She took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband and he ate

On my journey of transition from being an unbeliever to becoming a believer, I decided after I was convicted of sin, that I need to turn over a new leaf. But I still had my old ungodly appetites, and I wanted to do what I wanted to do! I remember asking myself in a journal entry, if what I wanted to do was going to harm anyone. I was still trying to figure out right and wrong all my own. I was shocked when I came back to the Journal entry some months later, when I realized at that point in time I could care less whether it hurt anybody or not. But quite apart from my rampant selfishness, I had yet to realize that we do not sin in a vacuum, and that in one way or another what we do affects others for either good or for evil.

In the lead up to this quote from Genesis 3:6, we have been talking about the temptation that Eve was encountering (verses 1-5, see also the last 2 days posts), and to which we now read she succumbed. We are told later that Eve was deceived but Adam was not (1 Timothy 2:14). But when Eve offered him some of the fruit, Adam had a problem. In particular the choice to accept or reject the fruit had implications about his relationship not only with Eve, but also with God. So he was not only choosing to eat or not, he was choosing sides. We can think of this as the very first peer pressure. And if we are to resist our own peer pressures which we will encounter sooner or later, even if we haven’t already, then it is helpful to understand the dilemma Adam was facing, and to feel his pain!

This first mention of the idea that our sin negatively affects others, is expanded on throughout Scripture. In particular, we read over and over that when this or that king did evil in the sight of the Lord, the people inevitably followed his lead. It seems to me, that the reason that Paul could think of himself as the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), was that he realized that in his position of incredible influence, his smallest sin had repercussions that went on, and on, and on! Saying something similar, James tells us that we should not be many teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment (James 3:2).

Father, I am well aware this morning, of my responsibility while writing these blog posts. Help me father, to take this responsibility seriously. And please Lord, nudge me by your Holy Spirit whenever I am in danger of saying or writing something that is not of You. And have mercy upon me Lord for my mistakes. In Jesus Name Amen

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