The Devil Made Me Do It

The oldest lie in scripture, the oldest lie in all of history, is the lie “The Devil made me do it”. First things first, Eve was in the garden and the serpent told her to eat of the fruit, she said that God told them no, and so the serpent gives his lame deception. Well, Eve had never encountered deception and didn’t know how to handle it, yet, she knew responsibilty and respect, and disobeyed anyway. 

Alright, so we’re caught up. What stands out in this story that causes us to think the Eve may have been more at fault than the serpent? Wait a minute-, did I just say that the serpent wasn’t at fault? Yes, the serpent was more innocent than Eve, or rather, they were equally guilty, as both played a part in this sin.

Here are the facts: the serpent(Satan) tempted Eve by offering her a fruit from the plant God had outlawed, Eve took it and ate it.

It seems to be straight forward, the Devil made her do it, right? Wrong. Let’s take this back to The Book.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

—Genesis 3:6

What, in this passage implies that Eve knew what she was doing? What would give me reason to blame this on her?

The Bible says, quote- “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit...“- unquote. Do you know what that says to me? It says that Eve tempted herself. Eve convinced herself by sense, (the fruit was useful), by her senses, (the fruit was appealing), and by sensibility, (the fruit was alluring), so she took it. Sure, Satan opened the door, but Eve’s own heart betrayed her, telling her to eat the fruit.

Nowhere in this scene do we see any reference to Eve wondering why God told her not to eat of the fruit. The Scriptures don’t say that “Eve looked upon the fruit and remembered the words of God telling her not to eat of it”, it doesn’t say that “Eve thought about what she was doing”. The Bible says, (paraphrase), that every part of Eve convinced her to forget God and follow her heart.

The Devil didn’t make her do it. The Devil didn’t make the tree, or Eve, or the fruit. The Devil cannot make anything, he can only disrupt what God makes. Eve made Eve sin, the Devil just helped.

Now, Eve got special attention because she was the first lady, so I don’t want to hear you say, “the Devil made me do it”. Let me tell you, the Devil has bigger fish to fry than to make you steal a comic book or cheat on a math test. 

Be realistic, you made yourself do it. That’s one of the consequences of a free will. If we would start taking responsibility for our actions, we’d be a much more mature people…and they wonder why humanity is getting dumber and dumber as centuries pass, we’re crediting our actions on others, namely Satan, but also God, and avoiding both censure and punishment, as well as praise and reward. How can we grow if we do not own our actions. Take responsibility for yourself, and give credit, even if it’s bad credit, where credit’s due.

As always, thanks for reading.

—the anonymous novelist