God’s Authority on Good and Evil

In the beginning, when God created everything, He declared it “good.” This wasn’t just about moral goodness but about functionality. God, in His divine authority, determined what was good for the earth to exist and flourish. He didn’t just make things and leave them to chance; He embedded self-sufficiency within His creation. When God says something is good, it means that it is meant to thrive, to produce, and to fulfill its purpose.

The tree in the garden was placed there not as a curse, but as a test of obedience. God, in His wisdom, knew that the knowledge of good and evil wasn’t meant for us to bear. The right to define what is good and what is evil belongs solely to God. This is why He forbade Adam and Eve from eating the fruit of the tree. The moment they ate it, they began to take on the burden of deciding for themselves what was good, and as a result, they fell into sin.

In Hebrew, the word for “good” is tov, which is not just moral goodness but something beautiful, something that aligns with God’s perfect design. When the Bible describes beauty, it often uses this word, reflecting the perfection of God’s creation. In contrast, the word for “evil,” ra, speaks to destruction, harm, and disorder. This distinction shows us that evil, in its essence, is the opposite of the goodness that God created and sustains.

Humanity wasn’t meant to carry the burden of deciding what is good and evil. God, in His wisdom, knew that if we were given this right, we would distort it. We see this today, society has blurred the lines between right and wrong, often calling what is evil “good.” Scripture warns us, “Woe to those who call evil good” — Isaiah 5:20. This is the very consequence of man stepping outside of God’s authority and deciding what is right in his own eyes.

When Adam and Eve ate from the tree, their eyes were opened, but not in the way they had imagined. They became aware of their disobedience and the weight of sin. They saw their ability to do harm, to break the harmony of creation, and to act destructively, things God never intended for them to know or do.

This is the crux of the issue today. The world continually shifts its moral compass, changing what is considered good or evil based on the culture of the moment. Slavery was once deemed acceptable and even good, but now it is universally condemned. Do we trust this ever-changing standard? As a Christian, I hold my moral values firm in the Word of God, which never changes. The Bible remains the only constant, a sure foundation in a world where good and evil are increasingly seen through subjective lenses.

God alone has the right to define what is good and evil. And by following His Word, we are anchored in truth, not swayed by the shifting ideologies of the world.