Genesis 2:25

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.

Ephesians 4:15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

The truth is very matter of fact and if we do not temper our speech with a dollop of grace, it can feel like a hammer to others.

The preceding verse says “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” We should be mindful that this chapter of Ephesians is addressing the unity of the body of Christ, the church. Out in the world there are haters who have been indoctrinated by deceitful schemes.

Deceitful schemes are the creation of the enemy of Christ and opposes love with hate. Jesus warned us in the gospels. Luke 21:17 “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” That is the gospel truth. We can see it more clearly now than ever before.

Frustrating as it may seem the only way to combat hate is with love,  not our own fleshly love but the Love of God that abides in us all. We do that by growing up in Him, becoming the mature disciples that do not return violence with violence.

I am now reminded of Jesus’ instruction to turn the other cheek and its meaning. The face is the expression of who we are and we must not let hate change our countenance. As a former warrior I was trained to kill the enemy but our real enemy is already defeated and the only weapon left in his arsenal is spreading hate to the emotionally immature.

Children learn to hate from their parents and teachers. Those who hate have been indoctrinated to hate and that is the only thing they know. The only thing that can get through to them is the love of God. To know His love someone has to show it to them. We will not do that if we cannot control our tongues.

James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

So much damage has been done in this world by those who “think” they are religious that it has given religion a bad reputation. Perhaps it would be better if we think of ourselves as the obedient children of God, the One True God. As obedient children we are meant to build the character of Christ in our daily lives, to show His face rather than our own.

How we think of ourselves matters.