One of the key qualities of leadership is effective communication, and this is exemplified by Adam's failure to connect with Eve. In Genesis 3, we see a leader who failed in an area crucial to all leaders: communication. By failing to communicate effectively with his wife, Adam botched his role as the first spiritual leader of the human race.

God clearly told Adam that a specific tree was off-limits. "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat." God told him, "But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:16, 17). At the time Adam received this command, Eve was not present; according to Genesis 2, she had not yet been created. Consequently, it was up to Adam to pass along what God had said.

So why didn't Adam clearly communicate God's instructions to Eve? Why the breakdown in the line of communication? Indeed, Eve did not wholly understand what would happen if she ate the forbidden fruit. Consider her muddled response to the serpent: "God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die'" (Gen. 3:3). Eve added the phrases, "nor shall you touch it," and "lest you die." God never said any such thing. So, where did she get her faulty information?

Perhaps the "telephone game" can provide a clue. Have you ever played it? Everyone sits in a circle. One person whispers a message into the ear of an adjacent player, who then whispers the words to the next person, and so on down the line. When the last person to play whispers the phrase into the ear of the one who began the game, a significant distortion in the message is often revealed.

Five Reasons for Adam's Faulty Communication

Adam's communication to Eve went similarly astray. His message broke down into five basic reasons:

1. He ignored some details in the message he was supposed to communicate.
2. He allowed Eve's voice to influence him more than God's voice.
3. He failed to hold himself accountable for his communication.
4. He forgot what God had said about the consequences of disobedience.
5. He did not take responsibility for the results of his faulty communication.

Let's learn from Adam's mistake. You may be a good speaker, but are you a good communicator? Do you pay close attention to what God tells you? Do you give appropriate attention to detail? When you lead, do you ensure your audience receives the message? And do you take responsibility for what God has entrusted to you?

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-6

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Great thoughts of John Maxwell. Vincent and I thought differently, and we struggled to communicate with each other because of that. We learned what was essential to each other and grew patient to figure out each other's needs. I remember times when I hoped to find ways we could do more things together so that we could have more opportunities.