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Knowledge of Good and Evil
You know I've never heard a sermon on why God did not want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the "Knowledge of Good and Evil."
In Genesis 2:17 God said, "But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
Why did God not want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? I think the answer to this question may be a key to fully understanding what God expects from us as Christians.
Adam and Eve could eat from all the trees, except they could not eat from the tree of "knowledge of good and evil".
Did God put this restriction on Adam and Eve just to see if they would obey? No, God does not tempt us. (James 1:13). Everything God asks us to do is for our own good or to protect or help others.
God did not want Adam and Eve to eat the fruit from the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil" for a good reason. What was the reason?
God said in Genesis 3:22, "And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
It is obvious that God did not want mankind to have the "knowledge of good and evil". Why? Because God simply wanted mankind to obey Him and love God and love others.
Before the fall, Adam and Eve did have the ability to talk and reason. It was only after the fall that Adam and Eve began to fret about what was right and wrong. Could it be that God wants mankind to be more innocent like Adam and Eve were before the fall and simply focus on obeying God and loving God and loving others?
Look at the societies of the world. Each society is full of laws about what is right and what is wrong. And yet Jesus said, "My yoke is easy my burden is light." When people asked Jesus what they must do to inherit eternal life he said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself."
Could it be that God does not want mankind to be obsessed with what is "right or wrong" or "good and evil" and instead be more focused on showing kindness and mercy to others?
Could it be that when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil" they became like God in the sense that they acquired the ability to know there is a right and a wrong? But unlike God they did not acquire the ability to know what is right and what is wrong?
And so God knew that this "knowledge of good and evil" would be harmful to mankind because mankind would go on this endless quest to discern what is right or wrong instead of simply trusting God and obeying God and loving God and showing love and mercy to others?
Could this be why Jesus repeatedly said, "I desire mercy not sacrifice" which means "I desire mankind to show love and mercy to each other. I do not desire mankind to be focused on keeping a set of rules and I do not want mankind to get their feeling of holiness and godliness from keeping a set of rules."
Let us look more closely at what Jesus said. In Matthew 12:7 Jesus said, "If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent."
So understanding God wants mercy and not sacrifice, has something to do with us not judging and condemning others. Isn't it that endless quest we have as humans to discern what is "right and wrong" that leads us to choosing a set of rules for ourselves, and judging and condemning others who do not keep our set of rules?
Over and over in the New Testament God tells us to not judge others. Does God know that because Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil" that mankind tends to judge others?
Maybe the key as Christians is to not add to the rules that God lays out in the Bible. If God condemns something; then we should condemn it. But if God does not condemn something; then maybe we should error on the side of mercy, knowing that our "knowledge of good and evil" is not something God wanted us to have in the first place and Jesus would rather us show mercy than condemn someone that God does not condemn.
And as Christians, if we did not have rules, except those in the Bible, then maybe we will be more focused on loving others and telling others about this wonderful redeeming Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Then maybe we as Christians would get our sense of holiness and godliness from showing love and mercy to others instead of keeping some unwritten set of rules our church promotes.
Maybe then we would not feel guilty if we forgot to have our daily quite time in reading the Bible and prayer, and instead we would feel bad that we did not get over to visit our elderly widow neighbor and make sure she is well cared for.
Maybe we would simply read the Bible when we want to, to get to know God better, which we might discover would lead to far more time in the Word than before; when it was a ritual.
Maybe then Christians would not ask each other "Have you had your quite time today?" and instead ask "Have you showed love and mercy today".
Maybe then we would not think we are holier and godlier because we do not drink or we do not dance or we do not smoke.
Maybe then we would not think our spouse is a pervert because they want to do use moral erotic materials to spice up our marriage.
Maybe we could save millions of lives of babies, if we would be willing to pass laws outlawing abortion in most cases, but allowing abortion for cases of incest or rape, knowing that God did not specifically address the abortion issue in the Bible.
Do we really know when God gives a baby a spirit? No we do not. But we do know that when an unborn baby looks like a baby, moves like a baby and has most of it's parts like a baby (3 months) then most people would agree that it should be treated like a bably and protected.
But when a baby is 2 cells how can we play God and condemn those would would use those 2 cells to save lives, when we know that every woman has 300,000 eggs and every man has millions of sperm cells and so replacing those 2 cells would be easy.
Maybe lots of things would change if we as Christians got our sense of holiness and purity from the things that Jesus said were important. After all, who did Jesus say are the righteous?
In Matthew 25 Jesus calls the "righteous" those who showed love and mercy to others. Below is the passage so you may read it. Maybe believing is not enough. One verse says even the demons believe. Maybe faith plus works of mercy and love is the key to pleasing God.
Matthew 25 verses 31 to 46:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
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