The Good Life

We have noted that, at different times and in different places, what we believe to be right or wrong may be different, and that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the root of both good and evil. Any fruit from such a tree is deadly, God says, and should be avoided. Religion based on good and evil is a deadly religion. 

We tend to equate grace with goodness and guilt with evil. But the trees in the garden tell us that good and evil are the prerogative of the Divine and are dangerous in human hands. Coming from the same root, good and evil may not be the polar opposites we have always taken them for, but rather something on a continuum. They may make up just one side of the coin—the other side being grace, where no discrimination is needed. Good and evil are man-made. They lack objectivity and are subject to interpretation relative to circumstances and context. Even the Ten Commandments—the moral law—are incomplete and insufficient. 

In a long series of illustrations in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus contrasted law-keeping—good and evil—with the mystery of godliness, which is grace. “You have heard what the ancients were told,” he says in Matthew 5:21, and then proceeds to talk about murder versus hate, adultery versus lust and the making of vows and of the retributive justice of the Old Testament. How they were keeping these laws was incomplete and insufficient, Jesus said. “Your views of right and wrong, of good and evil, are way off.” And in the economy of good and evil, Jesus says, “You must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:28). 

Trying to judge yourself by an external standard is guilt-laden, fear-producing, and discouraging. To live a life of being good and shunning evil is not just discouraging but altogether impossible, not just because our willpower is weak but also because we must in the first place figure out what is good and what is evil. 

This issue of how good one has to be or how bad one must not be is something Jesus addresses over and over in the Gospels. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, he answers this question directly:

 And behold, a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-29) 

Jesus then relates the parable of the Good Samaritan, which addresses the latter question directly. The question “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” is the question we are discussing. It is the question in everyone’s heart. “How good do I have to be? How bad must I not be?” The answer is simple, stunning, even mind-blowing. It is something I haven’t noticed before, even though I’ve seen it a hundred times. 

We always view right and wrong, good and evil, as relative to ourselves, to me personally, and particularly to what I do. Do I get angry? Do I lose my temper? Do I swear? Do I say enough prayers? Do I give enough alms for charity? Do I read my Bible enough? Do I go to church enough? Do I fast enough? These are questions of discrimination. They take us back to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. “How much good, and how little bad?” 

In this parable Jesus is answering the question: “What does it mean to live a life of grace?” and the answer is: “Do not focus upon yourself. Do not hoard the grace that you’ve been given, but share it, pass it on, and allow it to grow.” Good and evil, Jesus is teaching, is not about what we do ourselves. Good and evil is defined by what we do with the grace that’s been given to us and how we treat others. 

The parable shows the religious elite hoarding the grace, passing by on the other side. The Good Samaritan passes on the grace as he stops to help the wounded man. Since good and evil is God’s discretion, we are not called to discriminate. In the story of the wheat and the tares, when the workers want to separate the wheat and the tares, Jesus cautions against it. “Separating right from wrong is the job of angels,” he said; “Only divinity can get this right.” 

Good and Evil, Jesus says, are related to how you treat others, not what you do to yourself. Forget about trying to measure yourself with some kind of spiritual stature measurement. “Put a hand out,” he says, “and give grace to others.” You can be kind to others and not hurtful. You can be compassionate to others and not cruel. But whether you are good or evil is not for you to decide; it is for God to decide, and it depends on circumstances, emotions, context, and other factors. 

As you seek to define for yourself what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, notice the subtle but important point that in so doing you are in essence repudiating God’s grace. God knows that to the extent we are active in passing along God’s grace to others, it frees us from guilt and fear and automatically keeps us in the right relationship with God. Jesus is teaching a highly significant point: A life centered on individual piety, on right living, is a life of guilt and fear; but a life of grace, centered on service to others, is serving God Himself.

A life centered on your own piety is a selfish, self-centered, self-defensive life; a life of self-determination. A life centered on others leads to freedom from having to decide what is right and what is wrong. When you love your neighbor as yourself, you will by nature love God with all your heart. The story of Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve, is instructive:

 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought an offering, from the firstborn of his flock and from their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his face was gloomy. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why is your face gloomy? If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Cain talked to his brother Abel; and it happened that when they were in the field Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Then He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.. (Genesis 4:3-10)

Cain is like all of us, seeking to discriminate his own way to God. He himself decides what to bring as a gift for God. He is not instructed by God, but he makes a judgment. “The fruit of the land will be good,” he said, “Let’s bring that to worship.” But the lesson is that God is the decider about what is good, not us. God is the judge of those things, not us. 

The lamb is a symbol of grace. The fruit of the land is a symbol of individual effort, personal piety, and self-determination. Cain’s response of anger is the common one for those of us who wish to embrace an interpretation of what is good and evil. (That grace elicits anger is strange but not new: Jonah was angry with it and the elder son in the Prodigal Son parable grew angry at his father’s grace.) Cain went on to kill Abel, and with Abel’s death is the death of discrimination. 

God asked Cain the critical question—the same question that he asks us: “Where is your brother?” Good and evil is not to be determined by how we worship God but by how we care for our brother. Evil is to fail to look after our brother, failure to look after our neighbor. Failure to live a life of grace is equivalent, God says, to murder. Good and evil is not what you do by yourself or for yourself or with yourself—it is what you do for those in need. This is true freedom from guilt and fear. It is living the life of grace. 

Is it possible for us to quit measuring our spirituality? Can you focus on others rather than on yourself? Paul wrote of his anguish in trying to live a life of judgment of good and evil: 

 For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good…. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:18-21,25)

Paul found the answer:

 Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:1-2)

This is living the life of grace. The parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 is also a parable about judgment. It teaches the exact same point that judgment is not related to personal piety but to what we do for others. 

Jay: Guilt is tied not only to evil but also to goodness. I feel guilty for the good things I don’t do. I feel that not doing something good is a sin. In contrast, there’s no guilt associated with grace. Grace is just grace. Guilt is tied to the struggle Paul mentions—doing things I don’t want to do and not doing things I want to do. 

Grappling with the discernment of good and evil seems to perpetuate our distress. As we look at things happening in the world and try to discern what’s good and what’s evil, it only adds to our mental, emotional, and physical stress (I wouldn’t categorize it as spiritual stress). In contrast, if we just have faith that grace is all that is needed, it takes us to a stress-free place. But we so badly don’t want that, for some reason.

Bryan: I don’t understand how the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the root of Good and Evil. If the garden of Eden was created in goodness by a God who was always there, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil permitted a choice between Good and Evil, then in effect the only choice it really gave was evil. Goodness was already a fixture, God was always there. Evil was only there as a choice. 

Maybe living a life of grace is as simple as accepting the goodness that is offered and doing what we can to choose not to live a life of evil. We are told that the closer we get to the return of Jesus, our lives will point toward a more perfect existence, toward accepting the goodness that’s been offered. 

But to me, it’s a little difficult to see how goodness and evil can come from the same source.

Jay: To me it seems not so much about the source of good and evil as about the discernment of good and evil. I don’t see Eve’s partaking of the fruit as choosing evil: I see it as invoking discernment, the ability to discern what is good and what is evil. The parable of the Wheat and the Tares makes clear that discernment is none of our business. When we seek to identify and separate the tares from the wheat, we end up destroying the wheat, the good.

The trap is compounded in that focussing on good and evil distracts us from the Tree of Life. We prioritize discernment, judgment, and understanding of good and evil over the Tree of Life. I can go get my fruit from two different places. I can be sustained by either tree. If I choose to be sustained through the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there is a high likelihood, though not 100%, that I am going to mess that up—i.e., to die. 

If you choose to invoke or be sustained by the Tree of Life—the tree of grace—that’s a very different way of living your life, sustaining your life, the fruits that are born by your life. For some reason, we don’t like that. 

With regard to the source of evil: I’ll be honest, I struggle with what that is. To call Satan the inventor of evil by deciding that his way was better than God’s way, to think that evil didn’t exist until then, to me seems hard to understand. It very well could be because my human brain is set up in a compare/contrast mode. How can I understand what evil is without understanding what goodness is? How can the one be possible without the other? I think that’s why it’s not called the Tree of Knowledge of Evil. 

I think the two are linked together: Goodness and Evil can’t exist without each other. We want to tie goodness to grace, we want to make those two things the same; but that’s where I can say discernment of good and evil is one thing but grace is something completely different.

C-J: When God created heaven and earth, everything was by word from a distance. He said, and it happened. But God did not create Adam and Eve from a distance. He created them by hand. He breathed in Adam’s nostril. God loved them like a loving father. He gave them special status to dominate over all the earth. God blessed them. But like innocent children, they made a mistake, which become Original Sin, which corrupted their nature. They started blaming each other. Adam was the first Adam; Jesus was the second Adam, who died for original sin—not for actual sin, which we do every day.

Bryan: The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil basically bestowed the ability to see good, which was taken for granted before. It was a state of being, of living, of grace—a state of goodness. The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil took away that veil of naïveté. Now goodness and evil could be seen and compared.

C-J: If I may, I’d like to bring it to place and time. Paul constantly speaks about courage and being brave in this life. Courage is not the absence of fear. And here the fear is the loss of our salvation—”How good do I have to be, and what do I do when I’m not, o wretched man that I am?” 

But I think it’s more important that we not think about what I get out of it but, rather, that idea of service, because everything we see from the beginning of time is based on service to others. 

I looked up the definition of courage and bravery. Bravery is a character trait and it’s a form of confidence—action with or without fear. Courage and bravery are used synonymously, but courage is a conscious commitment to truth, to doing the right thing, whereas bravery is like running into a fire: You don’t really think about it. There’s a child in there and you just go for it. You don’t consider that you might be too late. It must be done. I think, as a person who embraces the Christian faith, that this is where grace comes in, because neither of those things can we consistently do. We fight with ego and pride for our own physical survival. 

But when we’re completely committed to God, and to that relationship, it becomes defined out of God, not out of me. “Look what I did.” If I’m completely surrendered to God, I’m not trying to find my path—God brings and clarifies my path, a lamp unto my feet. Here’s a person: Are you willing? Are you able? Will you do it now? Will you be faithful? It happens every day, all day long. It isn’t like a one-and-done. And that’s our witness. 

If everybody’s on the same page, we just go: “Amen brother, amen sister” and we’re nice to one another and we do what is expected within that inner circle. The real test is when we go out into the world. It goes beyond discernment. It’s being so committed that we don’t have time to think about it because the conviction is so strong. We don’t have to wait for bravery, because the word of God is living in us. To God be the glory.

Robin: I think that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was there to show them or give them the opportunity to choose who they would believe. We are not created automatons. If we choose to believe God, then we wouldn’t take what was forbidden. But if we choose to believe the serpent, then we are going to be obedient to him. Our natural inclination is to do that. It was turned upside down, so that now it is easier for humanity to do what is wrong instead of what is right.

Reinhard: I think evil did not exist at first in the garden. I think the key here is free will. God allowed us to make decisions based on our consciousness to discern good and bad, good and evil. Obviously, they fell. We all fall at one time or another.

As humans, our natural tendencies such as jealousy and self-centeredness and greed cause sin. Peter denied Jesus because he feared for his life. So he lied and said he didn’t know Jesus. Judas wanted to enrich himself, thinking Jesus would save himself. Jonah fell through jealousy. Peter and Judas felt guilty in the end—Peter wept, and Judas killed himself. Jonah just kept on arguing with God. 

Our tendency to rebel causes evil—the breaking of the moral law we all know from the Bible. The Bible tells us to look upon others as being more important than us, to respect other people, no matter who they are or where they come from. A good Christian will have this attitude and will accept everybody without hurting their feelings. I think this is the key is to maintaining our relationship as the children of God. 

But God knows our tendencies and limitations. It’s why grace is given to us, to cover all our shortcomings.

Michael: Fear is a huge driver of our lives. We’re offered a way out through grace, framed in terms of a life of service to others, but many of us prefer the familiar ground of good and evil. It’s so strange that even though grace offers salvation and all these amazing things, it’s very hard for us to accept it. We shy away from it. We just go back to good and evil, doing exactly the same thing that was done in the garden. They didn’t choose to disobey God. They just chose to discern good and evil, instead of just letting things be. It’s so weird.

C-J: That is really key. We refer to ourselves as children of God. But really, Paul’s constantly saying: “Grow up, eat meat, be mature, take responsibility for the choices you make, choose wisely and stay in the right lane.” I just see that the whole thing for the purpose of the text is to say, “Don’t forget.” Why do we memorize scriptures? 

We always go back to what is easy, right or wrong. But I don’t think God wants that. He wouldn’t have given us a tree of discernment, which implies you have a responsibility. I hate that. I think it’s very destructive to the Christian ethos. I’m either good or I’m evil. I can always say: “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.” It’s like the returning addict. When do you take responsibility? The idea is to understand what makes something good or evil, not if it is good or evil. What makes it evil? It destroys quality of life for you and others. This is your community.

Michael: I think you’re still discussing good and evil, and I think that’s besides the point. Even the word responsibility is besides the point. The point is: Why is it so hard to just stick with grace and forget about all of this good and evil and responsibility? Why is it so against our nature? Why is it so hard?

It seems to me we (in this class) make the exact same choice our imaginary parents made in Eden, which is to say: We always choose the tree of good and evil over grace. By always discussing good and evil, even when we are presented with a choice of equal weight, we essentially make the exact same bad decision as our parents.

Jay: I agree. Concepts like responsibility and discernment are things we have control over. I have control of what I’m responsible for. We gravitate towards the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil because it gives us some control, or seems to. Understanding what’s good and what’s bad helps me shape my actions. 

Grace, on the other hand, is just there. We all say “Thank goodness for grace” but we don’t really mean it. We don’t like that it does not provide a checklist of things to do because it leaves us wondering: “Once I get it, what do I do with it?” That’s the real question. Is there such a thing as hoarding it? Is it a problem to receive grace and then hang on to it for dear life? 

C-J: The grace isn’t just mine, the grace is to be given in service to others. “As I have been given, so shall I give.” It was a one-time deal that lasts without measure. Not that you can just presume upon it. A gift of great price and great consequence. If you put it in the context of what we’re talking about, there is accountability. 

I keep hearing it sidestepped, as if it’s not about what I’ve done, it’s how the grace restores and transforms me into right relationship, and to whom much is given, much is required. This is what Paul is constantly telling the new church: “You don’t get to skip here. It’s been done, and I can just go live my life.” It’s all about discipline and sacrifice. Remember what you’ve been given, hold fast, know the Word of God, love it with all your heart. 

There’s a lot of responsibility in being a Christian. I think it’s one of the hardest things to do. Because the Holy Spirit is resident within you to flip that switch and say “What did you just do?” It isn’t just the final act. “What was your thought process that got you to that place?” Not with condemnation, but with “Let’s have this conversation.” I don’t know why we take it back to stories that we teach children. If we want children to grow up, we need to speak the truth. “How could you have done that better? What is the consequence? Who was hurt? Have you recognized the self-inflicted wound in your spirit that you caused?” How is that going to be healed? By grace? Yes, but also by not repeating. 

We don’t do that in this faith and it’s beyond me why Paul addresses it. I’m thinking about all the stories in the Bible where people just presumed upon the grace. Look at the people in the wilderness in the 40 years with Moses. They murmured constantly. They made golden calves. They didn’t respect headship and leadership. They murmured about everything—the fire by night to keep them warm, the cloud by day. They were murmurers: “This could be better. Why do we have to be here?”

It’s no different today. “No matter how hard I work, it’s not enough money. Why do people act like that? It seems all we do anymore is have war. It costs too much to buy this. I don’t like my boss.” God says “Stop looking at what’s wrong and understand your responsibility of being a witness of grace in your life. Not saying it’s okay but being the servant and let the act of grace and servitude speak for me, the Lord.” That is what changes the hearts. I’m not saying: “May I have a moment of your time, I’d like to question you about this decision, it really hurt my feelings when you did it in front of all these people.” Or “I guess I can’t buy this because I’m compelled with children to buy this instead,” or all the ways our guilty pleasures.

God has led us to the tree he planted there. He knew that tree of discernment was going to be there and I truly believe the intention was to cut the cord. “You’re going to go out into the real world and I’m giving you your first tool, discernment. I’m hoping the fact that I have loved you and I have been generous with everything else, that you will trust that I am a God of provision and everything you need I will give you, whether it’s courage, discipline,…” and you can go down the list. God wants us to be mature adults and witnesses in a land that is filled with landmines. 

Michael: I agree it’s tricky. But if it were up to me, I don’t want to be a servant. I want to be a son and I think I’m called to be a son. I don’t want to be a servant. I’m not interested.

Don: This is exactly the topic for next week: How to live a life of grace and live a moral life as well. Because the concern among many, and particularly non-Christians, is that Christians hide behind grace to allow them to sin and do whatever they want to do. 

Jay: It seems from the garden story that we are called to eat of the Tree of Life, not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Basically, the first command of God is to stay away from that tree. The parable of the Wheat and the Tares reiterates that prohibition. The real question is: If I live by the Tree of Life, by the tree of grace, and I therefore have grace, and if there is responsibility to pass that grace along to others, where does discernment come in? 

If I am not to hoard this grace, if I am called to service (as we seem to be in the ministry of Christ) where does discernment come in, in passing it along? Because the next thing we want is to discern what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s good and what’s bad. The next thing we very much want to discern, as grace comes to us, is who should I give it to? 

Suppose you see someone standing by the side of the road holding a cardboard sign asking for money. Should you give them money or not? How should you interact with that person? Or suppose someone knocks on your door and says: “My car is out of gas, can I borrow five bucks to put gas in my car?” should you just give him five bucks? Or should you say: “I’ll go to the gas station, buy you the gas and give it to you”? Discernment comes in very quickly to this passing on of the grace or not hoarding the grace. Should that be the case?

Carolyn: I do not want to live in fear. God is not a God of fear. But the Bible tells me to become as a little child—we need to have the faith and discernment of a child. They trust, they believe. If we are aware of our need of forgiveness, this is when grace comes in, and we need it, every day, all day. We just ask the Lord for forgiveness and we become children of the light rather than children of the fear. 

I believe the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is a tree of choice. As has been mentioned, we must choose. But we also have the Holy Spirit to help us make those choices. And if we believe in that, and become as a child, and depend on the Holy Spirit and the Lord to guide us, we can just rest and enjoy God’s grace and just live in the light rather than always be dominated by the fear.

C-J: Jesus became a servant unto the Father even unto death. We want sons because it implies an inheritance. A slave doesn’t have an inheritance. He also doesn’t have a voice, no matter how favored that servant is. However, I have lived a life as a woman and grew up in a time when women were obedient, literally. They had to ask their husbands for a dollar. They could be beaten, they could be raped, and the law didn’t protect them. So my perspective in terms of servitude is visceral. I scrubbed the floors on my hands and knees while my brothers got to play outside. 

So for me, servant and servitude had to take on the meanings that my mother gave me, which was we do it for love. We do it out of love not to serve the men but to create a family. That’s a very different paradigm. Now, did I buy into that for very long? No, because everything around me was changing in the late ’60s and ’70s. I could wear what I wanted, I could go to school, I didn’t have to get married, I had birth control if I didn’t want to have children. I had it in my power. But what I noticed is I became a professional. The servitude was key in terms of knowing my place, having access, being a voice for those who did not have a voice. Doing it with kindness was much better than dictating “This is what we’re going to do.” 

You can tell that I am a scrapper. I will fight for what I believe is true, to protect the innocent, because of my journey. But I say it to children, I say it to people in the downtown central office: “If you want to be a leader, you need to be a servant. If you want to be a servant, you have to be humble.” Doors open with that, not with “I want to talk to somebody right now and I want it to be the mayor.” I’m a little person, not even five foot tall, and I’m old… ”What’s that buzz in the room?!” It makes a big difference when we say: “I want to establish this in my community to protect the innocent”—very different. I am a servant. We are servants, and we do it with the humility of grace. 

Bryan: If grace is the free and unmerited favor of God, was grace born at the Tree?

Don: We’ll discuss this more. It’s obviously a provocative subject and one that’s of great importance. 

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