Tuesday, September 19, 2017

The Legitimacy of Desire


UV 2778/10000 The Legitimacy of Desire
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Genesis 3 v 3
Gautama Buddha opined that desire is the root of evil and the cause of human suffering. But the Bible states that desires allowed by God are legitimate while desires not permitted by Him are lust. The legitimacy of desire and the illegitimacy of lust is a concept that evolves from this uni-verse. God had permitted man to eat of the fruit of all other trees (legitimate desire) except one ( illegitimate desire. There were multiple good choices and only one bad choice. Today, across the world there are multiple bad choices or choices of lust and one good choice- the tree of eternal life that is personified in the Christ of God, the Chosen One – Jesus. Therefore, we eat and drink the Word. The difference between the words, world and word is the letter “l” that stands for lust. Jesus is the Word personified- the person of God in human form devoid of lust.
The tree of the forbidden fruit occupied a central place in the garden of life. But in the believer’s life or garden, the tree of eternal life or Jesus occupies the central place. Our lust is moved to the periphery, till one by one all our illegitimate desires are moved out of the circle of our lives. We are no longer to live to gratify only our own desires. When we taste of the fruit of the tree of eternal life, we are no longer to be just consumers but producers of the good fruit of eternity-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. When people behold and taste of such eternal fruit, they will get a taste of eternity, of the kingdom of God.
Suffice it to say, what God allows is legitimate, what God disallows, prohibits, forbids is illegitimate lust. How do we know what God allows and what He prohibits? The Word of God, the counsel of the Holy Spirit and the counsel of the godly are three ways we know what is beyond the legit boundaries of our behaviour, our aspirations, our desires. We have enough freedom within these boundaries. Psychologists state that there is an embedded negative or the ingrained negatives in our human nature-the hubris. The Word helps us identify these negatives and overcome these. The Word enables us to confront, remove and overcome the negatives in us and in our environment even as the cross is a negative sign cut by a line drawn from above to turn it into a positive sign.
Prateep V Philip

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