“I know cheating isn’t necessarily right, but it will help me get a better average for the class.”

“He is soooooooo cute and asked me for a picture. A sexy one won’t hurt.”

Thoughts like these, as well as many others, creep into our mind when an enticing sin presents itself.  In fact, these thoughts take us ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the way back to the Garden of Eden. In the encounter between Eve and the serpent, a.k.a. Satan,  Eve thinks three distinct thoughts to convince herself to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In today’s post, we will discuss those thoughts and how they are still used to justify sin today.

Eve and the Serpent

As a refresher, here is the account from Genesis 3:

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

The main verse we will focus on is verse six and walk through the three thoughts Eve has to justify her sin.

Three ways we (and Eve) justify sin. Click to read! Click To Tweet

Eve thought it would satisfy a need

The first thought the Bible describes is that the tree was good for food. Eve reasoned that eating the fruit would satisfy her need for food even though God expressly forbid eating it.

Sometimes, sin comes under the guise that it will satisfy a need. Our “need” for sex. Our “need” for success. Our “need” to be known by the world. However, fulfilling needs in illegitimate and unholy ways will only lead to our destruction, just as it did with Eve.

There is a reason God forbids us from doing certain acts and it is for our protection. God forbid them from the fruit to keep sin from coming into the world; they disobeyed and all of humanity continues to suffer from that decision.

Eve thought it looked good

Sin does look good, doesn’t it? The weekend party pictures splashed on your social media feeds always tell a tale of fun, good times, and adventure.

When I was in high school, I really desired to go to parties and drink; however, on Monday morning I would hear stories of bad decisions that were made, or people being passed out and not remembering what had happened. Despite it’s allure, I knew I did not want to participate in that type of behavior.

Also, since we discuss relationships in depth on this site, this also makes me think about male/female relationships. I’ve talked with girls who have committed various sexual sins with guys and sometimes they say, “He was just so hott!!” He looked good.

No matter how good sin looks, remember that it is sin and no good can come if it.

Eve thought it would benefit her

Eve’s last recorded thought before eating the apple is that it was, “…also desirable for gaining wisdom…”. She felt that by eating it, she would gain or benefit something from it. Essentially, she did; she gained the knowledge of good and evil, but at a terrible price that carried astounding consequences.

This thought can also manifest in other ways including:

• “If I have sex with him, he will love me more and it will benefit our relationship.”
• “If I plagiarize this paper, I will benefit by getting a better grade.”
• “If I post this sexy selfie on Instagram, I will benefit by gaining more likes and followers.”
• “If I drink at this party, it will benefit me socially because I’ll finally be popular.”
• “If I lie a little on my time card, it will benefit me because I’ll have more money.”

No matter how beneficial a sin might seem, it only brings destruction. Your boyfriend could break up with you. Your teacher may fail you on the paper. Your choice to drink could lead to poor life choices or possible arrest.

Please hear me again, there is nothing beneficial with sin.

In Closing

Most of the time, we prove no different than Eve. We give in to our flesh because we think it will satisfy us. It looks good. It could benefit us; however, these thoughts could not be further from the truth.

If you have been justifying a sin in your life, it’s time to confess it ad ask God to help you from falling into it again. Sin only destroys, and I want our readers to live a victorious life in Christ.

If you are interested in our other posts on sin you can click below:

• Three thoughts that make it easy to justify sin (They are all different than this post…)
• Two biblical truth regarding the reality of sin in our “anything goes” culture
• Three biblical truths about little white lies
• Two reasons it’s OK for Christian to “call each other out” for sin

Also, in our book God’s Not Gray: Biblical Truth in a Society of Blurred Lines, I discuss the topics of sin, salvation, the Christian mission and more. If you ended up here, it will interest you! Click here or below to learn more!

Until next time,

-Sarah

More about our Ministry

At Transformed4More, our goal is to help those who want to grow in their relationship with God, and we do this in two main ways:

• The first is by providing resources. We have our own and ones we recommend. Click here or the graphic below to see them.

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Photo Credit:

Sandis Helvigs