Discipleship

         "The man said, The woman you put here with me‑‑she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. Then the LORD God said to the woman, What is this you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate." (Gen 3:12-13) 

        As soon as man sinned, he quickly commenced to blame others. One of the effects of sin is the refusal to take responsibility for our actions. This is the attitude, which is so popular today from young people to Presidents. This is the favorite manner in which most people handle guilt, which is they blame others. They do this for two reasons:  

§         First; they do not want to live with guilt.  

§         Second: they do not want to suffer the consequences of their actions.  

        Blaming others allows an escape mechanism, like an ejection seat that avoids the consequences (crash = suffering) by bailing out. However, this is not as effective as most people think. Freeing the burden of guilt by escaping only puts it off until later, while in the meantime it grows and spreads out of control, and continues to gnaw away at our conscience. So this defense mechanism only makes matters worse. "Blame Shifting" can be illustrated by visualizing an old fashioned scale. As one side of the scale becomes increasingly loaded with the weight of guilt, the guilt ridden person just shifts the guilt to the other side of the scale. And we all do this by blaming others.

        There is just one problem with this (okay a lot more problems), the act of blaming others instead of taking the responsibility for one's own actions flies in the face of the Gospel. It is unjust and serves only to increase the guilt and the problems we incur with others in our relationships. This becomes a pattern of dysfunctional behavior that is an endless loop of a hopeless cycle.

        In spite of Adam and Eve's "Clinton-isk" slick blame shifting, God held them accountable and they suffered the consequences of their disobedience.  

        "To Adam he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You must not eat of it, Cursed is the ground because of you." (Gen 3:17)  

        God not only held him responsible for his action, He also held him responsible for listening to the voice of his wife (the influence of others!!!) instead of listening to the voice of God. His excuse only served to increase his personal responsibility and guilt. We must learn that God does not allow us to avoid the consequences of our actions by blaming others. In fact we are held responsible for blaming others. We may think we can get away with it as certain presidents have, but make no mistake, if we fail to hold each other accountable for our actions, you can be sure that God will hold us responsible.  

        "So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way." (Romans 14:12-13)