Deluded
I wonder, are you among those men who seem surprised when a police officer pulls you over for speeding? After all, it isn’t like your car doesn’t have a speedometer, and it isn’t like the speed-limit isn’t posted. Perhaps since so many others break the law, you have been deceived into thinking that it is not enforced and thereby moot.
In reading the following scripture I wonder if something similar didn’t enter Adam’s mind.
And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. – 1 Timothy 2:14
However, Paul omits a key piece of information in this brief passage. Look at the account of this transgression in Genesis.
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. – Genesis 3:6
Her husband, Adam, was with her!
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. – James 4:17
When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. – Ezekiel 33:8
Adam was right there. He knew what the right thing, the good thing, to do was. He did nothing to stop Eve from sinning.
Eve might have been deceived, but Adam was deluded into thinking that God was not going to act. Perhaps Adam even used her as the food-taster. “Hmm, she didn’t drop dead. I guess it is OK to eat the fruit after all…”
Frankly, Adam sinned first, and in greater measure. It was his responsibility to care for everything in Eden, including his wife. He stood right there, watched what was happening, and did nothing!
How often am I deluded into thinking that my actions don’t have consequences simply because they are not immediate? How about you?
Father, please forgive me for my presumptuous sins. May I live my daily life with an eye to eternity, doing what brings you glory and pleasure. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Don’t be deluded. Jan
My Journey in God's Word 