Luke 10:27 (NIV) He answered: “LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.”

In Genesis 3:1-24, Adam and Eve had the opportunity to actually walk and talk with God in the cool of the evening. But, even though they had this great opportunity, they failed to allow themselves to fall in love with Him. Love would have caused them to trust Him implicitly. Without love they distrusted His motives concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Gen 3:1 (NIV) Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Adam and Eve didn’t have to know that it was Satan talking to them. It doesn’t matter as much WHO is talking to us as WHAT they are saying. Let’s just ignore for a moment the fact that we know this is Satan talking. We have to examine any questions or statements that are presented. We have to decide whether or not we will CONSIDER them. If we love God and only trust Him, then we will only listen to those things that are in agreement with what He says.

What is wrong with this question? “Did God REALLY say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” What is being asked was what God REALLY said. Who is the authority on what God really said? God is the authority on what He REALLY said. If we discuss what God REALLY said with anyone but God, we have just taken our helmet off. Why? Because there is only one way of getting information to flow through the helmet of salvation. It has to be information of truth or it won’t flow through.

If we are going to hear and accept someone’s words that aren’t true, we will have to take the helmet off so we can hear and accept them. Here’s how it works: We will listen to what a person has to say, see if it matches up with what Jesus has taught us, if it does we allow it to pass through our helmet of salvation. If it doesn’t, we leave our helmet on and allow it to block what was said; we don’t accept what they are saying AS TRUTH. If we ACCEPT as truth something that is in opposition to what Jesus taught us, we have taken our helmet off because of our lack of love for Him.

Gen 3:2-3 (NIV) The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” Eve spoke God’s words like they were just human words; Jesus spoke them as the final authority. Mat 4:4 (NIV) Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Jesus wasn’t having a discussion with Satan; He was shooting Satan’s words down with the Word of God. Once Jesus quoted the Bible, that was the end of the discussion as far as Jesus was concerned.

When Eve quoted God, she wasn’t speaking it as being her life’s truth. God’s Word wasn’t the only thing she was willing to believe. She just presented it as one way of looking at the issue. She was still open to further discussion on the subject. If she had kept her helmet on, she would have seen God’s Word as being the only truth she was open to. When she quoted it, it would have been the end of anything she was willing to listen to. BUT, instead she listened to the next thing Satan had to say. He said: Gen 3:4 (NIV) “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. When Satan said that, Eve had her helmet off and was open to further information. Not only was she open to further information, she was open to OPPOSING information.

Gen 3:4 (NIV) “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. This wasn’t a person coming to Adam and Eve trying to find out the truth. Adam and Eve weren’t being asked for help with the technical, spiritual aspects of what the snake should or should not eat. The snake was CHALLENGING what they believed about what God said. If someone comes to us trying to create doubt in our mind as to what the Bible says, Who Jesus is, whether Christianity is real, or anything like that, they are not asking for help. They are trying to hurt us and our relationship with Jesus.

Satan told Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:5 (NIV): “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Satan was telling them that God was trying to cheat them out of special abilities that God had. He was saying that the reason God didn’t want them eating the fruit from that tree was because God didn’t love them. These words would have been blocked off by the helmet of salvation if they had a proper love for God. That love would have empowered them to keep their helmet on and so trust God that it would have been impossible for them to believe such a lie.

Gen 3:6 (NIV) 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. Adam and Eve took action based on faith in what Satan told them. They no longer were basing their actions on what God told them. But, they no longer believed what the consequences were going to be until they took faith-action on Satan’s words; THEN they found out that God had told them the truth.

If they had loved and trusted God, they wouldn’t have died spiritually, because God told them: Gen 2:16-17 (NIV) And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Like all of God’s words, He told Adam and Eve the truth. God didn’t kill them spiritually; eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did. Satan HELPED kill them spiritually by telling them: “You will not surely die.” BUT, Adam and Eve killed themselves spiritually by basing their faith-action on what Satan said rather than God.

They listened to Satan, doubted God, and the devil corrupted their minds. They believed a lie and were separated from fellowship with God. Because of their doubt in God, faith in Satan, decision, and action, Jesus had to come to earth and die in our place. Then He rose again conquering death, hell, and the grave. Now we can live on the basis of salvation. In other words, now we can love God because of salvation. The Holy Spirit has made the relationship possible and real.