Serpent’s Logic
“A favourable outcome doesn’t turn rebellion into righteousness.”
We live in an age that loves results. The faster, the better. If it works, it’s assumed to be good; if it benefits us, it’s treated as justified. But whatever our culture affirms in this regard, Scripture does not. A sin that profits you today is still a sin tomorrow. God’s law is not suspended simply because disobedience appears to serve a “righteous” end.
Yet this way of thinking is nothing new. It is a temptation as old as humanity itself. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent didn’t deceive Eve by denying God outright. He reframed disobedience as an opportunity for betterment. In Genesis 3, Satan appeals to Eve not merely to rebel, but to calculate the end: You’ll be better off if you do this. Eat, and you’ll not surely die. Eat, and you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil. You want to be like God, don’t you?
The argument is pragmatic. The act is forbidden, yes—but consider the outcome. Consider the results. That is the essence of the lie: that a good result can sanctify a bad act.
Eve saw that the tree was good for food, a delight to the eye, and desirable to make one wise. The promised end overshadowed the commanded means. And in that moment, pragmatism—meaning, the end justifies the means— entered the human story.
And it’s never left.
The Bible shows this pattern repeating itself again and again—and then again.
In 1 Samuel 13, King Saul offers a sacrifice he has no authority to give because he fears losing his army. The outcome seems reasonable, but God rejects him for it. Later, in 1 Samuel 15, Saul spares the best of the Amalekite spoil under the pretext of offering it to God. It’s disobedience, but it’s cloaked in devotion. Samuel the prophet rebukes the king, saying, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” In other words, the end—the worship of God—did not justify the means: disobedience to God.
In Genesis 16, Abraham and Sarah attempt to “help” God fulfil His promise by having a child through Hagar, Sarah’s slave. The goal may have aligned with God’s end—a promised son—but the means were faithless. The result wasn’t blessing, but division and long-lasting conflict. In other words, the end—a promised son—did not justify the means: birthing that son through Hagar.
In 2 Samuel 6, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the Ark of the Covenant after the oxen carrying it stumbled. His intention appears good, but God had already commanded how the Ark was to be handled. Uzzah’s act, though well-meaning, violated God’s commandment, and he was struck dead for his disobedience. His good intentions did not override God’s Law. In other words, the end—steadying the Ark—did not justify the means: touching what God had forbidden.
Even Jacob in Genesis 27 secures the blessing through deception. The end itself was in line with God’s promise—but the means were sinful. The consequence was years of exile and fractured relationships. God’s purposes stand, but Jacob suffered greatly for trying to obtain them through unlawful means.
The pattern of pragmatism is hard to miss. A favourable outcome doesn’t transform rebellion into righteousness. Success doesn’t baptise disobedience. If it breaks God’s law, it’s wrong—even if it works in your favour.
In fact, virtually every great atrocity has been carried out by men convinced that the end justifies the means. Evil rarely presents itself as naked evil. It presents itself as necessary, expedient, even virtuous. But wickedness does not become righteous just because it appears useful.
Christianity stands in stark contrast to the pragmatic mindset. It refuses to measure righteousness by results. It insists that obedience to God is the standard, regardless of the outcome. As such, the question is never merely, ‘Does it work?’ but ‘Is this faithful?’ We are commanded to obey. The results belong to God.
“We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29)—and not only men, but our own schemes, our own calculations, our own attempts to force providence toward what we think is best. We aren’t called to engineer outcomes, but to walk in obedience.
To follow Christ is to reject the Serpent’s logic. It is to trust that God’s commands are good, even when obedience seems costly. It is to believe that no true good can come from what God has called evil, and that no apparent loss suffered in obedience is ultimately a loss at all.
If you must break God’s law to obtain it, you were never meant to have it. It’s a form of providential theft. The fruit may look good. The outcome may seem desirable. But if we cannot obtain it without sinning, then it is not within our reach. If it must be sought, then it must be sought another way.
This is painfully real for many. We’ve seen Christians—who ought to have known better—compromise their credibility during COVID by adopting a pragmatic mindset: the end—health, safety, and slowing the spread—justified the means—lockdowns and vaccine mandates. They knew it was wrong. Ask them, and many will tell you they wouldn’t do the same again. And yet, at the time, they justified and endorsed it, appealing to necessity, safety, and the collective good. In their minds, the outcome justified the compromise.
Unfortunately, we’re seeing the same logic again today in the discussion about war and violence. Civilian deaths are brushed aside as “collateral damage,” defended on the grounds that the guilty were also struck down. But does the presence of the guilty somehow cleanse the killing of the innocent? Does wrongdoing cease to be wrongdoing because it’s strategically effective? Scripture never permits such reasoning. The deliberate taking of innocent life cannot be justified by appealing to a desirable outcome.
This is the serpent’s logic: You will be better off if you disobey.
But God doesn’t call us to calculate outcomes. We are to uphold righteousness. We’re not permitted to compromise what’s true and just in order to manufacture what we think is beneficial. Faithfulness is the measure, not success, not expediency, not results.
God doesn’t call His people to be pragmatists. That is the logic of the tempter. God calls His people to be holy. To be obedient. To be faithful. And that means refusing—always—to do evil that good may come (Rom. 3:8).