We’re all familiar with the account of the first sin, found in Genesis 3. The serpent, cunning and deceptive, approaches Eve and asks what seems to be a simple question: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree in the garden’?”
It seems harmless. It probably really seemed harmless to Eve, because at this point in history there hasn’t been sin – at least, not from a human perspective. However, from this story I believe that we can learn an invaluable lesson: don’t engage the devil.
Eve responds, and we know what happens from there – Satan deceives her and lures her into sin. She partakes and then becomes a sin spreader, inviting her husband to join in.
We have a one-up on Eve, because we know what the devil is up to. We know that he is seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8). We know that he has fiery darts aimed at each of us (Ephesians 6:16). We know that he has snares set, ready to take us captive (2 Timothy 2:26). Eve didn’t have the blessing of being able to learn from someone else’s mistakes; instead, she introduced us to mistakes. But if Eve were still alive today, don’t you think she would beg each of us to learn from hers and countless others’ mistakes?
Since we know all of these things about the evil one, why do we flirt with sin? Why do we see how close to the line we can get before we fall? There are countless verses in the New Testament that tell us to flee from sin, yet we still decide to flirt – to get as close as we can without actually sinning.
When we do that, are we not engaging the devil? Are we not falling right into his snares, playing into his game? If we would resist him – and resist that line – he would flee from us (James 4:7). But we find ourselves ever-tempted because we’re ever riding the fence.
God has called us to a better life than that. Ephesians 1:3-4 says,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
Being called to holiness means being called to a life free from line-riding and fence hopping. You cannot be pure in heart and still hold tightly to the world with one hand. You cannot be blameless before God if you still long to see what’s on the other side. Being truly holy means seeing sin as God sees sin, and God sees sin as the thing that put His Only Begotten on the cross. Sin is what nailed our battered Savior to a rugged cross. How could we ever want to flirt with it? How could we ever want to excuse things because they aren’t exactly over the line? That’s not what flee means. That’s not what holiness means.
When we will see sin as the thing that separates us from our God (Isaiah 59:2), we will stop flirting and start fleeing. It is my prayer today that we will all (myself definitely included) stop riding the line…stop inching closer to Satan and start running back into the arms of the One who loves us and gave His Son to die for us.
