"For we walk by faith, not by appearance" (2 Cor. 5:7).
"Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with Him" (Matt. 17:3).
"When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone" (v. 8).
"Hear Him!" (v. 5b).
"But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by man's day; rather I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself; but I am not justified by this, but He who examines me is the Lord" (1 Cor. 4:3-4).
"The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:9b).
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (vv. 16-17). (The tree of the knowledge of good and evil can also be translated "the tree of the knowledge of right and wrong.")
After God created man, He considered the problem of man's food. The act of giving life is the beginning of life, but food is for the maintenance of life. God created a living man and therefore needed to consider how man should live. Man should not just live; man also needs a living. God wanted man to depend on Him for his living in the same way that he was dependent upon food for his living. "For in Him we live and move and are" (Acts 17:28). Thus, God uses two trees to speak to us in a parable. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil are a kind of parable. They show us that man has two different kinds of food and can live either by life or by the knowledge of good and evil, that is, the knowledge of right and wrong. Many people have read about the two trees in Genesis 2, but we would like to emphasize that the two trees were put there to show us that man, especially a Christian, can live on earth according to two different principles. Man can live according to the principle of right and wrong or according to the principle of life. Some Christians take the principle of right and wrong as the standard for their living, while other Christians take the principle of life as their standard for living.
Today we would like to spend some time before God to see these two principles for living. What does it mean when a person lives according to right and wrong? What does it mean when a person lives according to life? Many people only have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in their lives. Other people have the tree of life in their lives. Some have both trees. The Word of God tells us, however, that he who eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil shall surely die, while he who eats of the tree of life shall live. God also shows us that whoever lives by the knowledge of good and evil will lose his position before God. If man wants to constantly live before God, then he must know what it means to eat the fruit of the tree of life.