Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals
Friday July 24 2026
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Genesis 3:1-7-Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ “. 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
Recently, the question was asked in jail ministry if sex is the origin of sin in the world. The gentleman explained that he believed it was, and that sexual sin was at the root of all of the wickedness we see around us. He reminded of what the Apostle Peter wrote.
2 Peter 1:2-4-Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Peter is adamant that the corruption that is in the world is here “through lust.” When we run the references, we find something very interesting about this statement.
A number of the scholarly Bible versions use the word “lust” as the best translation of the Greek word that Peter employs in this text. A few of those translations are: NASB, KJV, New Heart English Bible, NAS 1977, Jubilee Bible 2000, King James 2000 Bible, AKJV, ASV, Darby Bible, ERV, Webster’s Bible, and the Word English Bible.[ 154] Most other translations use the words “evil desire” or something close. Either terminology, especially in this context, means the same thing. Epithumia The Greek word for “lust” in this passage is epithumia, Strong’s #1939. One of its most prolific translations is that of sensual lust—the lust of the flesh. As you will see in a moment, that appears to be the exact context of Peter’s assertion here.[ 155] In fact, Meyer’s New Testament Commentary asserts that epithumia in every case in Scripture refers to sexual lust, except for three instances where the object of the emotion in question is clearly named otherwise: By [epithumia] is not denoted “innocent sensuousness,” but it occurs here [James 1: 14], as everywhere in the N. T. (except where its specific object is named, as in Luke 22: 15; Ph[ illipians] 1: 23; 1 Thessalonians 2: 17).[ 156] (Brackets and emphasis added) This truly is Peter’s “big reveal” concerning the foundational understanding of the Garden sin. Consider a sampling of how the word epithumia is found in key New Testament passages: “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts [epithumia] of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves” (Romans 1: 24, ESV). “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust [epithumia], drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry” (1 Peter 4: 3). “And especially those who indulge in the lust [epithumia] of defiling passion and despise authority” (2 Peter 2: 10, ESV). “Not in passionate lust [epithumia] like the pagans, who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4: 5). “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust [epithumia], evil desires and greed which is idolatry” (Colossians 3: 5). “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh [epithumia] and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2: 3, KJV). “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts [epithumia] thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin” (Romans 6: 12–13, KJV). “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust [epithumia]. Then when lust [epithumia] has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death” (James 1: 14–15, NASB). “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts [epithumia] of your father ye will do” (John 8: 44, KJV). The following half dozen commentaries also include declarations concerning Peter’s use of the word epithumia in 2 Peter 1: 4. Especially notice the emphasized words: Adam Clarke’s Commentary: We have partaken of an earthly, sensual, and devilish nature; the design of God by Christ is to remove this, and to make us partakers of the Divine nature; and save us from all the corruption in principle and fact which is in the world; the source of which is lust.… Lust, or irregular, impure desire, is the source whence all the corruption which is in the world springs.[ 157] (Emphasis added) John Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible: In the world through lust…. The corrupt manners of the world, or those corruptions and vices which, are prevalent in the world, and under the power and dominion of which the world lies; and particularly the sins of uncleanness, adultery, incest, sodomy, and such like filthy and unnatural lusts, which abounded in the world.[ 158] (Emphasis added) Another Gill’s Exposition assertion: [From Gill’s commentary on Genesis 3] Because by those members [their sexual organs] the original corruption of human nature has been from the beginning, and still is propagated from parents to children.[ 159] (Emphasis added) The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible: “The corruption in the world” has its seat, not so much in the surrounding elements, as in the “lust” or concupiscence [impure sexual lust] of men’s hearts.[ 160] (Emphasis added) Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary: The corruption which is in the world in (consisting in, as its element and foundation) lust. Quoting John Calvin: [Translated from Latin] “These are not the elements that surround us, but at the heart of our vulgar brazenness.”[ 161] (Emphasis added) Matthew Poole’s English Annotations on the Holy Bible: All the pravity or wickedness of human nature, which is here said to be, i.e. to reign and prevail, in the world, or worldly men, through lust, or habitual concupiscence [impure sexual lust], which is the spring and root from which it proceeds.[ 162] (Emphasis added) Whedon’s Commentary on the Bible: Fundamental to all, however, is the fleeing away from, the renunciation of, the moral corruption that so widely befouls the world, and that has its source in base, wicked lust. God’s call is to purity: that of the false teachers is to corruption. 2 Peter 2: 18.[ 163] (Emphasis added) It would appear that Peter’s meaning leaves little room for doubt. These comments could be summarized as “The process of global decay that continually defiles our existence has as its foundational seat, tracing back to Eden, the concupiscence of humanity’s collective nature. (Carl Gallups, Gods of Ground Zero, 1751-1837 (Kindle Edition): Crane, MO: Defender Publishing)
What are we to make of this?
First, sex is not sinful! God is specifically said to have made sex for husbands and wives (Genesis 1:28). Indeed, this reference in Genesis makes it clear that sex was given to mankind before the introduction of sin into the world. Sex is not evil, nor the cause of sin.
Second, Genesis 3:7 says that when they sinned, Adam and Eve discovered that they were naked.
Why would the Bible make this statement?
Does this imply that their sin was sexual in nature?
The answer is found in studying Jewish tradition, which claimed that before Adam and Eve sinned, they were “clothed” in the light of God. When they rebelled, the light of God was removed from them and they then realized that they were naked.
[EVE CONTINUED,] “IN that very hour, my eyes were opened, and immediately I knew that I was naked of the righteousness with which I had been clothed, and I cried and said to him, ‘Why have you done this to me in that you have deprived me of the glory with which I was clothed?’” “But I cried also about the oath, which I had sworn. But he descended from the tree and vanished. I began to seek, in my nakedness, in my part for leaves to hide my shame, but I found none, for, as soon as I had eaten, the leaves fell from all the trees in my part of Paradise, except the fig tree only. So I took leaves from it and made for myself a girdle and it was from the very same plant of which I had eaten.” Apocalypse of Moses–Chapter 21 [EVE CONTINUED,] “I cried out in that very hour, ‘Adam, Adam, where are you? Rise, come to me and I will show you a great secret.’” “But when your father came, I spoke to him words of transgression. For, when he came, I opened my mouth and the devil was speaking, and I began to exhort him and said, ‘Come here, my lord Adam, listen to me and eat of the fruit of the tree of which God told us not to eat of it, and you will be as a God.’” “Your father answered, ‘I fear in case God will be angry with me.’” “I answered him, ‘Don’t be afraid, for as soon as you have eaten you will know good and evil.’” “Quickly I persuaded him, and he ate and straightway his eyes were opened and he too knew his nakedness. To me, he said, ‘Wicked woman! What have I done to you that you have deprived me of the glory of God?’ (Scriptural Research Institute, The Life of Adam and Eve Collection, 43-44 (Kindle Edition); Scriptural Research Institute)
Finally, the Jewish people in Jesus’ day traced much of the corruption that is in the world to the events of Genesis 6:1-4, with the desecration brought about by fallen angels and humans bringing forth the Nephilim through fornication.
If one were to ask a modern Christian, “Why is the world and all humanity so thoroughly wicked?” the chances are very high that an answer of “the Fall” would be forthcoming. We have been conditioned by church history (ancient and modern) to look only to Genesis 3 for such theology. But if you asked a Jew living in the Second Temple Period the same question, the answer would be dramatically different. Yes, the entrance of sin into God’s good world occurred in Eden, but the unanimous testimony of Second Temple Judaism is that the Watchers are to blame for the proliferation of evil on the earth. The New Testament writers, being predominantly Jewish and products of the Second Temple Period, more often than not telegraphed the same outlook. We just can’t see it because, frankly, we don’t have Second Temple Jewish eyes. We miss what the original audience would have seen. (Michael S. Heiser, Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ, 3 (Kindle Edition): Crane, MO: Defender Publishing)
That Peter likely refers to these events is seen in in that he later referred to this sin of the angels (2 Peter 2:4-11).
Sex was not the root of evil in the world. It was (and is) a gift that God has given to His creation to enjoy within the confines of God-approved marriage.
Hebrews 13:4-Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Lord, grant us wisdom as we study Your Word. Amen.