. “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37).