- Jun 29, 2019
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Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” As God is good, the heavens and the earth He created are good. They don’t deceive; the cynical might say they would if they could, but that is a red herring tied to a straw argument. What we know about the heavens, and particularly of the earth, is that they have sustained the living. It doesn’t matter to them who the living are or what they do. But the earth, in particular, reacts accordingly.
Enter man. If Adam and Eve didn’t eat from the Tree of Good and Evil, they would know as much about both as the heavens and the earth do, which is nothing. But in eating from the Tree, Adam and Eve learned something the heavens and the earth don’t know. Until they ate from the Tree, their allegiance was wholly to God. The Tree taught them what good and evil is, but even before they ate from the Tree they undertook a degree of evil by disobeying God when He said not to eat from the Tree, and instead they listened to the devil through the serpent.
And the evil that was now imparted in them became a form of opportunity in Cain who slew his brother Abel, hoping to take his place. But God clearly favored Abel because Abel presented to God that which he cultivated and was thus fruitful, whereas Cain merely took from the ground what the ground had to offer, which had nothing to do with Cain except he pulled up what the ground offered. Cain didn’t succeed in taking Abel’s place, and generations after Cain were comprised of opportunists who ignored God and His Word, and many of those who hung out with them did not know that God existed. Like Cain, they all were not mindful of God’s command to be fruitful in the spirit of goodness, and instead they cut corners and took what they could take and were not mindful of others in their deception; they were only interested in their selfish gain in which only they themselves benefitted.
And these people live unto this day, some of them claiming to be faithful to God, yet lacking in love for Him and charity toward others. Contrary to what James 2:10 warns, they ostensibly abide by some pats of the Bible, but not all of it. They pretend to love God in order to see some selfish gain, while they ignore things like helping the poor and needy, loving their neighbors, and, in accordance with Ephesians 4:25 and Zechariah 8:16, speaking the truth to one another and with your neighbor. They don’t act in the spirit of goodness as the Bible generally says to act.
There is an earthly saying that you can’t cheat an honest person. I tell you that you can’t deceive a truly honest person either. For a truly honest person, who loves God, will be aware of the harm they may inflict on others and themselves if undertaking the actions of those who deceive. God has told us to reap what WE sow, not what others sow. If we take what others sow without paying them what we have reaped from what we sow, somebody will be harmed. That is sin. And the wages of sin is death.
Enter man. If Adam and Eve didn’t eat from the Tree of Good and Evil, they would know as much about both as the heavens and the earth do, which is nothing. But in eating from the Tree, Adam and Eve learned something the heavens and the earth don’t know. Until they ate from the Tree, their allegiance was wholly to God. The Tree taught them what good and evil is, but even before they ate from the Tree they undertook a degree of evil by disobeying God when He said not to eat from the Tree, and instead they listened to the devil through the serpent.
And the evil that was now imparted in them became a form of opportunity in Cain who slew his brother Abel, hoping to take his place. But God clearly favored Abel because Abel presented to God that which he cultivated and was thus fruitful, whereas Cain merely took from the ground what the ground had to offer, which had nothing to do with Cain except he pulled up what the ground offered. Cain didn’t succeed in taking Abel’s place, and generations after Cain were comprised of opportunists who ignored God and His Word, and many of those who hung out with them did not know that God existed. Like Cain, they all were not mindful of God’s command to be fruitful in the spirit of goodness, and instead they cut corners and took what they could take and were not mindful of others in their deception; they were only interested in their selfish gain in which only they themselves benefitted.
And these people live unto this day, some of them claiming to be faithful to God, yet lacking in love for Him and charity toward others. Contrary to what James 2:10 warns, they ostensibly abide by some pats of the Bible, but not all of it. They pretend to love God in order to see some selfish gain, while they ignore things like helping the poor and needy, loving their neighbors, and, in accordance with Ephesians 4:25 and Zechariah 8:16, speaking the truth to one another and with your neighbor. They don’t act in the spirit of goodness as the Bible generally says to act.
There is an earthly saying that you can’t cheat an honest person. I tell you that you can’t deceive a truly honest person either. For a truly honest person, who loves God, will be aware of the harm they may inflict on others and themselves if undertaking the actions of those who deceive. God has told us to reap what WE sow, not what others sow. If we take what others sow without paying them what we have reaped from what we sow, somebody will be harmed. That is sin. And the wages of sin is death.
