Knowledge of Good and Evil

I have often wondered about the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Didn't Adam and Eve already have some knowledge of good and evil? They knew it was good to obey and bad to disobey. Upon eating the fruit they did gain some knowledge, such as knowing it was shameful to be naked, but did not gain all knowledge of good and evil. So how was the tree a tree of knowledge of good and evil if it didn't endow them with very much knowledge?

This morning while pondering that question, the Spirit revealed to me that it wasn't called the tree of knowledge of good and evil because eating the fruit would immediately endow them with that knowledge. Instead, eating the fruit would enable them to experience mortality and spiritual death and thereby learn for themselves what is good and what is evil. This life then became a probationary state where man would exercise his agency to choose between good and evil as he learned to discern between them.

Why must we be mortal to learn good from evil? We send our children away from home so that they may mature and learn to make decisions for themselves. So too, God sent us away to learn on our own.

But what role does a mortal body play in this?

I'm Worse Than Evil

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? - Matthew 7:9-11

I have a son. He just turned three. He asks me for many things. Sometimes I help him. Sometimes I don't let him have what he wants because I want him to learn that you can't have everything you want. I do that too often. I almost take pleasure in it. I'm worse than evil.

Losing Yourself in Service to Others

I usually look forward to Saturday being my day of relaxation and self-indulgence. I rarely get much self-indulgence so Saturdays more often turn into grouchy days. But a recent Saturday was different.

In the morning I woke up early to weed the strawberry patch. I went in for breakfast just in time to inhale some toast before running off to help a family move. Before and after lunch I installed our window air-conditioner unit and rototilled some land. Then I went with my son to watch grandpa hook a disc mower up to the tractor and prepare for mowing (grease, pump up tires, check fluids, sharpen blades, etc). At 3 PM was a baptism followed by a visit to a friend who I haven't seen at church for a while. After dinner I went with five other men to help someone else load furniture into a U-Haul trailer. I spent a little more time in the strawberry patch followed by a brief birthday celebration then bedtime for the children.

In the evening someone mentioned their irritation with another person's actions. Usually I would be irritated too, especially since Saturdays are my grumpy days, but I wasn't that night. I sat there thinking about how great I felt. I wasn't worried about anything. Nothing was getting under my skin. I had no problems.

How did that happen?

I spent the entire day working and serving others. I did nothing for myself except eat. I proud of how productive I had been and I was filled with charity. I remembered that I'm not the only person with needs.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. - Matthew 16:25

As I listed to someone voice their irritation that night, I knew the antidote they needed was to lose themselves in serving others--I had just proven to myself that it works.