Can We Learn Love?
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James 4:1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
I speculate that before the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil, Man didn’t think much about the outcomes of his decisions. “I’m hungry therefore I shall eat” would have been his great ambition. The Good/Evil element added godlike power with its positive and negative consequences. Since mankind is not omniscient, we must learn about consequences.
Cain slew Abel, thinking only about his current envy. He did not consider that he was ending Abel’s lineage and had no way of anticipating what greatness might have come through Abel’s descendants; descendants who would one day populate the Kingdom of Heaven.
Having the knowledge of good and evil does not fully make us God like but it does give us context for learning the mind of God. An omniscient God would not attempt to teach us how to think like He does if He didn’t think it was possible. Our knowledge of good and evil set the stage of envy, quarrels and infighting but it also sets the stage for appreciating the overwhelming power of love, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Read all of Romans 5 to see what God views as much more important than the temporal objects which lead to our envy and strife.
Romans 5:3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Father, teach us to think like You!