Rev. Dr. Merlin Jones, Professor – New Testament
BE ON GUARD !
Though apostle Jude contends for the Christian
faith against false teachers notorious for their
licentiousness, insolence, slander, and denial of
the Lord and his truth, yet his adage ‘Woe to
them! They have taken the way of Cain, they
have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error, they
have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion’ (Jude
11) resonates three negative syndromes Christian ministers unconsciously succumb to. What
are they?
heart. Cain exposed the true condition of his
heart when God rejected his offering. Solomon
says, ‘The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable
– how much more so when brought with evil
intent!’ (Prov. 21:27). So the heart of the matter
was the matter of Cain’s heart.
Like Adam and Eve, Cain yielded to temptation
and became the first murderer! James aptly
states, ‘but each of you is tempted when you
are dragged away by your own evil desire
and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it
is full-grown, gives birth to death.’ (James
1:14-15).
God warned Cain, ‘Why are you angry?
Why is your face downcast? If you do what
is right, will you not be accepted? But if
you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you,
but you must rule over it.’ (Gen. 4:6-7; cf
Rom 6:11-14).
The Way of Cain (Gen. 4:1-24)
Cain demonstrated the true condition of his
heart when he worshiped God with his offering. God did not necessarily demand a blood
sacrifice. God blessed humankind with both agricultural and pastoral blessings (Deut. 8), and
subsequently commanded Israel to present the
firstfruits of the land, and the grain offering to
him. (Lev 2; Deut 26:2) The emphasis of this
passage is on Cain’s response to God rejecting
his offering rather than on the kinds of offerings
the two brothers brought.
Worship that pleases God springs from a pure
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Cain did not do what was right. His sacrifice was not backed by a righteous life.
Therefore God rejected his offering. Contrariwise, ‘By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was
commended as righteous, when God spoke
well of his offerings’ (Heb. 11:4). When Jesus denounced the Pharisees, he testified
that Abel suffered martyrdom for living
a righteous life (Matt. 23:35). Shockingly,
Apostle John revealed that Cain ‘belonged
to the Devil and murdered Abel because his
own actions were evil and his brother’s were
righteous’ (1 John 3:11).
So what is the ‘way of Cain’? ‘The way of Cain’
is the matter of the heart. God seeks true worshipers (John 4:24), whose offerings reflect a
righteous life. We become jealous when other’s
ministries are blessed and ours are not. We
‘murder’ (cf. Matt. 5:21-24) our righteous brothers and sisters whose worship God accepts. It is
shocking that the first murder to be recorded in
the Bible is committed in the context of worship!
The context is worship. The victim is a brother!