The book of Genesis mentions two trees: The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (see Genesis Chapters 2 & 3).

One question which always arises: Why did God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden in the first place? If he is all-knowing, he had to have known Adam and Eve would eventually partake and suffer the consequences.

Some have answered it’s because God wanted to give us free-will, and that can only happen if we’re given choices. Even deadly ones.

But is that too simplistic of an answer? Could it, perhaps, go much deeper?

In one of my Wednesday night discussions with A.W. Tozer’s book “The Knowledge of the Holy,” one of the participants asked the why God planted that tree, especially considering the evil that’s been unleashed since. Plus, if he hadn’t, God, in the form of Jesus, wouldn’t have suffered and died for our sins.

Then I had a thought (I know, scary stuff, my thoughts): What if part of the reason God gave Adam and Eve that choice was to show us the true depth of his love for us? If they had never eaten the forbidden fruit, if we had never sinned, we would never know the lengths God would take to bring us back to him.

After all, we all learn eventually that what someone says matters far less than what they do.

Tell me you love me all day every day, but if you don’t show it, those words are less than meaningless. God telling Adam and Eve and the rest of humanity that he loves us, especially before the fall, is also one thing. But for the Creator of the universe to show it by sacrificing his own life for us—especially when he didn’t have to—says infinitely more.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. ~ John 15:12-17 (emphasis mine)

I think Jesus was speaking of himself in the highlighted passage above, especially considering the first part of the verse after it: “You are my friends…”

Something else to consider, which occurred to me as I was mulling over this entry. When most (myself included until recently) think of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we focus on how it led to mankind being kicked out of Eden and all the evil we’ve since perpetuated, even embraced. We often wish God had never planted it.

Yet let’s not forget it’s the tree of the knowledge of good as well as evil.

Both in equal measure.

Adam and Eve were innocent, naive even. They didn’t know the difference between good and evil. Their experiences, their surroundings, and perhaps God himself, simply were. They had no conception of what was good or evil. To them, “good” and “evil’ were mere words with no real meaning.

Now we do know their meaning, and in many ways, that’s a beautiful thing.

I know, audacious statement that, but hear me out.

Can we truly appreciate a child’s laugh without knowing the difference between good and evil? The smell of the air after a spring rain? The gentle touch of a loved one?

It’s easy to focus on the knowledge of evil, especially when we look around at what’s going on in our world today. Yet I hope we can remember that we have equal knowledge of good and, with God’s help, focus our energies on bringing more goodness into the world.