“Don’t”.
“Don’t what?”, Adam replied.
“Don’t eat the forbidden fruit”, God said.
“Forbidden fruit? We got forbidden fruit? Hey, Eve, we got forbidden fruit!”
“No way!”
"Yes way!”
“Don’t eat that fruit!”, said God.
“Why?”
“Because I am your father and I said so!”, said God, wondering why he hadn’t stopped after making the elephants.
A few minutes later God saw his kids having an apple break and was angry.
"Didn't I I tell you not to eat the fruit?”, the First Parent asked.
“Uh huh”, Adam replied.
“Then why did you?”
“I dunno”, Eve answered.
She started it!”, Adam said.
"I did nnot!”
"Did too!”
"DID NOT!”

Having had it with the two of them, God’s punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed. But there is reassurance in this story. If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give them wisdom and they haven’t taken it, don’t be hard on yourself. If God ‘had trouble’ handling children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?1

Adam and Eve sinned when they deliberately disobeyed God: they succumbed to temptation although they knew what they were doing was wrong. In fact, as the above joke suggests, the “forbidden” aspect of the fruit proved more of a temptation than the fruit itself! As human beings weakened by the fall, we tend to be attracted by the excitement of doing something we know to be wrong. God’s forgiveness is always available through the passion of Christ (see John 3:16), but this does not mean that we should use religion as an insurance policy.

The ‘sexual revolution’ of the 1960s has led much of the western world to forget two thousand years of Christian teaching on sexuality, and to return back to the pagan ways of ancient Rome. St Paul’s letter to the Galatians includes a catalogue of sins that are all too familiar to us in our own time:

When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad tempers and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. (Galatians 5:19–21a)

The problem with a liberal attitude is that society begins to think such things are acceptable. We can conclude from this quote that fornication (sex outside marriage) is a sin, perhaps even a serious one… but is it really so severe that following death (if we don’t repent) we end up in smoking rather than non-smoking? If we read on, we see that St Paul is very clear on this point:

I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21b)

So what exactly is “adultery”? At this point it is useful to refer to the Ten Commandments. Fr Francis Marsden has commented that “You shall not commit adultery”, takes the form of a universal, exceptionless moral prohibition in Hebrew: lo tin’af. He writes that, “n’af refers to any sexual impurity. Its scope is wider than simple adultery”.2 This is something we need to be aware of, as we may be sinning even if we are not committing adultery in the conventional sense. It is also worth reminding ourselves that these are the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Guidelines! According to Fr Marsden, the Hebrews believed, along with Christians today, that these were rooted in God’s will. “Ethics for them was not a matter of debate (as in modern universities), but of obedience.”

A little reflection shows how important obedience to this commandment really is: sexual sins are harmful in more ways than might at first be appreciated. St Pio of Pietrelcina, Italy (1887–1968), describes the “deadly sin of lust”, saying that:

St Paul refers to those in the grip of these vices as ‘sons of unbelief’ (Colossians 3:6), because these things more than anything else blind a man and make him more readily lose sight of eternal possessions.3

Sinning sexually draws us away from God and away from our lives as Christians. By sinning in this way, we are leading ourselves away from faith. We are also likely to lead others away from faith, both Christians whom we may corrupt and also non-believers who stay away from Christianity, simply because they despise the hypocrisy of Christians who do not practise what they preach. This is a dangerous realm.

The purpose of my article has not been to bring about great fear amongst some readers and for others to start judging those around them as to whether or not they will go to hell. To answer the second point first, no one is predestined to hell and everyone has the option of converting. Many of the Saints began as big sinners but later converted — the ex-prostitute Mary Magdalen is one such example. To answer the first point, God is prepared to forgive any sin, no matter how great. If we confess our sins with regret at having committed them and then make the resolution not to sin again, we shall be forgiven:

Come now, let us talk this over, says Yahweh. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

Part of growing up is learning to accept responsibility for our actions, and as Christians we need to accept personal responsibility for our sins. In the joke at the beginning of this article, Adam and Eve knowingly did what was wrong and then refused to acknowledge their sins. May we learn from their mistake.

Michael Puljic