Apples appear in many religious traditions, often as a mystical or forbidden fruit. In the development of language, the word "apple" was used as a generic term for all fruit. For instance, in Europe, tomatoes were first called "love apples,” and cucumbers and potatoes were fist called "earth-apples.” In some languages, oranges are called "golden apples" or "Chinese apples.” To this day, many uneducated persons refer to the forbidden fruit on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as an apple.
The proverb “a bad apple spoils the bunch,” means a bad person who can have a negative influence on those around him or her. It occurs to me that our negative thoughts can be like ‘bad apples.” A basic premise of the therapeutic approach, called “cognitive restructuring,” is that there are “lies” or wrong beliefs that drive our unwanted behaviors. Think of your mind like like the "produce" department at Safeway, and the fruits representing our many thoughts: the ‘bad apples’ are spoiling everything. I wonder, was Hosea referring to ‘bad apples,’ when he said, “You have eaten the fruit of lies” (10:15). To get rid of the bad apples, we must eat a diet of God’s thoughts (the Word) in order to recognize our bad ones. Without the Bible’s renewing affect on our minds, we will continue "eating the fruit of lies [those bad apples].”
Thinking about the apple it just came to mind that the Lord says in Deuteronomy 32:10 that He kept Israel as the apple of His eye -and so does with us-. The precious care of the Lord upon our lives. But then I looked up Proverbs 7:2 where He instructs us to keep His law as the apple of our eye. I never put these two verses together, and I just see how our Lord's love and care for us is to be reciprocated from our part by loving and keeping His laws the same way He keeps and loves us, as the apple of His eye.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great complement to the "bad apple" concept! Thank you for adding this to the teaching!!
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