The first human pair felt guilty when they sinned, and hid themselves. When found and confronted, they did what so many of us do: tried to shift their guilt to someone else. The record states: “The man went on to say: ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree and so I ate.’ With that Jehovah God said to the woman: ‘What is this you have done?’ To this the woman replied: ‘The serpent—it deceived me and so I ate.’”—Gen. 3:12, 13.

We are to love ourselves in the sense of caring for ourselves, respecting ourselves, having a sense of our self-worth. To be able to do this we must measure up to what we know to be right in God’s eyes, to what our properly trained and sensitive conscience expects of us. If we fail we are displeased with ourselves and feel guilt and blame. Unhappy with this state of affairs, we try to shift this blame to others, and it spoils our relationships with others.

This is illustrated in the case of Adam and Eve. They knew what was the right thing to do. When they did the opposite they hid from God because they felt guilt. When he confronted them, both of them tried to shift the blame—Adam to his wife, and to God for giving him this woman; Eve shifted hers to the serpent. (Gen. 3:12, 13) Adam could no longer feel genuine love or respect for himself, and it spoiled his relationship with both his wife and God. Eve also tried to shift blame so that she could clear herself and thus respect herself.