Genesis 3:1-24
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Very young children do not know good or evil...They learn from these things from their parents and the ones who raise them...We also might learn evil from others and through our experiences with or reading about others...After God created man, I am not sure Eve and Adam had a vision of what was good and what was evil, but they would learn...And in learning about evil, we lost Paradise...
God had created everything good in the Garden of Eden...He created good, and allowed evil to happen by choices and decisions we make...But the evil one would change that...Choice is necessary for love...And the evil one deceived Eve by a pleasingly looking fruit and tempted her...Free will and the choices we make can be good or they can be evil...Evil can happen because of our selfish desires in our decisions...
After man learned about good and evil from the serpent, God spoke and disciplined the two He had created...Then God said, “The man has now become like one of Us, knowing good and evil...He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”...So the LORD God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken...After God drove the two out of Paradise, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life...
Pope Francis says this about good and evil: Each of us has a vision of good and of evil...We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good...Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them...That would be enough to make the world a better place...Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it...Only trust in God can transform doubts into certainty, evil into good, night into radiant dawn...
Scripture teaches us these things about good and evil: The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil...Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate...Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good...Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for Light and Light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!...Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil...Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”...Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it...Turn away from evil and do good; so shall you dwell forever...Let love be genuine...Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good...
But through evil, God has not forgotten us...He sent His Son to us, to teach us about goodness and love...God gave us Jesus, His Son, to be our Savior over sin and our evil choices...If we believe in Jesus and His Father, we can have eternal life...For Jesus says now this is eternal life: that they know You, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent...