Adam and Eve were not perfect because they had never been tried. They were without a fault, as well. They are at that time of their lives what we would call amoral. They were neither moral nor immoral. God desired people to serve him because they wanted to, not because they were forced to. Therefore, he gave them free will. In Genesis 3: 1-13 there was a downfall of an individual that caused the downfall of all his descendants. They never asked themselves the question if God would be pleased with their actions even though he warned them that the day they took of the forbidden fruit they would surely die. That day they died spiritually and eventually died physically. Because of how the sin took place it was like a disease. They laid out a pattern for how to separate oneself from God. They began the spread of a germ proved to be contagious as part of the DNA of what makes up a human. Follow as we see what happened.
The woman saw. We must confess that quite often we see what we want to see. We do have the option of turning our heads away but that would require us to have an argument with ourselves for what is right and what is wrong. There are those people who say there’s no harm in looking. That may be true but much more followed. Just looking was the first step to sin. Temptation is like a magnet that draws a desire out of us. To look is a temptation followed by an opportunity. The full weight of the decision that follows depends on us individually. The world is so attractive. Consider Lot’s wife who had safety and well-being ahead of her. Instead of going forward, she turned to look back at what she was leaving, the city of sin. When it comes to temptation of looking there cannot be a moderate Christianity. The strength of our spirit is demonstrated on how we resist the world.
The woman took of the fruit. The people on the ground, Adam and Eve, are the ones who can be blamed for the sin and suffering that began through Satan’s desires offered to which they submitted. When sin is once taken it will blossom in our lives with repercussions that cannot be measured. This was the beginning of nurturing temptation into a sin to make one fall by the wayside. Even though she took the fruit, she did not have to eat it, instead she could’ve left it lay on the ground. Her sin became realized when she consumed the temptation by what revealed itself as lust and desire. It was at that point that she ate the fruit. She consumed it just as certain as we consume a temptation which turns to sin. There is no such thing as a part-time Christian who can partake of the fruit and then call himself righteous. We may not lose our salvation when we consume a temptation, but we certainly harm our relationship with the Heavenly Father.
The woman gave the fruit also to her husband. This is where we clearly see how that sin becomes contagious. It is highly unlikely that any person would commit a sin in a vacuum. Instead, sins that are committed reach out like a tentacle to at least one other person and usually more than one. Not only do we fall to temptation, we also envelop others causing them to experience a similar magnitude of alienation from God. One of Satan’s major priorities is to prevent people from accepting Christ so that as many of them as possible will go to hell with him. It’s like a man who is drowning and grasping at straws. Instead of the lifeguard saving him, the drowning man pulls him down also to certain death. We fool ourselves about sin often thinking that no one is looking. The test of a person’s integrity is to do what’s right even though no one is looking.
Adam was directly commanded by God personally to avoid the forbidden tree. The fruit was a temptation to Eve. Eve was a temptation to Adam. He succumbed to her charms and suggestions and encouragement. In the Garden of Eden, we are taught that rebellion against God then began. That was the same temptation every single person has presented to them time and again. The devil knows our weaknesses. We all have favorite sins. There are those thoughts and actions which are unique or special to us which must be guarded against. We must be aware of how we are weak and in what areas so that when Satan presents something to us, we are stronger to resist what he offers. The standard of temptation since the Garden of Eden has been the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. These are the same temptations Satan presented to Jesus and the same that he presents to all of us. The Bible said that the devil left Jesus in temptation for a season which means that Jesus experienced other temptations afterwards. Satan is persistent to do as much damage to us as possible. Sin is a disease in which our souls are corrupted. I think of it as leaving a hole somewhere in our spirit they can only be filled by God.
Christian Writer 