Why was the fruit forbidden?
I've heard atheists and Bible critics lay into the story of Adam and Eve for many reasons. One of the critiques involves the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why did God place this temptation in the garden in first place? And what was so bad about eating a piece of fruit?
Many have expressed their vexation at a God who would inflict punishment on his prized creation just because they sought greater understanding through eating the tree's fruit.
That's just like God, they quip - He doesn't want you to be able to think for yourself. He wants you to blindly obey Him.
So what is the deal with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What would be so wrong with eating of its fruit? Why didn't God want them to have this knowledge? These are very reasonable questions.
To start this discussion I will ask - what was the purpose of God creating Adam and Eve? Was it to follow a list of rules? Or was it to have fellowship with God? The implication of the Genesis account - and of the testimony of Jesus - is that God's intent was to have an intimate love relationship with his prized creation. Adam was designed to find fulfillment and life in the most perfect being in the universe - God. Let me ask this - would possessing the knowledge that the tree offered enhance this relationship with God or would it hinder it? Would the knowledge bring Adam closer to what was perfect or would it separate Adam from it?
What was the knowledge that the tree offered? If we take it at face value, the fruit would open Adam's understanding to know everything that is good and everything that is evil. What's so wrong with that?
Listen to what Paul has to say: "For I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covet. 'But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind..." (Rom. 7:7,8)
Sometimes ignorance really is better. Yikes! Did I really just say that?!
Imagine what happened when Adam took a bite of the forbidden fruit. His mind became flooded with the knowledge of all sorts of evil. His mind became filled with the knowledge of sins he didn't even know were a possibility. What? I could do THAT with my body? What? I could intake THAT mind altering drug?
Why wouldn't God want Adam to have this information? For one, you aren't tempted by options you don't know about. You don't even think about the little black box in the corner of the room until someone comes in and tells you not to open the little black box in the corner of the room. You aren't tempted to turn on the television and watch an inappropriate movie if you didn't read TV Guide and find out the movie was on tonight.
Secondly, God wanted Adam's morality to stem from relationship with Himself, not from a list of do's and dont's. If Adam started out life with a long list of all the evil things he needed to avoid, his focus might have soon become consumed with the list. This is not an unfamiliar occurrence, born out by many Biblical examples. Oftentimes God's people became consumed with all the rules and lists of how to avoid evil that they actually turned away from relationship with God and served the list, usually resulting in skewing the original intent of the rules - that of remaining faithful to God.
When we have rules without relationship, the results are never pretty.
God's intention is for us to live in communication with the Spirit - walking in the Spirit and being directed by Him. God wants our obedience to come from our hearts, empowered by the Holy Spirit, not from slavery to a set of rules.
God's desire is to move us away from a list of rules that we religiously follow. He doesn't want us to be consumed with lists of all the evil that we need to avoid. The more you think about all that you shouldn't do, the less time you spend focusing on the good you should be focused on. He want's our focus to be entirely on Him - on what is perfect. When we are focused on what is good, we naturally avoid what is evil. God wants us to be focused on the things that are above (in heaven) not on the things that are on this earth (Colossians 3:2).
So what was wrong with eating that fruit? Besides being a direct disregard for God's desire, it put Adam in the driver's seat. Instead of letting God direct Adam into what is good and avoid what is evil, Adam took that role for himself. The problem is that when moral behavior flows out of self-imposed lists and rules instead of relationship with God, we become confused about what we should do and powerless to do it. God wants to help us focus on what is the most important thing at any moment of the day. Our lists of rules can become a clatter of noise in our heads that keep us from pure devotion to the One our rules are supposed to please.
I've heard atheists and Bible critics lay into the story of Adam and Eve for many reasons. One of the critiques involves the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why did God place this temptation in the garden in first place? And what was so bad about eating a piece of fruit?
Many have expressed their vexation at a God who would inflict punishment on his prized creation just because they sought greater understanding through eating the tree's fruit.
That's just like God, they quip - He doesn't want you to be able to think for yourself. He wants you to blindly obey Him.
So what is the deal with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What would be so wrong with eating of its fruit? Why didn't God want them to have this knowledge? These are very reasonable questions.
To start this discussion I will ask - what was the purpose of God creating Adam and Eve? Was it to follow a list of rules? Or was it to have fellowship with God? The implication of the Genesis account - and of the testimony of Jesus - is that God's intent was to have an intimate love relationship with his prized creation. Adam was designed to find fulfillment and life in the most perfect being in the universe - God. Let me ask this - would possessing the knowledge that the tree offered enhance this relationship with God or would it hinder it? Would the knowledge bring Adam closer to what was perfect or would it separate Adam from it?
What was the knowledge that the tree offered? If we take it at face value, the fruit would open Adam's understanding to know everything that is good and everything that is evil. What's so wrong with that?
Listen to what Paul has to say: "For I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covet. 'But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind..." (Rom. 7:7,8)
Sometimes ignorance really is better. Yikes! Did I really just say that?!
Imagine what happened when Adam took a bite of the forbidden fruit. His mind became flooded with the knowledge of all sorts of evil. His mind became filled with the knowledge of sins he didn't even know were a possibility. What? I could do THAT with my body? What? I could intake THAT mind altering drug?
Why wouldn't God want Adam to have this information? For one, you aren't tempted by options you don't know about. You don't even think about the little black box in the corner of the room until someone comes in and tells you not to open the little black box in the corner of the room. You aren't tempted to turn on the television and watch an inappropriate movie if you didn't read TV Guide and find out the movie was on tonight.
Secondly, God wanted Adam's morality to stem from relationship with Himself, not from a list of do's and dont's. If Adam started out life with a long list of all the evil things he needed to avoid, his focus might have soon become consumed with the list. This is not an unfamiliar occurrence, born out by many Biblical examples. Oftentimes God's people became consumed with all the rules and lists of how to avoid evil that they actually turned away from relationship with God and served the list, usually resulting in skewing the original intent of the rules - that of remaining faithful to God.
When we have rules without relationship, the results are never pretty.
God's intention is for us to live in communication with the Spirit - walking in the Spirit and being directed by Him. God wants our obedience to come from our hearts, empowered by the Holy Spirit, not from slavery to a set of rules.
God's desire is to move us away from a list of rules that we religiously follow. He doesn't want us to be consumed with lists of all the evil that we need to avoid. The more you think about all that you shouldn't do, the less time you spend focusing on the good you should be focused on. He want's our focus to be entirely on Him - on what is perfect. When we are focused on what is good, we naturally avoid what is evil. God wants us to be focused on the things that are above (in heaven) not on the things that are on this earth (Colossians 3:2).
So what was wrong with eating that fruit? Besides being a direct disregard for God's desire, it put Adam in the driver's seat. Instead of letting God direct Adam into what is good and avoid what is evil, Adam took that role for himself. The problem is that when moral behavior flows out of self-imposed lists and rules instead of relationship with God, we become confused about what we should do and powerless to do it. God wants to help us focus on what is the most important thing at any moment of the day. Our lists of rules can become a clatter of noise in our heads that keep us from pure devotion to the One our rules are supposed to please.
HTML Comment Box is loading comments...