The first part of Paul's look at the human condition is that it is 'constituted by distorted desire.' Today Alison draws on Genesis 2:15-17 (the prohibition against eating from the tree) as central to this part of our condition and write that Paul does this - specifically in Romans.
The use Paul makes of the primal prohibition (Gen.2:15-17) is to be found in Romans 7:7-20, which involves an explicit reading of the Adam story. -- The primary positive commandment is to love the neighbor as oneself. The encapsulation of the Mosaic Decalogue is in the commandment not to desire (covet - envy). It is this prohibition which is read as being the content of the prohibition not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is to say, it was an initial act of covetousness, or envy, which broke the original prohibition, cast God in the role of a vengeful rival, and introduced humans into the world order in which envy governs human relationships. It is in this world order that the commandment to love the neighbor as oneself fulfills the original prohibition, by aiming at restoring fractured human relationality. Behind this understanding is the reading of the Genesis story as the way in which envy came into the world, with its consequences for humanity.
When we are swept up by the commandment to love the neighbor as oneself, we are likely to let go of our desire to have what they have or have their life or take their life from them so that they will not have it or simply create a barrier of envy between us. The love command keeps the fruit on the tree - we all know that. That, in fact will be part of Paul's argument about sin. The Jew and the Gentile know that (Romans 2:15). That original 'tree prohibition' can be restated within the bounds of the love command. In fact, the love command is the power that pulls us out into the garden so that we play and frolic and dance and live within the shalom of God's creation. The prohibition does the same thing - but in our humanity, we are drawn into that desire that brings us back to the tree - back to the what if - back to the what might I be and then who will you be. Desire turns the relationality of our humanity into envious warfare. Rather than being one people bound together by love, we are many separate people desiring to me something other than we are in all the ways we so typically do that.
Connection: When our desire is distorted - when the desire to love neighbor is overcome with the desire to have this or that or be like that one or that one - love easily falls to the side. We are not living as ones who are healing the brokenness of the world caused by desire - rather we are desiring more brokenness as we find new ways to create an 'us' and 'them' who constantly want what the other has.
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