Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”     Genesis 3:4-5 NKJV

While these exact words may not have gone through your mind or even been said out loud by someone trying to tempt you into sinning, you have experienced this exact same thing. The devil used these tactics successfully against Adam and Even some 6,000 years ago and he is still successfully using them against us today.

Let’s look at the three verses before our Scripture passage. In verse one we are told that the serpent who we know to be the devil was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. His first tactic is to cause the woman to question what God said. Now in Eve’s defense, there was no Bible at that time. Of course, she had something better. She had one on one interaction with God Himself. Even with that, however, the devil caused her to question her understanding of what God said.

The devil will try to convince you that God is okay with your sin because of your “special” circumstances or because of what you’ve been through. Just one of the devil’s many lies. The woman knew what God said because in verse two, she clearly told the devil that God had told them not to eat of the fruit or even touch it, or they would die.

The devil tells her you won’t die you will just be like God. Now you can read this passage and say well it’s true they didn’t die. No, they didn’t die physically, they died spiritually. They were cast out of the garden and forced to live under generational curses that we still live under today.

The devil planted a seed in the woman’s mind to disobey God. This still happens to us today. When things get tough, we can go to God, or we can rely on our flesh and listen to the devil. It’s kind of like when we tell ourselves it’s okay to eat that very large chocolate sundae because we’ve had a rough day. The devil tries to tell us it’s okay to indulge in the desires of our flesh when things aren’t going our way. It’s okay to take a second look at that woman because your wife doesn’t understand you. It’s okay to cheat someone out of a little money because you deserve it after all you’ve been through. The devil has a whole storehouse of lies to justify our sin but that’s all they are-lies.

We know the rest of the story. Eve ate the fruit and then gave the fruit to Adam to eat, and they were cursed and removed from the garden. Their lives took a turn for the worse.

Sin follows a pattern. First there is that little thought that is put into our mind that the sin would be so good and it really wouldn’t hurt anything or anybody. Then we see that the fruit looks good, so we decide to taste it. And then once we indulge, we are on the path to destruction.

James 1:15 says, “Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.”

Romans 3:23 tells us the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That same sin that looks so good and feels so good and tastes so good will destroy you. The devil’s tactics are still the same. His lies are still the same and God’s judgment is still the same.

If the devil is tempting you to sin, you must ask yourself is it worth it? Is it worth the destruction and death that is sure to come? You must choose sin and death or Jesus and life, it’s up to you.

I pray you choose wisely.

Have a great day!