Forbidden fruit(cake)
Submitted by Jules on April 3 2002 17:38:33
In reply to The nature of the 'gift of celibacy' submitted by Forgiven on April 3 2002 16:19:01
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Forgiven, I like the cream cake analogy! - because it picks up the idea of wanting what we can't or shouldn't have. It's exactly one of the things you notice in the account of the garden of Eden: There's nothing wrong with liking fruit. It's just that that particular fruit was forbidden. It was "good for food and pleasing to the eye", but because it was forbidden, liking it was a temptation. Liking it was not a sin; but it was a tempation because of the command. The desire that was sinful was the desire to be equal with God, to know good and evil, but the attraction to the fruit itself was perfectly good. Why was Eve attracted to the forbidden fruit? Was it because she had a bent fruit-desire that included this fruit, when a pure fruit-desire would have excluded it? No, that's nonsense, surely. She was attracted to it because it was attractive. And because God created her with an attraction to fruit. Her reaction should have been, "That's a beautiful fruit, and I praise you for making it Lord, but I won't touch it because you've forbidden it, and I won't look at it any more." The principle I get from this is that the desire for something that is forbidden has two parts: a good desire for something beatiful to satisfy a perfectly natural need, and a selfish desire to get some other dubious benefit that is forbidden. I think there must be a lot more we could learn from this; after all, it is the Bible's number one account of how sin comes about! Maybe we should all look at the things we say here, and replace the word "boy" by the words "forbidden fruit" just to check that it all still makes sense! So no, Forgiven, I don't think you're a fruitcake, I think you've got it about right! With Christian love, Jules |
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