Renewing your mind (Part 4)
Good and Evil - a meditation on trust
‘So you think you can tell... Heaven from Hell?’
The provocative first lines from the Pink Floyd song ‘Wish you were here’. This is a jibe at the modern worldview, where we have set ourselves up as gods, able to define for ourselves what is right and wrong. Able to chose for ourselves what is good in our own eyes, to pursue heaven, and finding the results of our choices have so often led us and those around us to hell.
If the extreme individualism of the modern worldview has led us to these dark places, has the traditional African worldview brought us more success in creating a beautiful and just world? How is right and wrong defined in a traditional African culture? Ethics in a traditional African culture are formed out of the clan that you belong to. Any behaviour is judged as good or bad, depending on the impact it will have on your local community. Therefore those involved in government corruption are doing a good thing if the proceeds of the looting go towards the upliftment of their families. This idea of right and wrong has led to tribalism, violence and great suffering and hardship across the continent.
Once again, we turn to the bible, to see if a better story can be found.
In the first chapter of Genesis, we find that ‘God saw that it was good’. Not only was God at work separating out the chaos of an unformed and empty creation, he was also defining what was good in his eyes. Humanity is desperate for an outside view, an objective view, for someone who knows and understands the world in all its complexities, and to tell us what is good and what is not. Our world is filled with those who want to set themselves up, from their tiny point of view, shaped by their upbringing, their culture, their own baggage, and tell us what is good and what is not. Try as we might, we can never hope to see the world as it truly is, and have the wisdom to see what will make this planet right and just, hopeful and beautiful. We need God. We need the creator’s wisdom and viewpoint. We need his opinion of what is good and what is not.
This was the world that Adam and Eve were born into. A garden had been planted, and they were told to bring God’s rule to this part of the planet, and then to multiply out and extend God’s rule of order and beauty to fill the rest of the world. They knew their mission, but had just one prohibition, which was to abstain from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree was situated right in the middle of the garden, meaning their decision not to eat the fruit was made day after day.
Before we go on in the story, and it takes a turn for the worse, let’s just ponder what a beautiful scenario this is. Humanity are walking with God, enjoying their relationship with him and each other, rooted in the trust that God is good, that he loves them, and that he wants the best for them. What a joy to live in obedience to a God who decides what is right and wrong, knowing it is for their best, whether they always understand the reasons for God’s decisions or not.
The day came when their choice to refrain from eating from the tree was tested. A spiritual being in the form of a serpent began to challenge Eve’s trust in God’s goodness. ‘Did God really say that you couldn’t eat from any of the trees in the garden?’ Eve is wise to this provocation, insisting that they could eat from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, because this would cause death. The following temptation of the serpent was that the humans could be like God, knowing (a better translation may be ‘discerning’) good and evil, if they chose to eat from this tree. Eve takes a good look at the fruit, and it certainly looked delicious, like the fruit of all the other trees that they ate day after day. She had the choice at that moment, of whether to trust in God, in his goodness, and his desire for a beautiful, just and peaceful world, or to trust the words of the serpent, that God was keeping them from achieving all that they could be, and no harm would come to them, but rather greatness. As she considered her choice, the fruit became very desirable for her, and together with Adam they took and ate the fruit.
From that moment on, the story takes a downward spiral, as generation after generation chose to do what is good in their own eyes, leading to selfishness, violence, oppression and murder. At key moments in the story, God calls his people to align themselves with him and his ways. Moses calls the people to obedience to YHWH and to choose life rather than death (Deut 30:19). Solomon exhorts his son to embrace wisdom as the tree of life (Prov 3:18) which begins as you hold God and his word in reverence (Prov 9:10). Jesus ended his greatest sermon by declaring that those who would listen and obey his words would live, while those who ignored his words would die (Matt 7:24-27).
Paul would later reflect on the message that he was sent to preach to the Gentiles as ‘the obedience that comes through faith’ (Rom 1:5). This is God inviting us again into a relationship of love and trust, in which we know that God is good, that he loves us, that he is the only one who can truly define what is right and wrong, what is good and bad. Out of this relationship, the natural thing is to joyfully obey everything he tells us to do.
Questions for reflection
• When you consider where your sense of right and wrong come from, how much comes from your background as opposed to what God says?
• Would you say that following Jesus is about works or grace? Explain your answer.
• How do you find out what God wants you to do?
Case Study
Since John became a Christian, he has given up alcohol and cigarettes. He has also become quite upset by those Christians in the church that continue with their bad habits, and it makes him wonder why these people continue to sin if they are following Jesus. How would you advise him?