The Story of a Tree: The Serpent's Curse and Relational Turmoil, Part 4

The Garden Story is about a man who failed his test to protect his bride; it's about a tree that should have been left alone at that time.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

NOTE: Thanks for reading this series. I hope it has been fruitful. The basis of this series will become my new book on biblical virtue.

The biblical story is about the restoration of virtue, the virtues that our first parents lost, the virtues that God’s people squandered, and the virtues that the first-century Jewish leaders despised. The false priests said, “Love, love, love,” but there was no love. They said, “Peace, peace, peace,” but there was no peace. The first-century church was judged because she drank from the wrong fountain and, like Adam, ate from the wrong tree. They ate from the fruit of vices.

When God’s people are not discerning to partake of God’s gifts, they will be used falsely. They may justify it with Shakespearean prose, but it’s still a sin. You can see this in many of our government’s actions. Why COVID lockdown? Because of love thy neighbor. Why drunkenness? Because of joy. Why multi-culturalism? Because of peace. Again, every fruit of the Spirit can be corrupted.

What we will see in the list of virtues in Galatians 5 is the proper restoration of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But at this stage in our series, we are still under the curse of the fall. We need to see what the false fruit made us lose before we can see what the true fruit will restore.