Summary: Our free will is a gift from God. God commands us to stay away from evil, but he does not remove it from our presence... he trusts us to choose good.
Genesis 2:15-17
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when youeat of it you will surely die."
Application: The first of God's commands for our life starts right in the centre. There is evil in the world. We know both good and evil exists. God now affirms to us in the form of a command that good and evil exists. All the fruit within the garden is good, the Lord explains, except for this one tree that bears the fruit of both. It resides in our centre, one of the forces that drives us and is the root of all decisions we make. Leave it at the core says the Lord, do not eat of it, eat the good fruit that is all around you. If you heed my warning you will choose to leave the good and evil fruit at your core and continue to choose the good fruit I have provided. In doing so you will surely live. But if you choose to eat of the fruit containing evil, you will suffer and die.
This is God giving us choice, then telling us to choose right. He does what I believe was a very hard thing for God; He chooses to let us make our own choice as to whether we will live with him in his way and enjoy life abundant or stray from his way and die. He trusts us enough to give us the choice, but out of love He commands us to stay away from the tree. An order, for our own good. I am honored to believe that God believes in me enough to let me choose to live with Him in His way.
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