The Two Trees, the Two Principles of Living, and Living According to the Principle of Life

As believers in Christ, we can live by one of the two principles – we live either by the principle of life or by the principle of right and wrong, good and evil; we can either live on the line of life depending on the Lord as life or we can just live according to the knowledge of good and evil.

Oh Lord, save us from living on the line of death, the line of the tree of knowledge, and fully transfer us into the line of life in all the details of our daily life!

This week we come to a new topic in the morning revival called, The Two Trees and the Two Principles of Living.

When God created man, He didn’t seem to tell Adam what to do; He only seemed to care for what he ate.

After God created man, He showed no interest in telling man what to do or how to behave; rather, He cared very much about what man ate.

God didn’t seem to care for what man does for Him or what He expects from man to work for God; He seems to care very much for what we eat, what we feed on.

What are we eating? What are we going to eat?

God didn’t create man with an unending self-sustaining life; rather, man is dependent on what he eats physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

God put man in front of the tree of life and in front of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

These two trees are somewhat of a parable to us about what are our options for eating: we can either eat the tree of life and thus take God in as life and live because of Him, or we can eat the tree of knowledge of good and evil and end up in death.

God created man to be dependent, and mankind’s lifelong pursuit of independence is just a losing battle against our destiny.

We are destined to be dependent; however, what are we dependent on?

We may be dependent on knowledge, trying to gain more knowledge about this and about that, and even knowledge about God, good, and evil, so that we stay away from evil and do the good. Oh, Lord.

May He shine on us and expose the tree of knowledge so that we may reject it in all of its forms, and may we remain on the line of life, one with the Lord and with the saints.

We may have some knowledge of the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and we may have read about it and we may know certain things about these two trees.

May the Lord save us from just being familiar with the topic of the two trees, which can be seen both at the beginning and at the end of the Bible.

May our previous knowledge of the two trees and their significance not hinder us from receiving something fresh and new from the Lord, and may we remain on the line of life.

These two trees issue in two principles of living.

The question is, fundamentally speaking, what is our actual living like?

Now that we understand what the two trees represent, and now that we realize that there’s the principle of life and the principle of knowledge, what principle do we live by?

In our day-to-day living, do we live on the line of life, according to the principle of life, or do we live on the line of death, according to the principle of knowledge of good and evil?

This is a serious question that we have to face.

We need to bring this to the Lord in prayer and open to Him concerning this, allowing Him to shine on us and bring us fully on the line of life so that we may live according to the principle of life in all the aspects of our daily living.

Seeing the Significance of the Tree of Life and having a Drastic Change to Live by Eating the Tree of Life

It is easy to just live the Christian life and church life without paying attention to the tree of life; we may even do many things for the Lord without eating Him as life or depending on Him as life. Oh, Lord Jesus!

We may live for decades as believers in Christ serving in the work to build up the churches without living by the principle of life. Oh, Lord Jesus!

Especially these days, as we seem to get out of a pandemic, as we are starting to meet in person once again, we need to be before the Lord concerning our living of the church life and of our Christian life.

Do we live by the principle of life? Do we pay attention to the tree of life? Do we take in the tree of life so that we depend on the Lord as life?

We need to know the significance of the tree of life and have a drastic change in our concept. We all have the realization that the world situation is nearing the end of this age.

As we live at the end of this age, we need to meet the Lord as we are taking the way of enjoying Him as the tree of life and not find out at His judgment seat that we took the wrong way.

We want to take His way, the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life in our daily life so that we may depend on Him as life.

Even unbelievers seem to know that there are two trees, and that Eve was deceived to take the “apple” (though the Bible never says anything about an apple).

But we need to realize that we need to have a change in our diet – we need to eat Christ as the tree of life.

It is difficult to understand the controlling thought in the Bible; for us to understand this thought, we need to know the line that connects the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

This line is in the first two chapters of Genesis and in the last two chapters of Revelation; if we read these four chapters, we will have a view of the governing thought in the Bible.

In the first and last two chapters of the Bible, we see the tree of life. The enemy came in and was crafty; he attached not man directly but man’s eating.

Adam was not clear concerning this, but Satan knew that he can attack the matter of eating, for if man ate the wrong tree, man would be damaged. Oh, Lord.

The way to the tree of life used to be wide open, but after man fell, it was closed; starting in Genesis 3, the tree of life was closed to man.

In the last two chapters of the Bible, we see that God gains what He is after, which is the tree of life in the New Jerusalem, the city of life.

Hallelujah, we now have the boldness to enter and eat the tree of life because of the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:18-19).

We may have stained our robes in our daily living because of living in the world or apart from the Lord, but we can wash our robes and come to eat the tree of life (Rev. 22:14).

The Lord’s redemption didn’t just bring us to God but also brought us to the tree of life.

From the beginning of the Bible to the end, God’s desire is that man would partake of Him as the tree of life.

Even at the end of the Bible, He calls, Let him who is thirsty come and drink the water of life, in which grows the tree of life (Rev. 22:17). Hallelujah!

He wants to be our life and life supply, and He is just seeking those who are willing that they come to Him and eat and drink!

May we have a drastic change in our concept so that we no longer live according to the principle of knowledge of good and evil but according to the principle of life, one with the Lord in spirit and depending on Him as our life!

Lord Jesus, show us the significance of the tree of life and bring us fully on the line of life. We come to You, dear Lord Jesus, to eat and drink of You. We give ourselves to live not just according to knowledge but according to the principle of life. We wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb and we come forward to You to take You in as our life. Amen, Lord, You are our life. We take You in as life. We choose to remain on the line of life by depending on You as our life. Cause us to have a drastic change in our concept and in our living so that we no longer live merely according to knowledge but according to the principle of life, eating Christ as the tree of life and depending on Him as life!

Seeing the Two Principles of Living and Living according to the Principle of Life, not of Knowledge of good and evil

Out of the ground, the Lord caused to grow every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9).

This is not merely the story of creation many thousands of years ago; this is something with deep significance in our daily living.

The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil are a kind of parable, showing us that man has two different kinds of foods and can live either by life or by the knowledge of good and evil.

These two trees show us that we can either depend on the Lord as life or on the knowledge of good end evil, right and wrong.

Many people – both believers and unbelievers alike – have read about these two trees, but we need to realize that they represent two principles of living (1 Cor. 8:1).

We can either live according to the principle of life or according to the principle of right and wrong.

Many Christians take the principle of good and evil, right and wrong, as the standard of their living, but not so many see that there’s a principle of life and take this principle as the standard for their living.

What does it mean for us to live according to right and wrong? What does it mean to live according to life?

By believing in Christ, we have received another life in us, the divine life; living according to the principle of life is living according to the inner sense of the divine life.

But living according to the principle of right and wrong doesn’t involve depending on the Lord rather, it is living merely according to knowledge.

Whoever lives by the knowledge of good and evil will end up in death, for this is the principle that leads to death.

Whoever eats of the tree of knowledge of good and evil shall surely die (Gen. 2:17), but whoever partakes of Christ as life will live because of the Christ he has enjoyed (John 6:57).

We could say that there is another principle, the principle of sin; some people live in the lusts of their flesh, being sons of wrath who are bound by the fashions of this world.

They live and act according to the operation of the evil spirits in their heart, and their principle of living is that they live by sin (Eph. 2:1-3).

Praise the Lord, in these things were some of us, but we were washed, cleansed, regenerated, and transferred out of the authority of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love to live according to the principle of life.

After becoming Christians, we now have a choice of living by the principle of right and wrong or by the principle of life.

If we want to live constantly before God, we must know what it means to eat the fruit of the tree of life and live by the principle of life.

Being a Christian is not a matter of the principle of right and wrong but is a matter of life (1 John 5:11-13, 20).

But if we live by the knowledge of good and evil, we will lose our position before God, and death comes in.

Wow, we can live as Christians, those regenerated by God, in a way that ends in death! Oh, Lord Jesus!

We have left the principle of sin and are walking before God, but what about our daily living: do we live according to the principle of right and wrong or do we live according to the principle of life?

The principle of right and wrong, good and evil, is not real Christianity, for God doesn’t want us to merely choose good apart from taking Him as life.

Christianity speaks of life, not of doing good vs doing evil.

After we received the Lord, we received and gained a new life, something marvellous in our inner being.

But if we don’t pay attention to the divine life in our spirit, we will set aside the principle of life and will follow the principle of right and wrong, thus ending up in death.

Lord Jesus, thank You for rescuing us from the line of death and from living in the principle of sin. Thank You for giving us a new life, the divine life, that we may live by the principle of life. Hallelujah, Christ lives in us and we can live by enjoying Him as the tree of life! Praise the Lord, we have gained a new life, the divine life, and we can now live by depending on this life! Amen, Lord, we don’t want to live merely according to right and wrong, good and evil, but according to the principle of life. We choose to live before God by eating the fruit of the tree of life, depending on You as our life and our everything.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 56, “Two Principles of Living,” pp. 418-419, 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 2, entitled, The Two Trees and the Two Principles of Living.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – There are two lines to live by in our living today— / One the life line to bring us into Christ all the way. / But the other is knowledge which will make us die; / We must be very careful on which line we abide. / 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)
  – Life is mysterious, life is God Himself, / Whose whole intention focuses on man. / God made him to take in the tree of life, / To have a man of life for His own plan. / But man was tempted and seduced to sin, / By taking knowledge from the other source. / This man then fell as knowledge entered in / And dominated him with all its force. (Hymns #1195)
  – We are washing all our robes the tree of life to eat; / “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!”—Jesus is so sweet! / We our spirits exercise, and thus experience Christ. / What a Christ have we! (Hymns #1151)