“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Adam and Eve were privileged. They only knew good. They did not know evil. God did not want them to know evil. He made them innocent. Within the boundaries of Eden, God shielded them from evil.
The serpent was jealous that the heart of God was filled to the brim with love for Adam and Eve and that Adam and Eve enjoyed the blessed fruits of God’s love. The serpent wanted to empty it. Surely, the serpent reasoned, that the disobedience of Adam and Eve would poke a hole in God’s heart and drain it of his love for them.
So the serpent tempted Adam Eve. He testified falsely to them. Adam and Eve had never experienced false testimony. This was the first time. Because it was the first time, no defense mechanism against it had evolved within them. They were defenseless.
The serpent offered to Eve the full spectrum of knowledge - both the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. The serpent sugarcoated the knowledge of evil with the testimony that possessing the full spectrum of knowledge would deify them. It would make them like God. Yet, the serpent failed to reveal the cost of acquiring the knowledge of evil.
God, however, revealed to them the cost of acquiring the knowledge of evil (Genesis 3:3).
Now there was a conflict in the testimony.
How to resolve the conflict in the testimony? Adam and Eve never had to resolve a conflict in testimony. So they picked a methodology. They decided to investigate the truth for themselves.
The rest is history.
Yet, the upshot of the story of Adam and Eve is that their disobedience failed to poke a hole in the heart of God and drain it of his love for us. The bonfire of love that burns for us was neither extinguished or reduced by the slightest degree.
What is the effect on love? Does conduct have a positive effect on love or a neutral effect or a negative effect?