Defense Mechanisms

Many times I have spoken of "worlds colliding". Of course, the world, according to scripture, is all the people on earth: God so loved the world... (John 3:16). On this earth are billions of smaller worlds, always in collision. The ruler of the greater world is God. Mankind, on the other hand, are masters of our own domain. God's goal is to get all the little worlds to love each other. That is quite a task because each of those billions of worlds have their own gods. Those gods are us!

Each of us, being our own gods on our little world, endeavor to be gods of the greater world. There is One True God, but our heart's desire is for each of us to be master of it all. I'm not referring to each person having a desire to be God, or even ruler of this world, but our behavior is more "me-centric" than geocentric. We all look on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and yearn for it to be ours! It is not, but we ate of it just as if it was ours.

We never think about this, but eating of the forbidden tree was trespassing. It was not our tree to even stand under, but when our forebears ate of the fruit, they stole from God because the fruit thereon was His, not ours. There was actually a "No Trespassing" sign in that God warned against stealing from His tree; the penalty was death. By taking God's fruit from His Tree, mankind was trespassing against God. If you wondered about the Lord's Prayer, as a youngster I was taught this: And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us... (Anglican Book of Common Prayer; ABCP).

Almost all versions of Matthew 6 use the word "debts" and "debtors" for paraptoma in the Greek. The literal translation from Strong's Dictionary is "side-slip", meaning lapse. Paraptoma is only a debt in the sense that we owe God fidelity. We never borrowed from Him, nor Him from us! Side-slip is more of a trespass as the ABCP suggests. People go whence it is not theirs to go! Adam and Eve entered into temptation, and Jesus taught that we should not: lead us not into temptation. God tested the will of Adam and Eve by offering things not belonging to them: of that tree thou shalt not eat. Eve entered into temptation - the test was on when she stood under the Tree. God didn't lead her there; her own inquisitiveness did. The serpent wasn't even to blame; the two people were!

The serpent was a test tool. The test was God's. It was a test of Who is God! Since, Adam and Eve did what was right in their own eyes, thus ignoring God, they became as gods, of course in their own eyes.

Because temptation existed from the time of original sin, our prayer to God is basically: Please God - don't test me because I might fail. It's okay to know that you're not God because only God would not fail. I have written before that the temptations of Adam and the Temptations of Christ were basically the same. Man failed, God did not. Hence, we are not gods, and God is happy when we come to realize that. Why? Because each of us act as if we are gods of this world, because we see ourselves as gods of our own. We have become as gods!

Essentially, when world's collide, we trespass either on God or other people.  Eve went over there to steal some fruit. "Over there" was on property not hers. She entered into temptation on her own, although God set the test before her. We each have this done all the time. For instance, going to a beach where we know that people won't be wearing much of any kind of fig leaves, is entering into temptation. However, the sin is not done until lust comes about. Entering said beach was not sinful, but callous. Eve was warned about the purpose of the tree - to test, and the penalty - death but she trespassed where she should not have been anyhow. She actually made the test harder by entering into temptation. A good prayer is: God, don't allow me to go where I need not be. He never will. That's our choice!

That is an example of our little world colliding with God's greater world. The greater world has a Law - God's will. Our smaller world as another law: our will, which when in collision with God's will, is sinful. Our law is the law of sin, and sin we shall do.

On top of that, mankind must deal with eminent collision with other lesser worlds. I call this worlds colliding - when our will conflicts with the will of another. We must not trespass on their world either: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. This trespassing is failure to love others. If we truly love others, we would not trespass against them - by dishonoring, by stealing, by envy, by lying, by adultery, nor by murdering. Those trespasses are hatred, and hatred is as murder in God's eyes. (1 John 3:15).

Now for world's colliding: We are masters of our own domain. Our domain is the boundary which includes us and our personal space - how close we can stand to another person and not be intrusive. When we enter another's personal space, it must be by invitation only. Entering another's personal space without permission is trespassing. The Trees in the Garden represents people, and each tree stands in its own shade. The shade cast by each tree is that tree's personal space. Little us said of all the other trees except: of those you shall freely eat. However, with people, the invitation to eat must be forthcoming before coming so close as to touch the fruits.

Each of us have that system - us in the center of the space, and the space around us. We are gods of our selves and we want no others gods to trespass against us. Why? Because we are gods in our own domain! It's that simple. When we trespass on another's space, we infringe on what is theirs. This infringement is world's colliding because they will sooner or later. (Just try standing in line behind a person and moving with them, closer with each step. Soon they will begin to get angry, and may even insult you. Why? It is their space. You are trespassing. I've done that by accident. Don't try that alone!)

When Adam and Eve were convicted, and felt guilty, Eve blamed the serpent and Adam blamed Eve. As god of their own domain, neither wanted to be wrong. The natural thing they did, and people still do, is the shift the blame. That is always mankind's defense mechanism. When we are accused for trespassing, mark my words, it is always the other who moved too close, not the you. They are always those to blame!

Because, we all sin, it is more likely that the other person allowed the first person to enter into his or her territory. We are invited into the space around, as we enter into temptation. Not screaming, "No! No!" when another enters personal space can be interpreted as tacit permission. Then when the wrong is done, the trespasser seemingly has permission to be there. Literally, they are not trespassing, coming there by invitation. Unlike God who was clear - don't eat of that tree, people show their fruits, invite others in, and then nail up the "No Trespassing" sign.

Of course, the fruit can be any type of pleasure. It may be too close a friend, lasciviousness, materialism, power, or whatever. When that personal space is violated, the owner gets out their shotgun and shoots at the guy already in there. The other guy is always to blame even though the owner leaves the gates wide open!

What is left then? Blame! We defend our personal space just as children do. "Johnny hit me," one says, never mentioning that sis hit Johnny first, or at least provoked him! We are children in defense of ourselves. Like Adam and Eve, like innocent children, we never see the blame lying with ourselves. To appear to be innocent, another has to look guilty. To pay for our own sin, another must be penalized. That's the same old story! Even for the Jews to appear innocent, they picked one to pay for the crime. Jesus stepped forward and did that, although He was innocent!

Try something sometimes: admit that you're not perfect. Don't generalize - that's cheap grace. Be specific: "Sally, I am sorry I offended you. I was clearly in the wrong. I should not have went there. Please forgive me!" See if that attitude helps or not because in those words, I do not hear the collision of our worlds!