Knowing Good and Evil

As Sasha and I were walking in the park today she shared a thought with me that inspired this blog, so this one is from her.

Adam and Eve were put in a perfect and good world.  They were given one command, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

Why were they forbidden from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  Knowledge is, generally speaking, a good thing.  Knowing right from wrong is a good thing.  Why is it bad to know good and evil?

We have to remember that Adam and Eve did know what good was.  In fact, they knew it better than any of us do.  We live in a good world that has been corrupted by our evil.  They lived in an uncorrupted perfect and good world, and they were good people too.  We sometimes talk about people as if they are good.  We say things like, “He’s a good guy,” or “She’s a good kid.”  When someone once called Jesus “Good teacher,” He responded by saying, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good except God alone.”  We ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” when in reality, bad things do not happen to good people.  They just happen to people who are not as bad as some others.

Adam and Eve knew good in a way that none of us ever has.  Remember that the tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  In disobeying God’s command they chose to commit an evil action.  Thus, they became aware not only of the existence of good, but of the harsh reality of evil.  They experienced first hand what it means to be aware of both good and evil, not only in theory, but in experience as well.  They gave up experiencing just good to willingly experience evil.

It is strange for us to think this way.  We who experience both good and evil on a daily basis have become so accustomed to it that we no longer think about it.  This is the world our first parents made, and it is a world we each continue to make every day in our words and deeds.  There is only one way out of it.  Just as Adam stepped out of a good world and brought us into an evil one, so the second Adam, Jesus, stepped into an evil world to bring us back to a good one.  All who believe in Him, His death for our sins, and His resurrection will one day go to this good world forever.

Salvation has come.  Someday the knowledge of evil will be but a theory perhaps reflected on in academic circles while the experience of true and uncorrupted good will exist for all.