What Christian has not found this to be true? We speak a harsh word to our spouse or tell a lie to our friend and it is not just our relationship with them that is hindered, but our very relationship with God. Our sense of peace and joy become fleeting, His love feels distant, and our anxiety increases. All because sin was entertained. It is a thief, which comes in and steals. It is an enemy, an enemy that not only seeks to destroy us and those around us, but takes aim at our very relationship with God.

Sin is no friend. It is a viper and a thief. It is our enemy and foe. Yet, we all fall prey to its “Siren’s voice.” We too easily entertain, harbor, and allow it to take up residence. All the while we are affording it the opportunity to rob our soul of its great comfort and pleasure.

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden enjoyed fellowship with God. This was their delight and their very life. Yet, when Adam chose to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, mankind lost communion with God. In fact, man lost more than that. If Adam had trusted God and chosen to refrain from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he and Eve would have led mankind into that glorified state in which man will enjoy a constant, continual, and uninterrupted fellowship with God. This is symbolized in the Garden by the very curse of death and man being barred from the Garden and specifically the tree of life. It is made even more apparent in Revelation 22 in the new heavens and new earth.

John sees God in the center of His people and the tree of life in their midst. And that tree bears fruit every month for the nations. It is here that God’s people will see Him face to face for all of eternity. The soul of every man cries out for this communion with God–what was lost and what could have been. Out of God’s sheer mercy and grace, He sent His Son into this world to redeem a people for Himself, so that the picture in Revelation 22 would become a reality. It is the future for all those with faith in Christ–to once again enjoy communion with a holy God, but this time never to be interrupted. But in this life it can be interrupted in one sense.

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