Rejecting the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and Choosing the Genuine Good, God

The tree of knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan as the source of death to man, and it includes everything apart from God, behind which Satan can hide to bring in death; only God is the genuine good, and gaining God equals gaining the genuine good. Amen!

As believers in Christ, we are put in front of two trees: the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life.

This didn’t just happen many thousands of years ago after God created man; this happens every single day, even every single moment, for we are a miniature garden of Eden.

The fact that God places us in front of the tree of life, giving us freedom of choice, indicates that He wants us to receive Him as our life by eating the tree of life. Amen!

God wants us to partake of Him as life. For this, He had to go through a process, for no one can partake of God unless He is processed and consummated to be edible, enjoyable, and touchable.

God became a man, lived a perfect human life on earth, died on the cross for our sins and to destroy the devil, and was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit.

Now as the Spirit that gives life He is embodied in His word, and whenever we come to the word of God with an open heart and an exercised spirit, we receive life.

We all can testify that we daily can make new discoveries in the word of God, for His word is food to us.

By eating the Lord in His word by means of the exercise of our spirit, God is assimilated organically and metabolically into our being, and we become part of His corporate expression on earth.

The tree of life is nothing but Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, who came to be life to us in the form of food.

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, in Him was life, He Himself was life, and He came to give life and give us life abundantly. Hallelujah!

May we see the tree of life, eat the tree of life, and reject the tree of knowledge of good and evil, clinging to Christ as the tree of life to enjoy Him and live because of Him!

This tree of life, the tree of God, is the center of the universe, and when we eat Christ as life in His word, we are constituted with Him and He becomes us as we become Him! Hallelujah!

How privileged we are, as believers in Christ, to not only have the image and likeness of God but even more, have the life of God in our spirit, and be filled with His life to express Him!

As we enjoy Christ as the tree of life, partake of Him as life, and take Him in as our life, we are inwardly reconstituted with Him and we become tree-of-life-men, those who live by the tree of life and express the tree of life wherever we go! Amen, may we be such ones!

Seeing that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Signifies Satan as the Source of Death to Man

On one hand, the tree of life signifies Christ as the embodiment of God coming to us as the Spirit to be food to us so that we may have life and live because of Him.

On the other hand, the tree of knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan as the source of death to man (Heb. 2:14).

It also signifies all things apart from God, behind which Satan hides and which Satan uses, which bring in death.

Everything apart from God, including good things and even scriptural things and religious things, can be utilized by Satan, the subtle one, to bring death to man (John 5:39-40; 2 Cor. 3:6).

The tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17) is the opposite of the tree of life and, instead of being called the tree of death, it is called the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

This means that both the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil come from the same tree, and this knowledge brings in death.

We may think that we just want to know the good and avoid evil, but as long as it is the knowledge of good and evil, it brings in death.

As long as it is knowledge, it doesn’t belong to life.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil doesn’t signify Satan directly but it firstly signifies everything apart from God.

Satan likes to conceal and hide himself behind things that seem to be good, and then he brings in death. Oh, Lord!

God is frank, always coming to the front; He clearly said that, if man eats of the tree of life, he will live, but if he eats of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he will die.

But Satan is not that frank; rather, he doesn’t come openly but will act subtly.

Satan comes to us behind someone’s words or behind the things in a department store in the shopping center; we may think that those things are not evil, but when we contact them apart from God, we receive death.

Sometimes Satan may even utilize the Bible, operating through the letters and words of the Scripture to harass us.

For example, the Jewish religionists – the scribes and the Pharisees – used the words of the Scripture to condemn and put the Lord Jesus to death (John 19:7).

All things apart from God, anything that is not God Himself, including good and scriptural things, can be utilized by Satan to bring in death.

John 5:39-40 is a good example of this. The Lord Jesus told the Jewish religionists that they search the Scriptures because they think that in them they have eternal life, but they are not willing to come to Him so that they may have life.

The Scriptures, the words in the Bible, testify concerning Christ; however, if we take the word of the Bible without contacting Christ, we could receive or give death. Oh, Lord!

May we be willing to reject anything of mere knowledge and come to the Lord Jesus as the tree of life in His word to receive life!

The Scriptures testify concerning the Lord; we need to be willing to come to Him as we come to His word so that we may receive life.

It is good to read the Bible, but when we read it, we should first pray and contact the Lord; we need to ask the Lord to turn our heart and cause us to see Him and enjoy Him in His word.

Good and evil are not signified by two trees but by one tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Seeking good other than God belongs to Satan. Satan can be the source of good things – which things are apart from God.

The things apart from God fall into three main categories: knowledge, good, and evil.

If we intend to do something good, we may think it is good and so we should do it; however, deep in our spirit, we have the sense not to do it.

We should not employ or live by the principle of good and bad, right or wrong, but go along with the sense of life in our spirit.

The principle of life is in our mingled spirit, for our spirit is life; if we have peace within concerning doing something, saying something, or going somewhere, we should do it, but if we don’t, it’s best not to.

May we learn to spot the tree of knowledge of good and evil with all its subtle manifestations and may we run to the Lord as the tree of life, taking Him as our life and living by the sense of life within our spirit, so that we may receive more life, live by the divine life, and express God!

Lord Jesus, shine on us and expose the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Save us from living merely according to the principle of right and wrong, good and evil. We want to contact You as we come to Your word. Keep us in contact with You all throughout the day. Oh Lord, we love You! We turn to You! We don’t want to do anything apart from You. We don’t want to do things merely because they are good: we choose God, the divine life, and we want to live by the sense of life in our spirit! Expose the subtle manifestations of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and turn us to You as life. Dear Lord Jesus, we want to stay away from death and remain in life, be filled with You as life, and live by the divine life so that life may flow through us!

The Genuine Good is God Himself – Gaining God equals Gaining the Genuine Good!

It is a great revelation when we see that both good and evil come from the same source.

From our youth, we were taught to do good and reject evil, to speak good things and not say anything evil, and to do the right thing and stay away from the wrong things.

But according to the Bible, good and evil and knowledge are part of the same tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Seeking anything good other than God belongs to Satan, who disguises himself and hides behind so many good things to bring in death.

For example, look at the case of Job in the Old Testament; he was such a good person!

He was a good man, doing all things in a good way, choosing the good things, rejecting the evil things, and helping others also do good.

What God wants, however, is not a good man but a God-man, a man that knows God, is filled with God and expresses God.

This is why God put man not in front of the tree of good and the tree of evil but in front of the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

God wants us to enjoy Him and partake of Him as life so that we may live because of Him and express Him as life.

When we choose the other tree, however, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we taste things that belong to death and we bring in death.

When we choose to turn to our spirit and enjoy God as life, we are filled with God, He satisfies us, and He is expressed through us.

The genuine good is God Himself (Matt. 19:17; Mark 10:17-18); gaining God equals gaining the genuine good.

Yes, God is good all the time, but not everything good is God. God is good, but not everything that seems to be good is God.

Anything other than God Himself is actually not good, no matter how good it may seem to us. Only God is good.

One day someone came to the Lord Jesus and said, Good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? The Lord Jesus said, Why do you call Me good? Only God is good.

This shows that even the Lord Jesus lived by God, in God, one with God, and as God so that God, who is good, would be manifested through Him.

Jesus is God Himself, and God is good; God is the genuine good, and apart from Him nothing and no one else is good.

Psa. 16:2 says, I say to Jehovah, You are my Lord, no good have I beyond You. Amen!

When the Lord Jesus was a man, when He lived and worked in His heavenly ministry, He had no blessing, no pleasure, and no enjoyment other than God the Father, for the Father was His unique good.

The nature and result of the tree of life are both life, because the tree of life is of life and results in life.

The nature and result of the tree of knowledge of good and evil are both death because both knowledge, good, and evil are of death and bring in death.

May we choose God, who is the genuine good, and may we enjoy God, who is good, so that we may be filled with His life and live because of His life in our Christian life today.

May the Lord have mercy on us so that we may not be deceived by the subtle manifestations and expressions of Satan as something good.

Anything apart from God is pseudo-good, not the real good. What the world calls as good is not real good – only God is the genuine good.

This is why the tree of knowledge of good and evil has both good and evil, for these are apart from God, who is life.

As believers in Christ, we shouldn’t be in the realm of choosing the good vs rejecting the evil but in the realm of enjoying God as life and living because of Him for His corporate expression.

Hallelujah, only God is good, for He is genuine good and anything else is not real good! We come to You, Lord, to enjoy You as our life and our everything. What we need is just You; we don’t need good or evil or knowledge, we simply need God. Have mercy on us, dear Lord, and expose the enemy’s tactics and disguises behind seemingly good things. We only want the genuine good, which is God. We only want life, the divine life. Make us the enjoyers of Christ as life. Make us those who pay attention to the sense of life within. May we be those who live by the principle of life, listening to the Lord’s speaking within and living by the tree of life!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (pp. 162-169), by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life (2022 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 1, entitled, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life for the Accomplishing of God’s Eternal Economy.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The tree of life the center is / Of God’s eternal, perfect plan, / Denoting God in Christ as life / To be received as all by man. / The tree of knowledge standing there, / Bespeaks a sure and warning voice: / Outside of God there is a source / Of death to all who make this choice. (Hymns #733)
  – Oh, we’ll stay on God’s life line, never turning aside. / We don’t care for vain knowledge, which will cause us to die. / Lord, we’ll touch You by calling on Your name each day; / Living in Your appearing, in Your presence we’ll stay. (Hymns #1194)
  – God’s own Word must not be taken / Just as knowledge but as life, / Not alone God’s thought conveying, / But Himself to us as life; / Not alone God’s mind revealing, / But His Christ as life within, / Not alone the teaching giving, / But experience of Him. (Hymns #816)