Pride. Was it really the cause for the fall of man?
Today as I was reading 2 Corinthians, a couple verses caught my attention. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11:2-4. It reads in the ESV as follows, with my added highlights:
“For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.“
So let me get this Straight
Paul is saying the Corinthians have been given to Christ as a bride. They are His. The problems spelled out in the end of these verses it that they have been unfaithful to the their groom by entertaining the thoughts of receiving, or maybe some did receive, another “christ”, gospel, or spirit. A false rendition of Christ and the Gospel, from what they had already been given. They were no longer one with Christ, but by accepting a new version of Him, they were in fact partnered with someone else…basically not Christ.
For example, if I fantasize all day that my husband is someone else by adding traits that don’t exist, and ignoring the ones he does have, I’m not going to “see” who he is. In my mind, he will be someone else completely. How can i love and serve someone when I’ve made them up and I don’t know what they desire or need. My heart and mind are deceived. The same is with Christ. When we start to listen to what the world says He is, or by adding our own experiences that dictate his character, we draw our own conclusions.
Isn’t this how Eve was deceived?
The situation is compared to Eve in this text. It says, “…as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
With what I pointed out, that the Corinthians are “committing adultery” against their future groom, Christ, so did Eve in her heart when she listened to the serpents deceptions. And what were those deceptions?
Genesis 3:1-5
“…Did God actually say…”
“…You will not surely die…”
“…God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
He twisted the character of God
The serpent presented a new version of “God.” A god that is jealous—a liar that is trying to make us miserable with rules. Eve no longer served the God she had known, but herself and the new “god” that she was influenced to see. Thus, she could get what she wanted and still serve God. Sounds great doesn’t it? You can do what you want and still be doing what’s “right.”
Therefore, her heart trusted creation, a serpent, and no longer the creator, God. Her heart was no longer fully the Lord’s–ending in adultery and separation. Her eyes had been opened to another world where she was in charge and could make her own decisions based on others and her own desires, while maintaining a relationship with “God.” But really, she doesn’t realize that she’s left God out of the picture entirely.
This correlation brought me insight. Some may believe that the actual “fall” was when Adam ate the fruit; I don’t know for sure. But what I do see is that there is a line of adultery starting with Eve choosing the serpent over God. Adam then makes a similar decision, choosing Eve over God as well.
So just as the Corinthians had been accepting new models of Christ and renditions of the gospel, so did Eve when she allowed God to mutate in her mind into something He wasn’t. The unity was over. By beholding we become changed, and she chose to open her eyes to the world.
The Good News
Christ lived to represent God’s character and died on the cross to redeem us. To give us another chance to see God for who He really is, up close and in person, just like in the Garden of Eden. This also will happen again, all we have to do it wait for the glorious day when our groom comes back, and takes us home.
Matthew 5:8
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
