Do Not Entice Them to Sin
Satan – adversary, enemy, opponent
devil – accuser; slanderer
Satan introduces sin. He presents previously unknown as one available option, making it appear desirable by emphasizing its perceived benefits. Sin is made enticing, not because it is sin, but by how it appeals to the natural (fleshly) human needs or desires, and the degree of satisfaction it appears to offer. When the victim has been successfully enticed, the devil (accuser, slanderer) immediately begins his work of exposing the sin, rejoicing in the condemnation of the sinner that leads to their destruction.
When you introduce sin to someone who was previously ignorant of it, you become Satan in their life; you are their enemy, opposed to their well-being, and set against them to condemnation and destruction. When you judge them for their wrong-doing, you become the devil in their life, accusing them for something for which you are the prime culprit.
When that person is a child, you have stumbled the child. Christ was very clear concerning the consequences to anyone who would cause a little child to stumble (sin):
Luke 17:2 “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend (entice to sin) one of these little ones.”
In the garden, God clearly told Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. While Adam knew good because he knew God and had been created by Him “very good”, Adam had no personal knowledge of evil. And while God clearly stated that eating the fruit of that particular tree would bring “death”, an experience foreign to Adam’s knowledge, Adam understood that the action was prohibited and the consequence dire.
The sin was not eating, nor eating fruit, nor eating fruit from any tree, or any tree inside – our outside of – the garden. The sin was eating the fruit of that one, specific tree, which brought the knowledge of evil to the man who otherwise had never seen nor experienced evil. Adam knew to be good. If he partook of that particular tree, which God identified and prohibited, Adam would come to know evil.
When we introduce a little child to evil, we have brought the forbidden thing to their attention, and presented it as attractive or desirable, pleasing, or satisfying. However much we may tell them to “be kind”, “be polite”, “be respectful”, “be responsible”, as soon as we portray or demonstrate unkindness, belligerence, disrespect, irresponsibility, we are guilty of having stumbled the child. Our example conditions the ideas of the children under our care; every wicked example set makes us guilty of their errors; we have become their Satan.
When we then punish them for the successful adoption of the wrongful choices we have introduced into their previously innocent minds, we have effectively accused and condemned them for their sin; we have become the devil in their lives.
Parents, be minutely careful about what you allow in your children’s world. Avoid or remove everything that teaches a child to do wrong, from their world and your own lives. Do not rue their following a sinful example, but prevent to the greatest possible degree, their exposure to that wickedness, while they continue under your responsibility. Prevent their acquiring sin to judgement; prevent their learning to oppose God. Prevent them learning behaviours that will bring them into disrepute. Prevent their marching to eternal judgement and destruction.
Protect your children from temptation.
Remember the millstone.
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