In Gen. 2:9 we see that besides the tree of life in the middle of the garden of Eden there’s another tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life is simple – it gives you life, the divine life, so that you may fulfill God’s purpose.
However, the other tree in this verse is very complicated: it is the tree of knowledge, the tree of good, the tree of evil, and it results in death. Right from the very beginning of the Bible we see that God gave man the choice between God Himself as life to man or Satan as death.
God is very frank and honest; He doesn’t try to lure man into obeying Him or receiving Him. Satan, however, is very deceiving and cunning – he came as a serpent to man to subtly sow the seed of doubt regarding God’s word, and then he deceived man into eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Satan conceals himself, disguises himself, and is not clear what the end result of cooperating will be. But God is simple: He comes to us as life, wants to give us life, and He intends to continually dispense Himself as life into us!
We need to see what the tree of knowledge signifies, and how can we as believers in Christ would not live by the tree of knowledge but by the tree of life.
Seeing what The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is
As seen from the entire revelation in the Bible, the tree of knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan as the source of death to man (Gen. 2:9, 17; Heb. 2:14). Since Satan is not so obvious as the source of this tree, you could say that everything apart from God can be categorized as: knowledge, good, and evil, and they lead man to death.
Good things, moral things, ethical things, good teachings, and even scriptural and religious things apart from God are all a source of death. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6). Our coming to the Bible to seek life and light without coming to the Lord Himself to receive light can result in us receiving the knowledge of good and evil, but not the real life of God (John 5:39-40).
Ever since we know how to talk and think, we live in the realm of right and wrong. We always look for the right way to do things, and reject the wrong things and the evil ways. The highest standard of morality among men on earth today is “to do the right thing” and to “reject the wrong things”.
When we believed into the Lord and came into the church life, this same mentality has followed us here. It is a daily test in our Christian life whether we choose to be right or wrong, or whether we eat the tree of life and live by this life. Sometimes we may even say to others, This is just plain wrong! We need to do it right! It is human to think this way, but at the same time we are choosing the wrong tree – whether it is good, evil, or knowledge, it is the tree of death.
Life is so complicated when you need to “take the right decision” and do the right thing….but when you eat Christ as the tree of life and live by this life, everything is so simple and wonderful! When we eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we may be right but we are “dead right” – we end up being dead. But when we eat the tree of life, the result is more of the divine life!
Do You Live by “Right vs Wrong” or by Life?
We all have the experience of trying to do the right thing and especially using the right way, and most of the times inside of us we have the sense of death. Again and again throughout the day we need to ask ourselves, Do I live by the principle of doing the right thing, or do I live by the tree of life?
The more we try to do the right thing, the more we are entangled, complicated, confused, and not really clear about what’s going on. Plus, within us we don’t have the sense of life and peace.
The principle of the tree of life is dependence and attachment to God, while the principle of good and evil and of knowledge is being apart from God, being independent. You may be right, but you’re apart from God. What good does it do to you when you’re right, but you’re dead right?
In the church life and in the family life, we need to be persons of life, persons living by the tree of life, and not those who strive to do the right thing. When we see problems or divisions in the church, we shouldn’t “try to understand who’s right and who’s wrong” – simply eat the tree of life!
When you hear something about a certain brother or sister, simply eat the tree of life. The more you try to get the knowledge of the situation, the more you receive death. But the more you eat the tree of life, the more you enjoy Christ as life, the more life rules and reigns in you, and things are clear.
In the church life we should treasure the fact that we do not live by the tree of knowledge of good and evil but rather by the tree of life. Satan may disguise himself in many ways and come to us with many faces – he’s a liar, a cheater, a dishonest person, always deceiving man. The way to reject him and his deceiving ways is to eat the tree of life.
Even though at school, at work, on the street, and everywhere else the world encourages you to be an independent person, do the right thing in your own eyes, and care for nothing else, we need to continually enjoy Christ as the tree of life in our spirit so that we may receive more of God’s life, grow in God’s life, be on God’s side, and have His purpose fulfilled in us spontaneously.
Learning to Reject the Tree of Knowledge and Live by the Tree of Life
The Bible is full of examples of how God rejects even the right things and the good sacrifices that people may offer Him, simply because God doesn’t look at “the right thing” but He cares more for life.
Cain brought an offering to God out of his own labor on the ground – but it was not according to God’s principle, and so God rejected his offering. The result of “Cain doing the right thing for God” was murder – he killed his brother Abel, whose offering was received by God.
Abraham offered to “help God fulfill His promise” of giving him a son by sleeping with his handmaid, but God rejected this – He didn’t appear to Abraham for 13 years.
Saul was ordered by God to kill all the Amalekites, including everything they owned – but Saul wanted to “offer to God” the best of Amalekites herds. What a good gesture, such “a right thing to do” – but it’s not according to God’s commandment, not according to the tree of life. Saul was rejected by God because of this.
David was seemingly “a loser”, always being chased by Saul, the king of Israel, and almost losing his life a few times. But in God’s eyes Saul was the loser and David was the winner, because David was not in the realm of right or wrong but in the realm of life.
There are so many examples in the Bible showing us clearly how some man chose the tree of knowledge of good (and evil) and offended God, while others were simple and chose God, enjoyed God, and expressed God, and God was happy with them, blessing their living and their work.
At one point in the 1940’s and 1950’s there was much talk in China concerning Watchman Nee being wrong in this or that, and that’s when brother Witness Lee clearly saw that what really matters is the tree of life. It’s not about who is right and who is wrong.
It’s not about doing this versus doing that, because one is right while the other is wrong. It’s about living by the principle of the tree of life, depending on God, being attached to God, and being on with God. May we all pray to the Lord to show us these two principles of living, and may we learn to reject the tree of knowledge of good and evil and choose the tree of life.
Lord Jesus, keep us on the life line for the whole of our Christian life. We don’t want knowledge, we don’t want good, and we don’t even want to be right. We want the tree of life. Keep us eating the tree of life and living by this life! Continue to expose the tree of knowledge of good and evil in our daily living, our family life, and our church life. Save us from reading the Bible or contacting the saints without touching You to receive more life from You. Lord, keep us on the line of life, and not on the line of the knowledge, good, or evil!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message and portions in, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 13), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization Study of Genesis (1), week / msg 6, The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Saints, beware the knowledge tree / Appearing so good; it’s even pretty. / Its evil and good will open your eyes. / Its issue, my friend: you’ll surely die. / The serpent, he crept in, / Injected in man his death and sin. / Man was seduced this knowledge to take. / My friend, that was the greatest mistake.
# Enter into the enjoyment / Experience the Lord / He’s the rich supply / Don’t let a day go by / Without the presence of the Lord! / We don’t care about the tree of knowledge / Good and evil kill us dead. / We don’t need to behave ourselves into the grave / Just touch the living Lord instead.
# 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.
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