“Ever-Present Temptation”

Sunday, October 06, 2019

If the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil was going to be forbidden for Adam & Even, why did God put it in the middle of their world? Why not confine it to an obscure corner of the Garden where they were unlikely to find it, much less see it every day? If it had so much potential to cause their moral failure, why was it so eminent to their existence?

That tree shows us just how close we are to temptation in every part of our lives. It’s a sobering reminder that it is always possible for each of us to make a choice that will ruin us. And if you take stock of your daily habits and daily life, you have surely noticed that the urge to sin doesn’t ever fully go away. Even as time and faith make one sin’s allure begin to fade, another one begins subtly drawing us in. The tree is always in the middle of the Garden, and its fruit always looks at least a little bit appealing.

But let me be quick to add a preemptive correction that may prove helpful for some: the Bible does not teach that Christians perpetually live a hair’s breadth away from accidentally losing our salvation. In fact, in the Garden, while Adam & Eve were only one fruit away from death, the fact is that they did not eat the fruit by accident. God had told them what was right to do, and they chose to do otherwise. It was their choice to give in to temptation. And it is our choice too.

The tree was in the middle of the Garden, and it’s in the middle of our lives too. The choice between life and death is always before us. But God has told us how to choose life. Are you making the right choice?

- Dan Lankford, minister

Share