Genesis 3:6
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

There wasn’t anything bad about the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Everything that God had made was good.  It was fruit like that of all the other trees.  It was appealing to the eyes, to the desire for food, to the desire for knowledge.  Those are good things.  Those aren’t wrong things.  But it was something God didn’t want Adam and Eve to have, and so taking it and eating it against His command was wrong.  Looking at it and touching it was fine, but tasting it was forbidden.  So the act of eating that fruit was rebellion against God.

Sometimes in our lives we’ll be confronted with a pleasant fruit.  It’s nice to look at.  It would satisfy our hunger.  It would add something positive to our life.  But if God says no, then it’s wrong for us to take it and eat it.  There are many things in this world that are good but are not in God’s will for us to have.  There are things God has told us we should not do.  And when these things cross our path or we seek them out, we have a choice to make.  And if we make the wrong choice, there will be consequences to face.

And the devil is still out there telling us, “It’s okay.  One little bite won’t hurt.”  But that is still a lie, just like the one he told to Eve.  It hurts very much to disobey God.  It hurts us and Him and our relationship with Him.  But sometimes we fall for it, thinking to ourselves that if it’s something good, God would want us to have it, but that faulty reasoning doesn’t justify our sinful actions.  The inherent goodness of something God has made off-limits to us doesn’t make it okay to disobey Him.

The boundaries God sets are for our own good.  The limitations He puts on things aren’t to deny us good things in our lives, but to benefit us.  And when we understand that, we’re less likely to brashly go out and take what we want without regard for what God says or what He wants for us.  When we’re willing to submit to His authority, we won’t reach for those things that aren’t ours to have even if we don’t understand why we can’t partake of them.  So may we always strive to please our Father with obedience and forsake those things He’s forbidden while being satisfied with the abundance that He has given to us.