The first people, Adam and Eve, disobeyed the command that God gave them to not eat of the fruit from one specific tree in the garden God created for them (Genesis 2:16-17; Genesis 3:1-6). Eating fruit by itself isn’t a big deal, but here’s what is a big deal: Acting as if anything other than God is God. And that’s exactly what Adam and Eve were doing. When they ate that fruit, they were in essence saying to God – We’d rather do what we want than what You say is best for us. We’d rather eat this fruit than enjoy our relationship with You. We’d rather trust this serpent than trust Your words. We’d rather choose to follow our own desires than Yours. That is nothing less than idolatry, plain and simple.
And here’s the real issue: We all do the same thing (Romans 3:23). Every single one of us lives as if some created thing – ourselves, certain other people, our jobs, celebrities, money, relationships, technology, all sorts of things – is more worthy of our devotion than God Himself. We’ve turned our backs on Him; we’ve chosen other things over Him; we’ve gone our own ways apart from Him (Romans 3:10-18).
The Bible calls all of this sin, and God has always been clear: the penalty for sin is death (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23).