Why do you think God added ONE tree to the Garden of Eden from which man was not supposed to eat? There were plenty of other trees for Adam and Eve to tend, enjoy, and from which to receive sustenance. So....what was the purpose of that one tree? I think it helps to think through what the consequences from eating of that tree meant for Adam and Eve....a broken fellowship with God due to a rejection of Him. So, the reason it was there had much to do with the opposite of this consequence... God's desire to have true fellowship with humanity. That seems odd, right? BUT, in order for us to love GOD we have to constantly choose HIM....that means we also are able to constantly reject HIM... which, in turn, means there will be other desirable things in life that seek to be chosen by us that are not GOD'S PLAN FOR US...our choosing of them is EVIL....and they won't be on the outskirts of our life as we might wish.....they will probably be central and within our grasp like that tree was in the middle of the garden for Adam and Eve.
I am grateful to live in the United States of America for many reasons....my freedom to worship God and speak freely of my faith in Christ is such a privilege. That does not mean the USA is free from the knowledge of good and evil "trees"...we see new trees sprouting up all the time with new "choices"....free will. Until Jesus rules, I think all cultures and societies will try to say "it's okay to eat of that tree" they will even go to great lengths to prove why GOD "must have" meant for us to eat of this tree or HE wouldn't have placed it right there, or given us a desire for it, or whatever might be persuasive in the argument at the time. I think it would've been admirable if Adam and Eve had just decided to chop that tree down...interesting thought, right?....Oh, how that may have changed the story of our beginnings. But, there may have been another tree that sprouted up in it's place. I'm thinking it must have been an essential tree for GOD to place it in the middle of the garden. You get what the tree was, right?....the fruit on the tree was for the knowledge of good and evil....the opportunity to understand both and make a choice between the two. Before that, there was still free will because the tree existed, but it was much less complicated....just don't eat of this one tree....afterwards, a whole world of potential choices to oppose GOD were revealed.
Anyway, I don't think we can take an ax to all the evil in our world...nor to the freedom to choose between good and evil...we can try through establishing laws or cultural norms, but the beauty in freedom is in the ability to make the choice in our own hearts daily....choosing GOD above all....even while other desirable alternatives may be present and seem enticing to us. God desires a people who claim HIM above all else.
I told you I have been chewing on this....so I haven't processed it all, but I really want GOD to show me how I can live and love as one in the world, yet not of it. I think about Jesus and His example of visiting with and dining with sinners and how the religious groups at that time hated Him for that and sometimes I see my own "religiousness" mirroring some of those attitudes. It is not more important to HATE that a tree of good and evil is present in the garden. It is more important to LOVE GOD and allow Him to teach me the most excellent way.
Here's one really amazing thing about GOD'S love....it always transcends the trees.....it is SO GREAT that even though we often choose to disobey HIM, HE gives us a way to be forgiven.
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