I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
Romans 16:17-19 NIV
We may wonder why God put that tree in the Garden of Eden, since He had to know His enemy would use it to tempt Adam and Eve into disobedience that would change the paradise He had created. Perhaps He was trying out the free will He placed in mankind. Maybe He wanted to see how we would react if He gave us everything but that one thing. Well, He knows for certain now, doesn't He? In these times, there are a lot of little devils running around opposing God's plan — deceiving and being deceived. And again, God simply tells us to "keep away from them," pretty much like He told Adam to stay away from that tree. God sent His Son, Jesus, to teach us to focus on what is good and help us to discern what is not good. According to His Word, God doesn't even want us to know about evil except that we are to be innocent of it and that He will totally obliterate it from our lives one day. Why God did it this way we may never know, but we can be sure that if we will do what He tells us to do, we will finally be free of evil and live forever in the goodness He intended from the beginning.
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