Gaining Knowledge

In Genesis 3 we read the story of “The Fall” in which Eve is tempted by the serpent and eats from the Tree of Knowledge and shares it with Adam.  This is the very tree that God commanded them not to eat from.  The serpent’s argument was that they “would not surely die” but that they would gain knowledge and know the things that God knows.  So when they ate the fruit their eyes were opened and they saw good from evil.  So why does this become a bad thing, other then the fact that God told them not to eat from it?

            It was this knowledge of good and evil that opened the doorway to sinful desires.  Why were Adam and Eve so oblivious to the fact that both of them were naked before eating the fruit, but then so very aware of it after they ate the fruit?  So much so that they hid and covered themselves with leaves.  Their eyes were now opened to sinful desires.  Sure they were married and have nothing to be ashamed of with each other.  Face it even if we are married running around in our own house naked all day long would still feel awkward to say the least. 

            It is because of this knowledge of good and evil that we are now tempted to sin and this is not God’s fault or Adam and Eve’s fault lest we start blaming others just as they did when they were caught in sin.  We are now aware of evil and our sinful hearts desire that, but we are also aware of good and our sinful hearts do not desire that.  This is why we need a Savior in our lives, because even the strongest of us spiritually have sinned at least once in our lives, some of us even on a regular basis.  Paul struggles with this very issue in Romans 7:15 he says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

            So we are war within ourselves on a regular basis just as Paul describes here.  We know the good through the Spirit of God, but still evil lives in us all as the result of the fall the knowledge of evil.  The only way we will ever stay strong in this ongoing battle is to have a faithful relationship with our Lord and through the reading of His Word.  He will always be with us and we do not have to fight this alone, but there has to be an effort on our part and a desire to want to stay in the light of truth.

            John 3:19-21 shows us this truth. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.