If we look
around us, it soon becomes evident that most people divide the world into good
and bad, right and wrong or even good or evil. Why do we have this dualistic
structure? Where did it come from, and is it a correct perspective? It has been
said by a psychologist that,
“It’s a
dangerous oversimplification to believe that some people are innately ‘good’
while others are innately ‘evil’ or ‘bad.’ … ‘Good’ means a lack of
self-centredness…‘Evil’ people are those who are unable to empathize with
others.”[1]
One Bible passage that
demonstrates how this good and evil thing started here on earth is Gen 2:16-17,
16 “And the LORD God commanded the humanity, saying, ‘You may
surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat
of it you shall surely die” (Gen 2:16-17 ESV)
This was said in a time
when there was no good and evil within humans. The idea of ‘Good and Evil’ was the
knowledge that only God could understand and manage. Why this knowledge existed
in the first place, we have not been told. However, humanity having eaten from
this tree has not able to handle it as we have seen throughout history. Our
knowledge of good and evil has always been subjective.
So why put
the tree there in the first place? Let me suggest four possible reasons.
·
Firstly, it was God’s
choice to do so, and He knows what He is doing even if we do not.
·
Secondly, it was to be
a constant reminder of His authority. That meant even things that we cannot
understand or handle.
·
Thirdly, it was a
display of His grace that He had this matter in hand, even when we would meet
the fallen one.
·
Finally, it was
evidence of the trust that He had in humanity to obey Him and leave this kind
of knowledge to Him.
So, we are
told about this fallen one in Genesis chapter three. He was one who was more
cunning than all the beasts in the garden and came along and twisted the Word
of God. He was out to destroy the relationship that humanity had with God. He
caused humanity to question God’s Word (Gen 3:1-5), something that they had
never done before. He placed the idea of doing something that only God could do
in their minds, i.e. know good and evil. Since, then we have struggled with
this dualistic concept, something that we never created to do.
Pause in His presence
for a moment and think this over…
[1] Taylor, Steven. “The
Real Meaning of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil.’” https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/out-the-darkness/201308/the-real-meaning-good-and-evil (20th
May 2020).
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