Knowing Good and Evil

Trying to wrap my brain around something. In Gen 3:22, God said "man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil." Now I assume that this 'knowing' means to have knowledge of that which is good and that which is evil. But looking at the fall and the word 'know', which in Hebrew is 'yada', I learn that this 'knowledge' is more than just having information regarding good and evil, rather it is an intimate knowledge of experience with good and now evil. In Gen 4:1, 'Adam knew Eve his wife'. So we 'know' sin intimately.

Is it not similar to what Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 6:16?

16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

Have we not 'joined' ourselves with sin and become one body with her? My feeble understanding of 'knowing good and evil' like God means we know what sin is and we know what is right. However, unlike God, we choose to 'join' ourselves to sin. I don't say this hopelessly, though.

2 Corinthians 5:21

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus Christ knew what sin was. He preached against it for 3 years, but He did not 'know' it. He was led into the wilderness and Satan tried to entice Him to 'join' Himself with sin. But He was/is God.

Hebrews 4:15

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Romans 7:1-4

1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

So, like God, we knew good and evil. But unlike God, we chose evil and we joined ourselves to it and were married to it. But by His grace, we died so that our marriage no longer bound us and we could marry Another.

Hungry For Worship

I could be paranoid or self-righteous or just plain crazy, but something concerns me. There seems to be some sort of revival or an awakening going on across America today. From a distance, it looks like a nation turning to God. But here's where my paranoia kicks in.

A motto on a record label for a CD I have says..."Coming of Age, Hungry for Worship". That sounds cool. You picture young people especially and a whole new generation of people with what seems to be a desire to worship God. Because of this, the Christian music industry has been booming for several years now.

"Hungry for Worship". You may picture, as I do, a large crowd in a large arena raising their hands singing praise songs. That's cool. But is it possible that many are hungry for the worship instead of the intended object of worship? I do not doubt the sincerity and faith of every person that attends a Christian concert or event, but could it be that, for many, the focus is not really Jesus Christ? Music is a powerful thing. It can alter emotions as good as any source of entertainment we have. But we are to have no other gods other than God, the Lord, Jesus Christ, our Savior.

There also seems to be a belief that to have a good 'worship service', the music needs to be extravagant. The performance needs to be magnificent. The atmosphere needs to be perfect. Have we somehow turned the focus toward ourselves, like I don't know, the Pharisees?

I am throwing no stones here. And there are several Christian artists that get it. I just wonder if in some cases, some of us have missed it. A local church has a sign that says..."Christ Centered Contemporary Worship". Be honest, what word stands out in that sentence. Christ? Or Contemporary? Nothing against the church,but what message is being sent? Does our worship need to be Christ centered or contemporary?

Colossians 1:28
28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

HIM we proclaim!

that in everything he might be preeminent. (Colossians 1:18)

For Christ and His Preeminence

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