THE BLAME GAME

Saturday 14 September

“Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.” Genesis 3:11b-13 (NIV)

When we read the book of Genesis it bears remembrance that a lot of what is written is symbolic. ‘Eating the fruit’ is an example of this. In Romans 5:12, Paul by the Spirit unveils what Moses wrote. He defines it as sin. ‘By one man sin entered the world and death by (as a result of) sin’.

What I want to hone in on here specifically however is what took place directly after sin entered into the consciousness of man. Adam and Eve starting ‘shifting the blame’ of their actions onto the other. ‘Kataginosko’ is the Greek verb for blame and condemnation. There are multiple synonyms in the Hebrew such as to accuse, charge, impute etc.

It even says in the book of Revelation that Satan is the ‘accuser of the brethren’. He was symbolised as ‘the serpent’ in Eden. So in actuality, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the Devil and the Devil blamed Adam and in turn, everyone at some point or another even blame God. This is how the cycle continues to perpetuate.

So how do we break the cycle blame? Take personal responsibility for your actions and don’t try to justify your position by implicating others of wrong, whether they are guilty or not. When we behave like this we are acting like God. Think about it. He took personal responsibility for us through salvation despite the fact that we were undeserving, hostile and ignorant.

In the same way we ought to show grace and mercy toward others. Take a leaf out of Jesus’ book as He was being crucified He said ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’. If you don’t receive salvation, you will have to accept the full responsibility of your actions before God. If you take God up on His offer you will only be judged for receiving rewards.

You are not the judge of all the earth, Jesus will be after the grace period has ended. Don’t live a life of shifting blame onto others. Instead, live a life of responsibility toward God and people. Beyond that, bring someone out of the ‘blame cycle’ by helping them to accept Jesus Christ who took all blame upon Himself for them and you.

APPLICATION

Read James 1:13-14, Philippians 2:15 and Colossians 1:22 to bring further explanation of God’s perspective and our new position in Christ on the matter.