When UNgodliness is next to godliness…
Posted by Tim on March 24, 2009
You know the old saying, “cleanliness is next to godliness”? The scary thing about that saying is that most Americans believe it is actually scripture. In reality, it is just one of those psuedo-scriptural sayings that moms have used for years to try to get young boys to take a bath. It has never worked. The only thing that gets young boys, and most men for that matter, to stay clean is young girls… But none of this has anything to do with what I want to talk about today.
What I do want to talk about is something that IS next to godliness: that is UNgodliness. “Wait a minute,” you might say, “we are supposed to be like God! How can UNgodliness be next to godliness?” Stay with me for a minute and let me explain what I mean.
I am getting this idea from the beginning of God’s interaction with man in Genesis chapters 2 & 3. In 2:16-17 the Bible says, “But the LORD God gave him this warning: “You may freely eat any fruit in the garden except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die.” Then in 3:5, the serpent puts his twist on things by saying, “God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat of it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.” These verses have always bothered me because I have always thought that being like God was a good thing. Aren’t we supposed to be developing His character in our lives? I also thought that knowing the difference between good and evil was a good thing. This bothered me enough that I have pretty much ignored it for years. I am really good at ignoring things I don’t want to spend the mental energy on, like doing the dishes.
Recently though, I started reading through Genesis again and asking what is does this mean? Why is it bad to be like God? Why is it bad to know good and evil? I started spend some of my precious mental energy reserves on these questions. To understand I needed to answer two questions: what does it mean to know good and evil? and what does it mean to be like God?
I have always understood knowing good and evil to mean having the knowledge that stealing cookies was bad and leaving the toilet seat down was good. But that can’t be what it means here. After all God had already given Adam the list: eating from this tree, BAD, everything else, GOOD. I may not be able to remember what I am supposed to get at the grocery store, but even I can remember that. So knowing good and evil has to mean more than just being able to read or remember a list of dos and don’ts.
Next, I had to realize that we are created to be like God just not, like, God. I hope that clears it all up for you. What I mean is that we are supposed to be like Him in our emotions, passions, and character but not like Him as in trying to do His job. We are not created to be our own god and to decide what is good and evil. Do you see it now? Being like God is bad when it means that we decide for ourselves what is good and evil. Our job is to trust God, not do His job for Him.
So this is how I understand the passage; We die when we decide we know better than God what is good and evil. We live when we trust that what He has told us is true and live accordingly. Seems kind of simple, doesn’t it? But I have the gift of making the simple complex (for example, the preceding explanation of this simple topic). I have to argue with God about what is good and what is evil. I also have to argue with obsess over the couple of things He says are bad instead of focusing on the entire world of good things He has given me. Adam was free to do everything in the world except one thing, so he did that! I am just like that. God has set me free to live and enjoy the world but I seem to always be arguing about the one of two things He warns will kill me. “But God, You don’t understand. That is so old fashioned. Things are different today…” It is simple, BE God, BAD, be like God, GOOD.
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youtobest said
gread
Gary Spear said
Hello! I enjoyed this post. I’ve been thinking through Genesis again recently also. I’ve been stuck on the ‘knowledge’ part of the equation of good and evil. It’s interesting to me from the accoutability standpoint.
When adam and eve ate of the tree, it was their first recorded act of sin or selfishness, which is the root of sin. But I can’t imagine that they’d never had a selfish (sinful) thought or attitude or maybe even action before that point. I think they were normal people and not perfect, little robots so I assume they’d acted selfishly at some point in their existence before the Tree. But they weren’t held responsible for the selfishness because they didn’t have knowledge of good and evil.
The fall to me is staggering because knowledge of good and evil entered the picture and therefore made them accountable for their thoughts and actions. Until then, they weren’t responsible. We understand this in children; many call it the age of accountability, which is when we assume children become old enough to be responsible for selfish choices. So I see the acquiring of this knowledge of good and evil as adam and eve’s coming into the age of accountability.
I’m not sure all of this is worth dwelling on or pondering for long but it surely is interesting! You should consider writing a blog post on why they were suddenly embarassed to be naked in front of God, who had seen them naked always. I think it’s not about nakedness being sinful but rather about with the knowledge of good and evil came the ability and urge to compare ourselves to others and to other situations. And we’ve been living by comparing ourselves to people ever since. Now there’s a real curse!