Condemn Evil

At the time when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens while as yet there was no field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted, for the LORD God had sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, but a stream was welling up out of the earth and was watering all the surface of the ground the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. 

Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. The LORD God gave man this order: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.” (Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17)

When we know the difference between good and evil, we often choose evil.  There is no mistaking the choice.  We consciously decide.  That is why God told Adam that eating from the tree of knowledge would doom us.  God knew we would often choose evil.  God knows our hearts and how easily we fall to temptation.  This failure on our part prompts the Gospel and Jesus’ warning.

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” 

When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile. (Mark 7:14-23)

We are defiled because we know right from wrong, but we often choose the latter.  We are defiled by what comes out of our hearts such as evil thoughts and then actions.  

It is important to know good from evil and condemn the latter.  The devil and his propagandizing henchmen and henchwomen know many of us believe lies and fall lockstep behind them.  Let us remember God’s warning to Adam.  That spells doom. 

Deacon David Pierce