The Tree of Knowledge

Genesis 2:9

“The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed THE TREE OF LIFE and THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL."

• Genesis 2:16–17 “But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

• Adam and Eve died spiritually. Both turned away from God's command.

THE TREE OF LIFE (The Truth) represents Godly Wisdom and Knowledge. This knowledge and wisdom come from God when we are connected to Him via the Holy Spirit. It requires faith and repentance.

• Proverbs 1:7 "FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE FOUNDATION of the TRUE KNOWLEDGE, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL (The Lie) represents human wisdom and it comes from the devil. "Eating its fruit" made humans disobey God because they trusted the lie.

• 2 Corinthians 4:4 "Satan, who is the god of THIS WORLD, has BLINDED THE MINDS of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They DON'T UNDERSTAND this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God."

• John 8:44 "For you are the children of your father THE DEVIL, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. HE ALWAYS HATED THE TRUTH, BECAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and THE FATHER OF LIES."

• Isaiah 5:21 “What sorrow for those who are WISE IN THEIR OWN EYES and think themselves so clever.”

The point.

Everything taught by THIS WORLD is a LIE that masquerades as "wisdom and knowledge." It has nothing to do with Wisdom and Knowledge of God because God is the TRUTH. This is why The Lord requires people to reject the World to be saved. No one can stand for the Truth AND for the Lie; it's ONE OR THE OTHER:

THIS WORLD'S "WISDOM" (The Lie):

Job 28:22

“But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding? IT IS HIDDEN FROM THE EYES OF ALL HUMANITY. Even the sharp-eyed birds in the sky cannot discover it.

Destruction and Death say, ‘WE'VE HEARD ONLY RUMORS OF WHERE WISDOM CAN BE FOUND." 🔥

Ecclesiastes 10:5-7

"There is another evil I have seen under the sun. Kings and rulers make a grave mistake when they give great AUTHORITY TO FOOLISH PEOPLE and low positions to people of proven worth. I have even seen servants riding horseback like princes—and princes walking like servants!"

• Psalm 82:2-5 “How long will you hand down unjust decisions by favoring the wicked? Interlude “Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. Rescue the poor and helpless; deliver them from the grasp of evil people. But these oppressors KNOW NOTHING; they are so ignorant! They wander about in darkness, while the whole world is shaken to the core."

Isaiah 47:10-11

“You felt secure in your wickedness. ‘No one sees me,’ you said. But YOUR ‘WISDOM’ and ‘KNOWLEDGE’ HAVE LED YOU ASTRAY, and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’ So disaster will overtake you, and you won’t be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won’t be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you are not prepared."

Micah 7:3–4

“Both their hands are equally skilled at doing evil! Officials and judges alike demand bribes. The people with influence get what they want, and together they scheme to twist justice. Even the best of them is like a brier; the most honest is as dangerous as a hedge of thorns. But your judgment day is coming swiftly now. Your time of punishment is here, a TIME OF CONFUSION.”

• Deuteronomy 28:27–29 “The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The Lord will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. You will grope around in broad daylight like a blind person groping in the darkness, but you will not find your way. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.”

James 4:4-10

"You adulterers! DON'T YOU REALIZE THAT FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD MAKES YOU AN ENEMY OF GOD? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be FAITHFUL TO HIM. And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

So humble yourselves before God. RESIST THE DEVIL, AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for YOUR LOYALTY IS DIVIDED between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor."

Isaiah 29:11–29

“ALL THE FUTURE EVENTS IN THIS VISION ARE LIKE A SEALED BOOK TO THEM. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.” When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.”

And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote. Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites with amazing wonders. The wisdom of the wise will pass away, and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.”

What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their evil deeds in the dark! “The Lord can’t see us,” they say. “He doesn’t know what’s going on!” How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The potter who made me is stupid”?

Soon—and it will not be very long—the forests of Lebanon will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.

In that day THE DEAF WILL HEAR THE WORDS FROM A BOOK, and THE BLIND WILL SEE THROUGH THE GLOOM AND DARKNESS. The humble will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord. The poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

• Matthew 4:14–17 “This fulfilled what God said through the prophet Isaiah: “In the land of Zebulun and of Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.” From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

The scoffer will be gone, the arrogant will disappear, and those who plot evil will be killed. Those who convict the innocent by their false testimony will disappear. A similar fate awaits those who use trickery to pervert justice and who tell lies to destroy the innocent.”

• Revelation 22:15 “Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and ALL WHO LOVE TO LIVE A LIE.”

1 John 2:15-17

"DO NOT LOVE THIS WORLD nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever."

THE WISDOM OF GOD (The Truth)

1 Corinthians 1:18–29

"THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very POWER OF GOD. As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” “So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? GOD HAS MADE THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD LOOK FOOLISH. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that THE WORLD WOULD NEVER KNOW HIM THROUGH HUMAN WISDOM, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, CHRIST IS THE POWER OF GOD AND THE WISDOM OF GOD. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength. Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.

Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.”

1 Corinthians 3:18–20

"STOP DECEIVING YOURSELVES. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD IS FOOLISHNESS TO GOD. As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.” And again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; he knows they are worthless.”

• Proverbs 26:12 "There is more hope for fools than for people who think they are wise."

James 1:5–8

“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your FAITH IS IN GOD ALONE. Do not waver, for a person with DIVIDED LOYALTY is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”

James 3:13-18

TRUE WISDOM COMES FROM GOD

"If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.

But THE WISDOM FROM ABOVE IS FIRST OF ALL PURE. It is also PEACE LOVING, GENTLE at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is FULL OF MERCY and THE FRUIT OF GOOD DEEDS. It shows no favoritism and is always SINCERE. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness."

God gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to those who belong to Him:

Job 32:6-10

"Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite said, “I am young and you are old, so I held back from telling you what I think. I thought, ‘Those who are older should speak, for wisdom comes with age.’ But there is a SPIRIT WITHIN PEOPLE, THE BREATH OF THE ALMIGHTY WITHIN THEM, THAT MAKES THEM INTELLIGENT. Sometimes the elders are not wise. Sometimes the aged do not understand justice."

• John 15:5 "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing."

Matthew 13:11–16

“He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and THEY WILL HAVE ABUNDANCE OF KNOWLEDGE. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables,

• Psalms‬ 78‬:2‬ ”for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—”

• Ezekiel‬ 20‬:49‬ “Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, they are saying of me, ‘He only talks in riddles!’”

For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.

This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.”

1 Corinthians 2:10–16

“But it was to us that God revealed these things BY HIS SPIRIT. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And WE HAVE RECEIVED GOD'S SPIRIT (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using THE SPIRIT'S WORDS to explain SPIRITUAL TRUTHS.

But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. THOSE WHO ARE SPIRITUAL CAN EVALUATE ALL THINGS, BUT THEY THEMSELVES CANNOT BE EVALUATED BY OTHERS. For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST.”

• spiritual person - one who is born again and received the Holy Spirit

• non-spiritual person - one who keeps sinning, never repented and did not receive the Holy Spirit

Philippians 3:7–11

“I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, EVERYTHING ELSE IS WORTHLESS when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and BECOME ONE WITH HIM.

I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become RIGHTEOUS THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST. For God’s way of making us right with himself DEPENDS ON FAITH.

I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”

2 Corinthians 5:15–21

“He died for everyone so that those who receive HIS NEW LIFE will NO LONGER LIVE FOR THEMSELVES. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

So WE STOPPED EVALUATING OTHERS FROM A HUMAN POINT OF VIEW. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. HOW DIFFERENTLY WE KNOW HIM NOW! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become A NEW PERSON. The old life is gone; A NEW LIFE HAS BEGUN! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; GOD IS MAKING HIS APPEAL THROUGH US. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

GOD'S CHILDREN ARE CITIZENS OF HEAVEN

• John 15:18-19 "If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are NO LONGER PART OF THE WORLD. I CHOSE YOU TO COME OUT OF THE WORLD, so it hates you."

Philippians 1:27-30

Live as Citizens of Heaven

"Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with ONE SPIRIT AND ONE PURPOSE, fighting together for the FAITH, which is THE GOOD NEWS. Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it."

1 Peter 2:7-11

"Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him,

“The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. But you are not like that, for you are a CHOSEN PEOPLE. You are ROYAL PRIESTS, a HOLY NATION, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for HE CALLED YOU out of the darkness into HIS WONDERFUL LIGHT. Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.” Dear friends, I warn you as “TEMPORARY RESIDENTS AND FOREIGNERS” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls."

Philippians 3:17-21

"Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and THEY THINK ONLY ABOUT THIS LIFE HERE ON EARTH. But WE ARE CITIZENS OF HEAVEN, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control."

Revelation 3:10-12

“Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world TO TEST THOSE WHO BELONG TO THIS WORLD. I AM COMING SOON. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away YOUR CROWN. All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write on them the name of my God, and they will be CITIZENS IN THE CITY OF MY GOD—THE NEW JERUSALEM THAT COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN FROM MY GOD. And I will also write on them my new name."

ABBA FATHER! 🙌🏻 💞

Learn more: The Tree of Life