God’s Intention is for us to be on the Line of the Tree of Life in our Daily Living

God’s intention is not that we would be on the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but on the line of the tree of life; our daily living should not be according to right or wrong but according to the tree of life, in the realm of the tree of life.

As believers in Christ, we have a choice: we can choose to enjoy Christ and live Christ as the tree of life, or we can choose to know about God and the Bible and live according to the principle of good vs evil.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil produces good and evil people; some are good (like Job was in the Old Testament) but many more are evil.

As believers in the Lord, we love the Lord, we love good, and we want to stay away from evil; however, there’s the danger that, instead of taking Christ in as the tree of life, we would merely live according to the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Job did this; he heard of God by the hearing of the ear, but he never saw Him or touched Him, but he built up his own righteousness, perfection, and integrity, and this became a problem.

To Job, his own integrity was the best thing he could do, but to God, this was the main thing that kept Job away from enjoying the tree of life.

Even though God doesn’t want to see His people suffer, just as a parent doesn’t want to see his children suffer, yet He had to allow a certain amount of suffering to strip Job of his own integrity so that he would be open to receive God and have God as his everything.

God would never willingly inflict suffering on us; His intention is not that we suffer but rather, He is lovingly concerned for us, and in His concern and care, He allows suffering to take place for His purpose to be accomplished.

In Job’s case, God allowed Satan to unwittingly do His will; He allowed the enemy to tear down what he himself has built up in Job.

Satan is the tree of knowledge, and as such a one, he has been built up in Job. So God allowed Satan to unwittingly undo what he himself has done, what he has built up in Job so that Job would be open and emptied to see God and be transferred out of the tree of knowledge and into the tree of life.

On the positive side, when all the natural righteousness and self-righteousness and integrity that has been built up in Job, when it all had been torn down, he saw God; at the end of Job 42, he saw God and repented. He experienced a transfer.

Such a transfer we all need to experience; we need to be transferred in our daily living out of the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and onto the line of the tree of life.

In the case of Job, the tree of knowledge produced a very good man, but it also produced a bunch of evil men who lived in Job’s generation; sometimes this tree produces good men, and sometimes it produces evil men, but it never produces God-men, men who express God.

Oh Lord, may we see the line of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and may we choose to be and live on the line of the tree of life!

God’s Intention is to have us on the Line of the Tree of Life and Not on the Line of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

If we carefully read the book of Job in the light of God’s eternal economy we will realize that God’s intention was not to have a Job in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but a Job in the line of the tree of life.

It seems that, in regards to Job, God Himself initiated the conversation with Satan in Job 1 and 2, for He told Satan, Have you considered My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity… (Job 2:3).

When God looked at Job, His realization was that he was a righteous man but on the wrong line – he was on the line of the tree of knowledge, not on the line of life, so He had to do something about it.

So God used the devil to tear down what he himself built up so that Job would be transferred on the line of the tree of life.

In Jer. 9:23-24 we see a kind of a summary of Job’s experience in his sufferings, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him who glories glory in this, that he has insight and knows Me.

Job was wise, strong, and rich, and he was righteous; and he gloried in those things.

So the Lord had to come in and touch those things so that Job’s only glory would be that he knows God and has insight. It is the same with us today.

We may think we are wise, we may have some riches, and we may be strong and righteous, and we may be contented in these things.

So the Lord has to come in to touch our ability, our capability, our intelligence, our might, our strength (both physically and psychologically), our wealth, and our desire for financial independence.

All these things that we trust in, the things we rely on, are on the line of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and they have to go; we can’t trust our wisdom or our strength – we can’t trust even our spiritual strength.

We depend on the Lord, for He is our real wisdom and strength.

From the very first chapters in the Bible, we see God’s intention with man: He created Adam and put him in front of two trees – the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God wanted Adam to eat the tree of life so that he would take God in as life and this life would grow in him.

However, Adam was deceived and partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and this tree was sown into him to grow, throughout the generations, until today. Today the entire human race is constituted according to the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Every society, from the third-world countries to the most developed countries, has a set of ethics and morals, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil is growing.

This was the situation with Job and his friends; their logic was according to the line of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, being devoid of the divine revelation and of the experience of the divine life (see Job 2:11 – 32:1).

If we read this book, we just see how much knowledge they had – they had knowledge both of the good and of the evil, but they did not touch God or experience God as the tree of life. Oh, Lord!

May the Lord deliver us from the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and fully transfer us in the line of the tree of life so that both our living and our work and our fellowship together would be in the line of the tree of life!

May our fellowship not be like that in the book of Job, filled with opinions, debates, and different viewpoints; may we choose to turn to the Lord and be in the line of the tree of life!

Lord Jesus, shine on us and expose how much of our living is still in the line of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Bring us fully in the line of the tree of life. We do not want to build up our own righteousness, perfection, and integrity; we simply want You, dear Lord, to grow in us and be our life and everything so that we may express You. We depend on You, Lord, for everything; You are our wisdom, our strength, and our glory. We want to know You in a subjective and inward way. Renew our mind, Lord, and save us from our efforts of improving ourselves; we choose to turn to You and take You as the tree of life. May our daily living, our work for the Lord, and our fellowship with one another be in the line of the tree of life by our taking in God as life to live by the divine life!

Being in the Realm of the Tree of Life by Depending on the Lord in all Things of our Daily Living

May the Lord save us and bring us out of the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and fully in the line of the tree of life.

May our concept concerning man’s relationship with God be built not on good and evil, right and wrong, but on the tree of life, that is, partaking of God as life.

May we be saved from having our daily living in the line of the tree of knowledge, that is, according to the human, ethical concept of the fallen man (Job 8:1-20).

The fallen human concept is that, if we do something evil, God will punish us, but if we do good, He will reward us.

This is the commercial concept introduced by Satan; according to this concept, if we do good, God will bless us, but if we do evil, He will punish us.

For example, in our Christian life we may think that, if we read our Bible daily and go to the meetings regularly, God has to bless us.

If we participate in the church life, if we may even go to the Full-Time Training, He needs to do what He’s expected to do, that is, bless us.

This is a wrong concept – it is the concept of Satan, the concept of the tree of knowledge. God’s relationship with man is not based on doing good vs doing evil but rather, it is according to the tree of life.

We need to be in the realm of the tree of life and live in the line of the tree of life by depending on the Lord in all things of our daily life.

Job and his friends were in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and God was trying to rescue them out from that realm and put them into the realm of the tree of life (Job 1:1; 2:3; 19:10).

So much of our daily life is spent in the realm of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, always wanting an answer to our question, and always wanting to do good and stay away from evil! Oh, Lord!

In the Gospels, we see how a man was blind from birth, and the disciples wanted to know, according to the tree of knowledge, whether it was him or his parents that have sinned so that he is blind.

The Lord’s answer, however, was that he was blind neither because of this nor of that, but so that God would be glorified.

Many times we are halted in the knowledge of right and wrong, and we don’t know or live according to God’s economy but rather, we live according to right or wrong. Oh, Lord!

For example, in our married life we may not do bad things but rather do good, and we may be in the line of the tree of knowledge, watering this tree and cultivating it, fertilizing it, and living according to it. Oh, Lord!

And then, when an argument happens, we may be quite disappointed, for we are doing good and not evil, so why does this happen?

Instead of cultivating the tree of knowledge, we should turn to the Lord and pray and read His word, having a deep realization that we were crucified with Christ, and it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20).

The more we call on the Lord, pray, and pray-read His word, the more we cultivate and water the tree of life, and the more we live in the line of the tree of life.

May we realize that God has no intention to increase our perfection, uprightness, righteousness, and integrity but rather, He wants to strip anything that we have built up in our natural man so that we can seek and gain only God Himself! Amen!

When we see this, when we realize that God is not in the realm of right and wrong but rather in the realm of the tree of life, we will seek God, pursue to gain Christ, and do things not according to right or wrong but according to the sense of life within!

For us to be in the line of the tree of life, we need to depend on the Lord in all things of our daily living; in our speaking in particular we need to depend on the Lord, seeking to be one spirit with Him in everything we speak.

And when we have a problem with someone, instead of going and “talking about it”, we should simply pray-read the word of God and care not for the problem but for the living Christ in us; once we enjoy Christ and live in the realm of the tree of life, we can take care of other things.

May we care not for problems or our anger but for the Christ who lives in us, enjoying Him and depending on Him, so that we may live in the line of life day by day.

Yes, the Bible does say that we should abhor what is evil and cling to what is good; however, we do this in the realm of the tree of life, by depending on the Lord as our life and everything.

When we live in the line of the tree of life, nothing bothers us, for we enjoy the Lord and depend on Him as our life and everything.

When we live in the line of the tree of knowledge, everything bothers us, and we never smile, for many things trouble us and are not according to our standard. Oh, Lord Jesus!

Lord Jesus, cause us to realize that Your intention is NOT to increase our perfection, uprightness, righteousness, and integrity but rather that we seek God, enjoy God, and depend on God as the tree of life! Transfer us from the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and in the line of the tree of life. Amen, Lord Jesus, we come to You not to seek answers but just to enjoy You as life, take You in as our life, and to live by the divine life that grows and develops in us. May the tree of life in us grow and develop, and may we live in the line of the tree of life in our daily living. Amen, Lord Jesus, keep us calling on Your name, praying, and pray-reading Your word so that we may grow, fertilize, and cultivate the tree of life, so that our daily living may be in the realm of the tree of life! Make us tree-of-life-men in our daily life!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Job (pp. 29-30, 40, 72), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 4, Man and the Two Trees.
• Further reading: recommending, God’s Intention with Job – to have Job in the Line of the Tree of Life; also, The Tree of Life (by Witness Lee)
• Hymns on this topic:
  – For knowledge only bringeth death, / Though evil or though good it seem; / For any thing apart from God, / Is but the fruit of Satan’s scheme. / Not only evil, but the good / Is contradictory to Christ; / Not only knowledge of the bad, / But even good is versus Christ. (Hymns #733)
  – So now we have to set our mind on Him; / Each day, each hour, our mind on Him must be; / That by this Spirit we’d be saved within / By life and reign in life eternally… / Life is our God and life is Christ our Lord. / Life is the Spirit. Life’s the only way— / Till we’re transfigured and redeemed to God. / We’re waiting, looking forward to that day! (Hymns #1195)
  – I freely eat this living tree, / For eating is the way / To put God’s life inside of me, / To live by Him today. (Hymns #1143)