What was it about Eve? (edited 2/9/13)
It may even be that Eve became more desirable, happy, content, clever, or…something—after she ate the fruit. Clearly Adam wanted what she had.
Eve was the first to sin, being misled and deceived by the serpent (Genesis 3).
Adam was much easier to pull down. He joined in meekly. The serpent was not involved in Adam’s undoing.
Last week, the discussion in our small group men’s study—we are going through Genesis—took a speculative turn. We began to ask what may have taken place during that short period before Adam joined Eve in sin.
Our conclusion was that there must not have been any immediate downside for Eve after she disobeyed God. Though she sinned, it did not mess her up right away.
As originally written, this post made much of this.
I even speculated that Eve may have became more desirable, happy, content, clever, or…something—after she ate the fruit, that Adam wanted what she had and that he would not have followed her so quickly had he not liked what he was seeing.
A more careful reading of Genesis 3 makes this scenario unlikely (ouch, see my comment below).
However, we should not be surprised when sin seems like a good idea. The Bible teaches us that sin offers pleasure “for a season” (Hebrews 11:25). As sinners ourselves, we know this all too well.
When tempted to sin—especially sexual sin—the immediate payoff often blinds us to the negative consequences down the road.
Here are two lessons we can learn from Eve’s story in our struggle to overcome lust:
1) Don’t Be Deceived
Satan is the great deceiver. His conversation with Eve was clever and laced with lies. Eve may not have understood what Satan was doing, but we certainly do.
We face the same challenge. Just like the serpent perverted God’s instructions to Eve, many have taken the foundational teaching that Jesus has given us about lust—Matthew 5:28—and twisted it like a pretzel. The result is that Christians and non-Christians alike feel free to ignore and directly disobey what Jesus taught.
You do not need to be deceived. What Jesus taught was not weird, impossible or unnatural. It is the way you are supposed to live. It is the only way that you will be able to please your Father in Heaven.
If you apply His teaching literally and faithfully—obeying what He taught—you will overcome lust. Satan’s lies will be exposed. You will wonder why you accepted them for so long.
2) Look past the quick cheap thrill—consider the consequences
Lust is sweet in the mouth and bitter in the stomach. Satan always holds up the immediate benefit—the quick thrill—and distracts us so that we do not consider the consequences down the road.
Everyone knows that giving in to lust—acting on our misdirected desires and thoughts to achieve an exhilarating illicit sexual buzz in our hearts—is fun for a season.
However—unlike Adam—we have many examples showing us what follows when we sin. We know that having sin set up shop within us has deep, ugly consequences.
If you are overwhelmed by lust, consider these two questions: Have you been deceived into thinking that you cannot overcome lust? Are you minimizing the consequences of continuing in sin?
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