Introduction 

For the past few months, I have been taking care of a friend’s puppy while he establishes himself in another state. Born in February, Lilo has quickly learned well a few basic commands: Sit, Stay, OK (release from Stay), Come Back (Don’t cross that boundary). We’re working on Heel. What’s interesting to me is how she doesn’t always need a verbal command to make her obey. She has learned that she’s not to go beyond a certain gap between slabs in the sidewalk. She sits to be taken off the leash then stays without command even when I go to put food in her bowl. I don’t want her to always Stay, so my dog has learned a wrong standard of morality.

Definition of Morality

First, let me define my terms and basic understanding of morality. I believe the Bible identifies it as knowing good from bad behavior. See Genesis 2 & 3, the book of Proverbs, and Isaiah 9:15. I therefore believe that the Creator’s command to not eat from the Tree of Morality in the Paradise Garden was not an absolute for all time. It was meant for the infancy of Humanity only. Humans were meant to learn right and wrong… from the Creator… as they grew older.

Adam and Eve short-circuited the process by obeying the reptilian Enemy and eating from the Tree of Morality on their own terms. Since then, humans have developed their own standards of morality, different from their neighbors’, different from the Creator’s.

Excessive Nature of Human Morality

People have developed their own standards of behavior. In Genesis 9, Lamech told his two wives, 

Adah and Zillah, listen to me;

    wives of Lamech, hear my words.

I have killed a man for wounding me,

    a young man for injuring me.

If Cain is avenged seven times,

    then Lamech seventy-seven times.

(:23-24)

In his desire for self-protection, this murderer exceeded Yahweh’s vengeance for killing Cain (:15) times eleven for mere injury to himself.

In a discussion over the moral standards for divorcing one’s wife, Jesus commented in Matthew 19:8 that the Creator never wanted divorce in the first place. The Catholic Church turned that into an absolute moral standard despite St. Paul’s truth in 2 Corinthians 3:6. Those who support abusive husbands use the same standard to keep abused wives from leaving their harmful marriages. The Master’s comment is a godly standard of morality taken to an ungodly, excessive level.

Take from Tree of Life, Then of Morality

The Creator commanded Humanity to eat from all the trees available in the Paradise Garden, except from that one Tree of Knowing Morality. Even today, with all the variety of moral standards. He wants us to get the guidance of Holy Spirit as well as our own moral standards for each dilemma. One moral standard does not fit all situations.

I imagine a conversation with the Almighty. “Father, I have a dilemma here. I think I know what to do from the things You have taught me. What do You want me to do about this situation? How would You have me proceed?” This keeps a person from exceeding what the Creator requires and from applying the wrong standard to a dilemma.

His instructions are life- giving, not harming.