I n the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and ate of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” [Genesis 3:7]. Before they ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve were naked, but they were not ashamed because they were completely open and transparent in the presence of God and before each other. They communed freely with God and with each other because they had nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of. After they sinned, they became conscious of their nakedness and were ashamed. Their physical nakedness was simply an extension of the exposure of their act of disobedience against God. Sin drove them away from God and caused them to hide from Him. Sin also exposed their betrayal of each other as they later did when Adam tried to shift the blame to Eve and to God, and Eve to the serpent. Sin exposed their deceit so they could no longer be open with each other. That is what sin does to us as well. We lie. We put on a façade. We pretend to be what we are not. We behave one way for six days of the week, and put on a totally different front in church on the Lord’s Day. We live a duplicitous life in order to project a sense of respectability. These attempts may fool some people some of the time, but they certainly do not fool God because we are naked before Him. God sees us for what we really are, not what we project ourselves to be.
LESSON
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
THOUGHT
Honesty is not only the best policy, but it is also the easiest way to live.
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