Valley View Baptist Church Pastor Curt Audet
6N656 Route 25 May 3, 2026
St. Charles, IL 60174 vvbcil.com
“The Knowledge Of Good & Evil” (Genesis 3:1-8)
Message #10 in the series Harbors For Our Soul
BI: God gives us moral choice to make choices to glorify our Creator.
The latest cinematic contribution to animals thinking, acting and choosing like human beings is Angel Studios “Animal Farm”. This 2026 film released on Friday is based on a satirical, allegorical novel by George Orwell published in 1945, and was an essential part of my 1980’s high school required reading.
It humorously follows the mistreated human-like farm animals of Manor Farm owned and operated by Farmer Jones. They band together to lead a rebellion against their human masters, hoping to create a new society where all animals can be equal, free, and happy away from human vices and interventions. However, the rebellion is hijacked and betrayed under the dictatorship of the pigs led by Napolean, Snowball and the propaganda master Squealer.
Squealer diligently re-writes farm history and rules, subtly altering to justify the pigs’ behavior and enrich their lifestyle. The simple and hardworking horse Boxer remains loyal, repeating slogans like “Napoleon is always right,” even as conditions worsen.
Yet, the animals were deceived with words like, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Perfectly capturing the hypocrisy of corrupt leadership twisting language to justify inequality.
By the end, the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans they overthrew—walking on two legs, trading with humans, and ruling tyrannically. The other animals look on, unable to tell pig from man, realizing too late the promise of equality has been completely betrayed.
Despite all the presumed good intentions of the individual animals, the farm ends up nearly identical to what it was before in all of its disfunction, corruption and oppression. The ruling class of pigs are selfish, self-centered and evil just as the Farmer Jones had been.
Another required reading—not for high school only, but certainly as a Harbor For Our Soul–is Genesis 3. Here we discover the knowledge of good and evil; we find that issues of evil are sourced in the heart of man. As much as we seek to avoid the condition of our own hearts, or to glaze over the darkness found there, we are driven back to see reality.
The Bible speaks about the human heart not just as emotion, but as the core of who we are—our thoughts, desires, will, and moral condition.
The Heart Of Man In The Bible
1. The heart is the core of our inner life. The heart is portrayed as the wellspring of actions, decisions, and character.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23)
2. The unredeemed, natural human heart is inclined toward sin. Scripture is blunt: left to itself, the human heart tends to distort truth and pursue selfish or sinful desires.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts…” (Mark 7:21–23)
3. The heart can be hardened. Repeated resistance to God leads to a dull, resistant inner life.
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 3:15)
4. God looks at and judges the heart—not just outward actions. This cuts both ways—external religion isn’t enough if the heart is far from God
“Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Sameul16:7)
“The Lord said: This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from Me.” (Isaiah 29:13)
5. The heart can be transformed by God. The Bible doesn’t leave the problem unsolved—God promises inner renewal, not just behavior modification.
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
“Create in me a clean heart, O God.” (Psalm 51:10)
6. The greatest command involves the heart. True relationship with God is wholehearted, not merely intellectual or external.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart.” (Matthew 22:37)
Let’s put it all together: Our heart is powerful—incredibly influential–but it is unreliable in its natural state. Our heart is capable of deep devotion and deep corruption. Scripture repeatedly calls for both guarding the heart and having it renewed by God. Knowing the nature of our heart leads us to humbly seek God, and to avoid overestimating our goodness.
Knowing right and wrong is an important life skill. Knowing what is good and evil is a basic essential harbor for our soul. Furthermore, knowing that evil is sourced in our heart leads us to seek forgiveness, redemption and surrender to the fruit of the Holy Spirit rather than the fruit of our own hearts. Observe what happens in Genesis 3:1-8,
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
In 8 verses the gleaming joy and bright fullness of life–like colorful balloons suddenly popped—and everything dramatically changed!
Everything good took on a new view and consequential effects. Why? What happened? Good ruled the day until the conscious choice of sin entered.
- God’s Creation Was Good. (Genesis 1, 2:1-8)
Before coming to the events unfolding before our eyes in Genesis 3, we had heard and seen that the Creation of God is ‘good’. Chapter One, verse 10,12,18,21,25—God saw that it was good! . Very good in verse 31. The Tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil , then, was ‘good’. Why? God made it. Even the Serpent before he opened his mouth toward the Woman—even the snake itself was God. Because God made it and declared it good. What is “good”? When God calls creation “good” in Genesis 1 (Hebrew: tov), He’s saying something richer than “pleasant” or “nice.” The word carries several layers of meaning that come into focus as the chapter unfolds.
God Saw That His Creation Was Good
1. It means creation is exactly as God intended
After each stage—light, land, living creatures—God sees that it is “good” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, etc.). This points to fitness and order: everything functions properly within God’s design. Nothing is out of place, broken, or disordered.
2. It includes moral goodness, not just usefulness. Because God is morally perfect, what He creates reflects His character. “Good” implies that creation is untainted by sin, corruption, or evil at this stage. That’s why Genesis 1:31 intensifies it: “very good”—the whole completed creation is wholly right.
3. It affirms the value of the physical world. In contrast to ideas that matter is inherently bad, Genesis teaches that the material world is good. Bodies, nature, work, and human life are not accidents or evils—they are part of God’s good design.
4. It includes harmony and flourishing; “Good” also suggests (shalom) a state of peace, wholeness, and right relationships.
- between God and humans
- between humans and each other
- between humans and creation
Everything is aligned the way it should be.
5. It sets a baseline for understanding the Fall. When sin enters in Genesis 3, it doesn’t create a new world—it corrupts a good one. So the Bible’s story isn’t about escaping creation, but about God restoring what was originally good (Romans 8:20–21).
II. Man was created with the ability to make moral choices. (Genesis 1:26-31; 2:16-17, 2:1-8; 2:14-17)
Genesis 1:26-31 set humanity apart from every single other category of Creation. The people were made in the image of God. The people were made Good, even very good (1:31)! Man and Woman were able to make decisions of right and wrong. And they continued to make “good” decisions until the crisis of chapter 3:6. In terms of human choices Good and Evil can be seen as this simple:
Definitions:
Good – Obedience to God’s Command.
Evil – Disobedience to God’s Command
Opportunity to sin was always already available to the Man and Woman from the moment they were created. The wiley words of the Satanic Serpent were not their first opportunity to disobey God.
We are not given any days or dates in Genesis 2-3 after the giving of the Seventh Day as a gift for human rest (2:1-3). After the marriage of Adam and Eve, either a little or a lot of time passes before chapter 3. We may assume less days rather than more days since they have children by chapter 4 and they are already out of the Garden. But, perhaps there were weeks that passed in Obedience to God before the fateful day when they morally chose to Disobey God.
Creation was complete and the details of the storyline of humanity began in v. 4:
“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.”
This initial generations portion continues all the way through Genesis 11. Genesis 2:5-25 covers no new timeline narrative. Rather, it zooms in and expands the details already told in Genesis 1:26-31; everything in v.5-25 happens on Day 6 of Creation. It describes the Man’s creation. It details the beauty and function of the Garden of Eden, It introduces particular features like four specific rivers with their names (Pishon, Gihon, Euphrates, Tigris), and two particular trees in the middle of the acres of Trees (Tree of Life, Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil). All this is v.5-14.
Then, in v.14-20 three directives are given. The first is to work the land and keep the Garden; this expands from 1:28-29 where Man is to have dominion over God’s Creation and care for it. Being fruitful and populate the earth was necessary for this task. Humankind was to harvest their food from all the marvelous fruit-bearing trees.
The second order carried a sober warning. Of the two unique trees in the Garden of which the Man and Woman would care for, the Tree of Life could be eaten from–is it fair to assume that they did eat of the Tree of Life? Why wouldn’t they try them all? In stark contrast the Tree of the Knowledge Of Good & Evil could not be eaten of. The ‘Why?’ is not given by God. Perhaps there would be time in the future by God’s design that this Tree fruit could be enjoyed. But not now. The warning is significant: On the day that you eat of it you will surely die. Notice that this is the only time in Genesis 2 that God gives a severe consequence to come if His command is dismissed and disobeyed. Evil would replace reigning Good when Man and Woman chose to disobey.
The third order comes in the process of the Man naming all the creatures and along the way discovering that there is no compatible companion for him among all of God’s good creation yet.
Three responsibilities to carry out. The Man does this faithful—until Genesis 3:8. We’ll pick up on this in our next installment in Genesis 3 in two weeks.
Are you sometimes unsure about what is right? And what is wrong? What is sin? And what is not sin? The Bible boils it down to this:
Good – Obedience to God’s Command.
Evil – Disobedience to God’s Command
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