For three years, my wife and I have been fighting her recurrent breast cancer. We have a funny moment every October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness month. We catch each other’s eye and say: “We’re aware—very aware!” Not that breast cancer awareness is a bad idea, but to us it can seem a little absurd.

Imagine the absurdity if we were to launch an “Evil Awareness Month.” We in youth ministry might look at each other and say, “We’re aware—very aware!” We and our students encounter recurrent evil every day. Humanity was diagnosed in Genesis 3, and we’ve been battling that cancer ever since.

It’s been said that knowledge is power, but in Genesis 3, knowledge led to death. What God tried to protect us from—knowledge of good and evil—the serpent leveraged against us. This knowledge was enticing to Adam and Eve, but it came attached to awareness of the flesh, awareness of evil, and sadly, awareness of death.

Once humanity gained this awareness, there was no putting the genie back in the bottle. So, what came next? The solution came in the form of God’s own Son.

As you read the Genesis passages below, listen to the consequences of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Notice how different the same words sound coming from contrasting sources—one a deceiver, the other a protector. Then read the solution—the antidote to humanity’s knowledge of the flesh, evil and death.

Genesis 3:4-5 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil…”

The Solution
1 John 3:8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

Think About It
Every pain in life is rooted in the terrible knowledge gained in Genesis 3. Yet this knowledge—John calls it “the devil’s work”—is redeemed by the work of Jesus. We may suffer the consequences of letting our flesh control us, but Jesus cleanses us and sets us free (Romans 3:22-24). We experience the injustice of an evil world, but Jesus overcame this world and gives us peace (John 16:33). We feel the pain of death, but Jesus cries with us (John 11:33-35) and He removes death’s sting (1 Corinthians 15:55).

Apply It
It’s interesting that it wasn’t evil, but the knowledge of evil that got this whole thing started? Evil existed before Adam and Eve ate the fruit, but their ignorance was bliss. Once their eyes were opened, there was no going back. Once you’re aware, you can never again be unaware.

However, there is a knowledge that trumps the knowledge of good and evil—and that’s the knowledge of Christ. Growing in this knowledge, we can participate with Christ in destroying the devil’s work. In 2 Peter 1, we’re urged to make every effort to grow in this knowledge, for as we add it and other assets to our arsenal, we’re kept from being ineffective and unproductive—two characteristics Satan prefers we retain.

Read 2 Peter 1, then consider your role as a youth worker. Perhaps more than anyone else, you’re in a prime position to help your teens grow in the true knowledge of Jesus Christ; and you have many tools at your disposal! Let’s use them to overwhelm the knowledge of evil with the knowledge of Jesus.