“From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
– Genesis 2:16-17
The Pride of mankind has always been about sending the message to God that “I want things my way” and not “Your way”. We have always wanted independence from God. We seek to understand and explain things so as to keep our daily lives to ourselves, for ourselves. We want to do things on our own, with no one else to be accountable to; with no one else to credit as we hoard all the glory of our seeming ‘accomplishments’. This is nothing more than what the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil represents. Whereas God is Righteous, we wanted this position for ourselves so that instead of depending on Him, we end up making up the rules which we think are correct. We want to get to say what is right and wrong, what is good and what is evil. Us not God.
The forbidden fruit was never meant for man to partake of. That’s why it is forbidden! Eat of all the fruits of all the trees, The Lord said, except this!! Following this only commandment declares that He is God and not us. It’s a declaration and submission that GOD gets to call the shots of what’s right and wrong, not us. We were just too proud to submit to this truth that we wanted that right for ourselves. A right that we have no idea how to use. A right that we have zero ability to handle. A right that we claimed and then used to destroy ourselves. Having the right to declare what is good and what’s not is reserved only for The Almighty. We should have understood and respected then what the word ‘forbidden’ means.
Today, we still continue to partake of this forbidden fruit. Pretending that we know what’s right and what’s not, man had the audacity to reject God’s laws and instructions and replace them with our own.
Yes, there are people literally worshipping Satan today.
We may think that we are progressives and laugh at the naivete of Adam and Eve; yet without us knowing, we continue to commit the very mistake that we condemn them of. Many also are not aware that this sin, of wanting the knowledge to determine good and evil, of becoming ‘god’, is the very same sin that Lucifer committed that led to his fall. Yes, mankind is actively committing the devil’s sin today and yet we expect blessings from Heaven to fall upon our laps.
The only way to fight this is to keep going back to The Word and take it for what it is: as God’s instructions and God’s commandments. It was already declared that it is not good for Christians to worship other Gods, yet we continue to do so. Then the consequences of breaking the law catches us and then we blame Him who is forever righteous.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. – Matthew 6:33
Righteousness belongs to God and God alone. We should have partaken of the fruit from The Tree of Life. This is to declare that God is the righteous one and that we have no right to change His words. Matthew 6:33 seeks to reverse what we have been doing wrong: we have lost sight of His righteousness and now it is time to get back on track! We cannot go our own way and live life independent of Him and still consider ourselves ‘right’ (righteous). We are designed so as to have a constant contact and communion with our Creator and not to live independent of Him. So in all our ways, we are to consult Him (Proverbs 3:6) and not to seek how to live life apart from Him.
Meditate on our pride (the part of us that want things done without God) and be aware that this is exactly what it means to partake of the forbidden fruit. Reject this Forbidden Fruit, let go of ‘man’s pride’ and bring back this ‘righteousness’ to its true owner and declare the truth of Matthew 6:33. Only Jesus Christ, The King of Righteousness, gets to say what is right and what is wrong. And we need Him at every move and every turn of our life.
for without me, you can do nothing. John 15:5
Related Articles:
Going Back:
What is a Loving God Supposed to do?
Forbidden Fruit: The End Game is Self-Righteousness