Have you ever notice that most of what the serpent in the garden said to Eve was true. Everything he said was true except one sentence and even that was partly true. He still deceived Eve, but the best lie is one that is mostly true. What was it that he told Eve? Gen 3:1-6 the serpent starts out by asking a question causing Eve to consider what she believes. “"Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" A seemingly innocent question and one that Eve should have been able to answer. But what was her answer? She said "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." Then the serpent responds with his beautifully crafted lie. "You will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."All of that was true. Her eyes were opened and she did become like God the fact that she knew good and evil. (Gen 3:22) Now before we go any further in the story there are some things I want you to notice. First, Eve has not sinned at this point in her life. She has not disobeyed God and has not done anything wrong. Second, she has added to what God actually said. God only said not to eat of the fruit of the tree. He never said that they could not touch it. Why would Eve say something like this? We really don't know. Maybe she and Adam had decided to not touch the fruit, maybe they had set some boundaries as to how close you could get to the tree, maybe Adam had told Eve not to touch the fruit of the tree. We really don't know, but we do know that the direction to not touch the fruit was not commanded by God, and that it was not sinful to set that standard.
I'm trying to be short so I'll get to my point. First, we need to know where the line is and what God really said. The line was drawn in the sand “Do not eat the fruit”. Technically it was ok to sit under the tree, play with the fruit, put it in your Christmas basket on the table, draw paintings of the fruit, collect the fruit and whatever else. The actual command only said do not eat it. It important that we know where that line is in our walk with God. We need to do the research and find out what is sin. At what point are you being disobedient? Second, we need to see that setting boundaries isn't a bad thing. If seems as though that is what Eve had done. God said don't eat it, but they had set a boundary far away from the edge of the cliff. “don't touch it”. But we need to keep in mind the difference between our set boundary (maybe even at God's direction for us personally) and what God has actually said is sin.
Lastly I want to point out what happens next in the story. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Eve made her decision based on emotions. The fruit looked good, her surroundings told her it was good, it felt good, it would have a good impact on her life. (or at least so she thought) This fruit by all appearances was a very good fruit. Many times things in our life will be the same way. It feels good, it looks good, everybody is saying it is good, it will help my life, make me smarter, but God said NO!. This is where faith has to take precedence over experience and emotion. It's not always going to make sense in your head. Satan is good a what he does, he always has been and after 6000+ years he is only better at it. If you base your understanding of right and wrong on your personal experience or even on what your emotions are telling you, you will be standing on a continually moving moral foundation.
Find out what God said is true, right and good. Setting boundaries to avoid the sin is good, but know the difference. Don't determine good and evil, right and wrong, good and bad bad experience and emotion but by the Word of God. It is the only firm foundation to stand on.
