{"id":767,"date":"2010-01-03T08:04:37","date_gmt":"2010-01-03T13:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidcprice.wordpress.com\/?p=767"},"modified":"2010-01-03T08:04:37","modified_gmt":"2010-01-03T13:04:37","slug":"knowing-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/knowing-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowing Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Reading the chapters for the One-Year Challenge<\/a>, I got to thinking about the dilemma that faced the real first family with that fruit.\u00a0 What is it that really caused them to give in?\u00a0 Why couldn’t they simply resist and realize that taking that first bite would be absolutely devastating?\u00a0 I think it’s because they weren’t equipped to resist based on discernment.<\/p>\n

Think about it this way: Because Adam and Eve had not yet<\/em> eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, they had<\/em> no discernment or basis for knowing that the serpent was lying (i.e. was being evil). They were, in the best sense of the word, naive; they were pure. They didn’t really need discernment.\u00a0 So, how could they possibly have known that they were being deceived? They should have been given a pass, right? Wrong. They didn’t HAVE to know the difference between good and evil; they didn’t need to be able to have that kind of discernment IF THEY HAD SIMPLY BEEN OBEDIENT.<\/p>\n

There are many times that I am deceived into evil. There are times when I cannot tell the difference in the subtleties between good and bad. Does that give me a pass? No. In the same way Adam and Eve should have simply been obedient, if I am in tune with what God says and am obedient to it, I don’t have to rely on my own, flawed ability to discern.<\/p>\n

Obedience protects me from myself as well as the evil that lurks in the shadows that tries to get me to fall. I think that’s why in the Great Commission, Jesus tells His disciples to “teach them to observe all that I have commanded.” It is a command of protection as well as faithfulness. In an already fallen world, godly discernment is imperative, but above all else, I must simply learn to obey.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading the chapters for the One-Year Challenge, I got to thinking about the dilemma that faced the real first family with that fruit.\u00a0 What is it that really caused them to give in?\u00a0 Why couldn’t they simply resist and realize that taking that first bite would be absolutely devastating?\u00a0 I think it’s because they weren’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[684,141,165,309],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3jKZO-cn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":212,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/nuances-1-john-2-18-21\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":0},"title":"Nuances – 1 John 2: 18-21","date":"December 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Interested in a spiritual experience?\u00a0 Take your pick.\u00a0 There is a flavor for every taste.\u00a0 Like all the assurance with half the guilt?\u00a0 No problem.\u00a0 Enjoy a good mountain-top experience with no extra commitment?\u00a0 That's out there, too.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, one of the most popular nuances in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":884,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/deception-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":1},"title":"Deception","date":"March 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you have a pet peeve? Is there that one thing that just sets you off quicker than anything else? I heard one person whose pet peeve was people who have pet peeves. Hmm. I think one of my greatest pet peeves is deception. I hate when people try and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5051,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/getting-off-of-the-emotional-rollercoaster\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":2},"title":"Getting Off of the Emotional Rollercoaster","date":"February 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As I prepared for my message (54:20) this past week, I gave a lot of thought to the role of emotions in the Christian's life. How much do we rely on them? What weight should we give them in assessing our spiritual health? Is the presence of deep emotion the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidcprice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rollercoaster.jpeg?fit=600%2C339&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3680,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/aliens-in-a-strange-land\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":3},"title":"Aliens in a Strange Land","date":"February 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In Galatians 1:3-4, Paul writes that Jesus \"gave himself to rescue us from this present evil age.\" It seems like every day we're confronted in new and more blatant terms just how evil this present age is. \u00a0On the one hand, it can be heart-breaking to see a culture in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidcprice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/392FABE6-2746-4357-8C60-B9AA53C4D1E9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C606&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":208,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/be-encouraged-1-john-212-14\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":4},"title":"Be Encouraged! 1 John 2:12-14","date":"November 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes we just need encouragement, don't we?\u00a0 It can seem like the whole world is on our shoulder and if one more thing happens, we're going to snap.\u00a0 I love this little section where John just pours out encouragement on his readers.\u00a0 In essence, he simply says, \"I'm writing to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "PSI (Personal Spiritual Insight)"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2885,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/reflecting-on-a-purpose-filled-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":767,"position":5},"title":"Reflecting on a Purpose-filled Life","date":"April 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11\u00a0my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra\u2014which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12\u00a0Indeed, all who desire\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}