And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
We were not created to be ashamed. Nor were we created to be proud.
We were created to be with God and not to think about ourselves. Just being in His presence was enough. He provided for all our needs.
Then the liar comes along and whispers in our ear, “you can be more”. That is the moment we started thinking about ourselves. Selfishness was born and sin took root.
Then sin, after it has taken root, spreads. Why did Eve give Adam that fruit? The nature of sin is to share, it wants fellowship, and drags everyone it can into the field of selfishness. Sin never exists alone, it either has a co conspirator or a victim. In one sense Eve’s temptation was at the root of pride. “I ate and I did not die.” Never mind the fact that she had no idea what death was, pride is ignorant of consequences. It can only see itself.
In the beginning there was only one command, do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There was no power in the fruit to reveal good and evil, only in the disobedience of the one and only command, don’t.
Since then the don’t commands grew to 613. One command wasn’t enough. We had to be told what else displeases God. One command could not cover it all. The truth is that one command was enough, we just didn’t know how to obey Him.
Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
We have thousands of years of history of mankind’s vain attempts to love God with all our hearts and have seen the consequences of those failures.
Just to prove to mankind that it could be done, God Himself stepped down off His throne and became a man, a selfless man, who loved the Father and humbled Himself to the point of death.
The secret is in dying to self.
How is that working for you?
See! What we think of ourselves does matter.