Virtue/ righteousness vs The Knowledge of Good and Evil

[David H.]

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: (Matthew 15:19)

Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. (Malachi 3:18)

We as Humans clearly have knowledge of Good and Evil, we see the crimes of Hitler, Mao or Stalin and we see evil personified in them in their deeds, the vile wickedness of the heart manifesting in overt evil actions.

What we do not discern is the everyday actions of virtue and righteousness from a person as opposed to actions that outwardly seem virtuous but are done for evil motives or under duress and or coercion that are not truly virtuous but rather self serving.

For example, a Muslim Believes under the coercion of the sword as they believe for their own self preservation. They Obey their pillars for the same reason, for personal preservation and gain.

True virtue comes only when a person is given the freedom to choose between virtue and wickedness and they choose virtue. The New Covenant gives all sinners this choice, Which the Gospel (good news) gives us.... There is no coercion or manipulation involved in accepting the Gospel, as it is a free gift to be received or rejected.

Religion is built on the knowledge of Good and Evil (Think of the tree Adam and Eve ate of), and fear is the motivation for submittance. Christianity is built on the knowledge of the evil intents of the heart and knowing there is nothing we can do to change this, Only the transforming power of the Blood of the lamb can transform our hearts from acting on the knowledge of Good and evil (Law of sin and death), to acting from the heart of righteousness that is possible by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in us (Law of the Spirit of Life). When he sanctifies the heart, we not only do good deeds because of personal benefit to us, but because our heart desires to obey the one who has redeemed us by His Grace.

 

[Wynona]

When you say religion is built on the knowledge of good and evil, can you explain further?

 

[David H.]

When you say religion is built on the knowledge of good and evil, can you explain further?

Good Question...

Man ate of the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil.... Most religions have a set of rules that are forced upon the adherents defining good and evil, Adherence to the "good" brings praise and pride and those who do not obey are deemed "evil" bringing condemnation and humiliation.

Thus religion based on the knowledge of good and evil puffs up the adherents.... think Pharisees here. It is this pride that is the Original sin of Humanity.... To be like God knowing good and evil, thus being able to look down and condemn those who do not adhere, thus making man little gods judging other men.

But God is on the side of those who are humble (Read Luke 18:9-14), knowing their weaknesses and are capable of repentance. Good and evil is relative to man, righteousness and wickedness is not. So for example a person may be righteous in his act of shooting someone in defense of his family, though he has committed murder, His action itself is righteous. The same is true in the opposite direction, A rich man gives money to the poor so that he can feel less guilty about his riches. Though his action on the outside seems good, his motive on the inside is wicked and puffs him up.

The Church itself is full of both wheat and tares, Tares look just like the wheat, But when it is time to harvest it becomes obvious which is which. The Prophecy in Malachi 3:18 shows two things, that we now are unable to discern between the two, and that we will be able to discern at a certain time when this prophecy is fulfilled, at the time of harvest.

When I say the Holy Spirit transforms our motives and intents of the heart our actions become the righteousness of God manifesting through us. We are serving Him because we are submitted to Him because we know that without Him we can do nothing righteous. In fact the more we try to do good of our own strength and determination knowing good and evil, the more wicked our motives become.

Read John 3:18-21

God Bless.