After God created the world, He planted the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve. Within this Garden God caused every tree to grow that was pleasant to the eyes and good for food. Also two unique trees – the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – were planted there (Genesis 2:8-9). Then, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden with the following instructions, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:15-17).
God ensured that food was plentiful for His created beings. Every fruit within the Garden was available to Adam and Eve with the exception of the fruit from one tree. It should have been an easy task to avoid the fruit from the forbidden tree, as there was an abundance of fruit throughout the Garden waiting to be plucked and to be eaten.
However, Satan decided to meddle with God’s perfect world and His perfect creation. The Devil encouraged Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, telling her that she would not die as God had instructed them. Unfortunately, Eve chose to listen to Satan rather than to listen to God. She ate the forbidden fruit, and then she gave some to Adam. Adam and Eve ate the wrong fruit, and sin entered the world.
Mankind today is no different from Eve. Instead of listening to God, we follow the example of the first woman, seeing “…that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6), we partake of the wrong fruit and then give it to our loved ones. Like Adam and Eve, we try to blame our sinful actions on someone else (Genesis 2:8-13).
We partake of the wrong fruit when we:
- Look at people of the opposite sex and lust after them (Matthew 5:28). Eating of this fruit often leads to the sin of adultery, hurting our loved ones.
- Look longingly at the possessions of others, coveting their prosperous lives (Romans 13:9). Eating of this fruit prohibits one from being content (1 Timothy 6:6-9).
- Listen to music filled with foul language and sexual innuendos (Colossians 3:8). Eating this fruit hinders one from having pure thoughts and speech (Philippians 4:8; Colossians 4:6).
- Spend most of our time with ungodly people of this world (1 Corinthians 15:33). Eating of this fruit fills our minds with evil rather than spiritual matters (Galatians 5:22-23).
- Put our personal pleasures before our devotion and worship of our heavenly Father (Matthew 6:19-21). Eating this fruit encourages one to forsake the assembly of the saints (Hebrews 10:22-31).
Because Eve was near the tree of knowledge of good and evil, she saw that the fruit was good for food and pleasant to the eyes. Once her eyes saw the goodness of the fruit, it was easy for Satan to entice her to eat the fruit. Likewise, when we surround ourselves with things that are pleasant to the eyes and ears, we are asking Satan to entice us to eat the wrong fruit and sin. If Eve had stayed away from the tree, she would have been less likely to succumb to the Devil’s temptations and eat the wrong fruit. Christians today must avoid looking upon the wrong fruit and always be aware that “…the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
