don't eat it or else

Gen 2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Adam had no clue as to what it meant to die. In this, he had to completely trust whatever dying was. It was not a good thing, and to not eat of this particular tree was the right/good/better choice solely because God said so. He had no proof. He had to follow this directive based only on trust. 

He hadn't experienced or seen death. He didn't know what it was. He had no evil (death) to contrast with the good (life) he had already and had always taken part in. He only knew good, not good, and evil.

Simply stated, if he had fully trusted God, he would not have eaten. Him not eating would have been an act of trust in the Father's warning, that God was telling Adam what was in his best interest. That God only wanted life for him, not death. 

Adam did not believe God but rejected His advance. He decided - and believed - he could do for himself what God couldn't. He decided he could and would be his own god. Man to this day continues on this very same path that leads to death, not life. 

For a further discussion on knowing good and evil, click here. 

For a further discussion on God using evil for good click here.

For a further discussion on how both evil and good reveal something about God click here.

Obedience, the fruit of abiding.

To be *told we should be loving is true but alone it is not helpful. Being loving is not something we can will ourselves to do, it comes from who we are. 

And who is that?  If we are in Christ, we are beloved children of God.

When we know we are loved, cherished, and valued, we will be loving. Being perfectly and infinitely loved frees us to love others. To use a biblical analogy if we abide - be, dwell, live - in the Vine we will bear much fruit. Without the love of Christ driving our conduct we can do nothing truly honoring to God (Jn 15:5,9). We are designed for love and to love others, we only lack the power, or I should say we lack the love that empowers us to love others.

That power is outside us and comes to us from the Source of love, i.e. God. When it does, it frees us from the need to be loved by others because we are already fully loved

by God in and through Christ, the vine. 

To follow the analogy, God the Father is the caretaker of the vine, the vine is the source of spiritual nutrients-sap to the branches. The branches bear fruit as the nutrients (love) flows through the Vine into the branches. As a result, instead of looking to others to meet our need for love -approval etc - we are freed by Gods love - we can now look outward and not inward - and no longer need to tend to our own need for love because God already tends to it. And because he does we can now see the need pf others and be the conduit of God's love to them. God's love for us, when we truly believe and receive it, frees us to love others.

Knowing this is humbling. If or when people are inclined to praise us for our loving character or good deeds we recognize how totally bankrupt we are without God loving us 1st. Without Christ, we can not love as God loves or as we naturally love ourselves. Our actions are not flowing out or giving to others, but are designed instead to "get" or take from others. In fact, we cannot receive God's love until we see how desperately we are in need of it and how impossible it is for us to love others sacrificially - i.e. truly - without receiving God's love first. Only he can satisfy our need for love, which frees us to love others. Truly, without him, without our constant abiding in his love, we can do nothing (Jn 15:5) i.e. we can not love the way God loves.

For a further discussion on being vs doing click here

For a discussion on how our need for love is infinite click here

For a discussion on how conflict is rooted in the absence of love click here

For a discussion on how God has already proved his love click here

For a discussion on how the essence of our work in sanctification is to believe click here.

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*We think these are only words of obedience, but they are words of love and promise. Promise of what? Of his steadfast love. That he is the Vine through which this love and life flows to us causing us to be fruitful - obedient. When we believe these words we bear much fruit.

A dangerous assumption about God's will

The following article by Kevin Thomson is clear, concise, and exceptional. I have reproduced it below to add some links to related topics at the end of the article. The original post is at https://www.kevinathompson.com/dangerous-assumption-gods-will/

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A  DANGEROUS  ASSUMPTION  ABOUT  GOD’S  WILL

KEVIN A. THOMPSON 

He made all the right decisions. He dated slowly, chose wisely, did everything I asked of him in pre-marital counseling, and despite all his wise choices, his wife left him just months into the marriage.

She made all the right decisions. Three job offers were on the table. Her knowledge and ability was recognized by everyone. She ¹prayed, sought wise counsel, and made the best decision she knew to make. Within the year the company failed and she was without a job.

There is a common assumption regarding God’s will. It’s the belief that success is the ultimate sign of choosing correctly. It’s the belief that if you make a decision which honors God, God will honor you with success. It’s a dangerous assumption.

I hear it as people are:

debating which job to take. The assumption is that if they chose the right one they will be happy, make money, and experience tremendous success. (See: How Tyler Wilson Made a Good Decision that Cost Him Millions)

choosing a spouse. Choose the right one and the marriage is guaranteed to make it. (See: The Number One Cause of Divorce)

making faith decisions. If they obey God, they assume everything will turn out for the best.

In part, this is true. In the end, God will use everything for our good. Yet the end is a long way off, and between now and then we are not guaranteed health, wealth, and success.

As a matter of fact, it is very possible to make a wise choice and have a bad outcome.

As much as we want to control our lives and guarantee outcomes, they are rarely controllable and never guaranteed.

Of course there is a general principle that good choices lead to good consequences and bad choices lead to bad consequences. Some of life is controllable and some outcomes are guaranteed. Addictions will not end well. Disobeying God rarely benefits in the short-term and will never benefit us in the long-term.

Yet making good choices does not guarantee an outcome we will love. Praying, listening to wise counsel, reading the Bible, and doing everything in our power to make a wise choice does not mean a new job will be easy, that a marriage will be perfect, or that doing what the Bible says will lead to a reconciled friendship or popularity. (See: Karma or Grace)

The best example of this might be a popular verse. For many people, Jeremiah 29.11 is a life verse. The promise of God is that He has a plan for us—a plan to prosper us and not to harm us, a plan to give us a hope and future. It is a tremendous verse.

But do you know the context of Jeremiah 29? It’s in relation to God’s people being in exile. God is reminding His people that even as they suffer, He has not forgotten them. It’s a verse of great hope, but it’s a verse which shows that hope will not come immediately. They would spend 70 years in exile. Entire generations would pass before this verse would be fulfilled. The verse is often the exact opposite of what many people assume about God’s will. (See: How We Respond to Suffering)

Remember, God’s will was for John to be exiled, Paul to be jailed, Jesus to be executed. Why do we assume God’s will for us is to have a great job, a happy wife, and a large bank account?

Obey. And if suffering or failure follows your obedience, don’t be too quick to assume you have chosen wrongly. You obey and leave the outcomes to God.

Some related topics:

For a discussion on why a circumstantially terrible outcome can still be good, click here. 

For a discussion on being in God's will click here

For a discussion on how all things work together for good, click here

For a discussion on the dangers and fallacy of the prosperity gospel click here

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*I'm not saying this was the case in this example but praying alone does not mean it's a good prayer. What do I mean? Christ said do not pray like the Pharisee's pray. Why? He later says they prayed to be seen of men. We can translate that to mean we aren't seeking God in our prayers but something else and asking God to come alongside us and give is what we think is best i.e. God isn't our end, only a means to something want more than God. Our problem is we don't often know what's best. Only God does. This is why Christ said "not my will but yours be done" after asking the Father to spare him the suffering he was about to face.