God’s eternal plan is to work Christ into us. Christ is the embodiment of God. Thus, Christ being worked into us is God coming into us to be our life. In Genesis chapters one and two, it is clearly revealed that God created man for this purpose. God wanted man to be His vessel so that He Himself could enter into man to be his life. However, man fell. Man fell because he did not receive God as life, but rather he received something else. God wanted man to receive life; instead, man received the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The tree of life is simple; it is simply life. But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is complicated; it includes knowledge, good, and evil. In man’s eyes, evil is something undesirable, while both knowledge and good are much to be desired. Everyone loves to have knowledge and good. If we do not have knowledge, others think we are stupid, and if we are not good, others despise us.
From the beginning of time up to the present, the existence of the human race has been depending on these two things: knowledge and good. Immediately after you were born, you began to receive knowledge. When you were little, your parents sent you to kindergarten, and then they sent you to elementary school, high school, and college. Then just one degree was not sufficient; you had to go to graduate school to get a master’s degree, and after that a Ph.D. Wearing one Ph.D. cap was not enough; you had to wear two or three more. Knowledge is what the people of the world desire and seek after today. Knowledge is their human life and their future. Those who have knowledge are considered upper class, while those who do not are lower class. The entire human society lives by knowledge.
Furthermore, there is the matter of good. Man must live according to morality and ethics to be a good person. To elaborate somewhat, this is to have kindness, love, humility, patience, gentleness, and a willingness to yield to others out of humility. “Yielding to others out of humility” is a unique virtue of the Chinese. In the Western languages there is no proper translation of this phrase. For example, if there were one and a half seats here, would you sit on half a seat or on one whole seat? In general, the Europeans and Americans do everything according to the law. If the law says that a person can have half a seat, then he would take half a seat; if the law says that a person can have a whole seat, then he would take the whole seat. Whatever people are allowed by law, they would not give it up even to their own father. Western people do not know what it is to yield in humility; therefore, such a phrase cannot be found in their dictionary. Yet yielding is a traditional virtue among the Chinese. If there were one and a half seats here, a Chinese would yield not only the one seat but also the half seat. Orientals, especially the Japanese, pay much attention to yielding to others. Is this good? It is truly good; this is one of the best virtues. In terms of virtue, the Chinese and the Japanese are on top. The Westerners know how to claim but not how to yield. Therefore, the Oriental culture is superior. The Orientals are a cultured people. However, this is the goodness from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Today the three things that human society pays constant attention to are knowledge, good, and evil. Every country and every society are full of knowledge, good, and evil. Evil is condemned while knowledge and good are exalted. What is human culture? It is the development of knowledge and the spread of good. In human culture there is technology, philosophy, and religion. Technology and philosophy spread knowledge, whereas religion promotes good and uplifts morality. In addition, the law restrains people from committing sins. In China, there is an idiom, “to rope people by the law,” that is, to prosecute people by the law. The law is like a rope, tying people up. Therefore, the law restricts people.
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