In the Old Testament, Eve listened to the snake in the Garden. When she obeyed it and she and Adam ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, their lives were separated from God. They died spiritually and were separated from the Tree of Life.

In the New Testament, Paul shook the poisonous snake that bit him and hung from his hand into the fire. The strangers who saw it immediately partook of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They took the bad man/good man approach. They said: “This man must be a murderer,” and they expected Paul to drop dead. Then after waiting for his sudden death, but seeing nothing happen, they finally switched their opinion and said that Paul was a god.

Paul shook off the snake and miraculously lived. He experienced and demonstrated the Tree of Life — a life-saving miracle from the living God. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. It’s time for Christians to shake off the snake of evaluating people as good or bad, right or wrong, left or right, and instead begin to demonstrate the miraculous life of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and His love and grace for all human beings.

People want Christianity to be about a thing — church attendance, a sermon, a ministry, a preacher, tithing, a religious routine, a doctrine, a conference — but it’s not. It’s about a relationship of ongoing surrender and obedience to the risen Jesus. Biblical Christianity is about continually demonstrating Christ’s presence, power, and love to all the people you encounter. Shake off the snakes that want you to evaluate people by good or bad and instead love them with the life and presence of Christ living and reigning in and through your heart.