Eve fell because she was independent, separating herself from Jehovah and from Adam. On the surface, Eve may look innocent and naïve, having been deceived by Satan. But at the moment the serpent said to her, “Did God really say…?” she made her own decision outside of her source and covering, seeking to make herself wise (Gen. 3:1-6). Is this not us? As human beings, our natural tendency is to be independent. We want to be recognized, to stand out, and to be glorified; we are full of jealousy, opinions, and striving. Spiritually to speak, we are all sisters before the Lord. Since we all came out from Eve, we all carry this “Eve syndrome.”
Later in Genesis 4, we see that despite Eve’s failure at the first fall, she still trusted in herself and strove in her independence, believing and declaring that she herself had acquired a man — Cain (v. 1). We see the fruit of this declaration throughout chapter four of Genesis and even all the way throughout the Bible. Cain’s jealousy of his brother, his attempts to please God out of himself, and his religious desire to appear righteous all resulted in him murdering his own brother. On the surface, his offering to God may seem to us to be acceptable and even innocent — we may think, what is wrong with the desire to present to God what we have worked for? But the reality is that anything that is from our independence and striving is not pleasing to Him. And, even more, its result is murder. The fruit of independence, striving, and pretension is always division and death.
We are all Eve. But whether we as Eve can be saved from our default condition requires us to make a choice. We know that after Abel was murdered and Cain was cursed to be a fugitive, Eve bore another son. Out of Eve came two lines: Cain and Seth. Cain means “possession” and was a line of wandering, initiated by itself, and completely independent of God. Seth, however, means “substitution,” meaning replaced by and dependent on God. One is a line of death, and the other of life. To be on the line of life, we need to be substituted, to be replaced, rather than to possess. As Eve, we can murmur, saying we were deceived. But in the end, murmuring only leads to death; a mere look or shake of the head can cause division, damaging the pure life of our churching. But as believers in this day and age, and as believers in the church life, we have a practical way to be healed of this “Eve syndrome” — to truly live on the line of life. The book of Acts tells us how the church came into being on the earth and shows us a picture of the early church life: “And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord…” (Acts 2:46). There is a oneness among the believers that is critical to our churching, and living as one Body. Oneness is not just a saying or a theory, but a real and living practice; the saints truly lived out a condition of oneness, day by day in one accord. What an antidote this is to Eve’s condition!
In the end time, only Christ will be produced in the church; only this One will be recognized. The church life can’t raise Eve. The “Eve” in us needs to go — to be crucified. The church life is raising the last Adam, or the man-child. In God’s eyes, we should not be striving sisters, but a corporate sonship, with which the Father blessed us through Jesus Christ (Eph 1:5)! We can see the unveiling of this prophetic blessing through the children of Israel. From the prophecy given by Jacob to his sons in Genesis 49, we see a line that is filled with all kinds of flesh and sins of the natural man. And yet, this blessing would continue to mature throughout the Bible so that these sons would produce one corporate sonship, claiming a corporate birthright. The church life today is the fulfillment of such a prophecy — precise, to-the-dot, and unmistakably accurate. The process of Jacob’s sons is a picture of the church and her experiences of Christ; through Christ in the church life today, we are the fruit — the treasure — from something that was an iniquity, whose origin is Eve. In God’s eyes, there is only one man in this universe. There is no division. There is no independent member. There is only one testimony from one corporate man standing for the Lord on this earth. In the practical, hands-on church life — in this corporate man — we do have a way to be saved from our default condition of Eve, from this independence, from this declaration of “I have acquired!” Through living together, day by day, working and sharing in common, the “Eve” in us can be exposed and rooted out, swallowed up by an overcoming condition of the authentic corporate Son in the church, “continuing steadfastly in one accord.”
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 12/31/2021, not reviewed by the speaker.)