Lessons from Cain and Abel: Diving into the Nuances of Love and Righteousness
"Overcome the Cain within you
11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
1 John 3:11-12.
One of the basic principles of the Christian life is that we are to love one another. The text does not say that we should only love those who agree with us, always please us, or are our best friends.
Within our hearts, we have Abel, who always wants to please God by offering Him the best. Abel offers his sacrifice to God with the right motivation, a godly motivation that seeks to please God above all else. Abel’s offering was marked by faith, and because of that, his motive was fully pleasing to God.
On the other hand, we also have a Cain in our hearts, suggesting that we give God anything at all, and thus the motives of our hearts become clear. Cain always points us toward evil deeds.
The Cain within us needs to be brought under control so that Abel can rise to the surface. Cain will always want us to do what pleases us, while Abel will urge us to do, above all, what pleases God. Cain will always carry a selfish, envious motive that can escalate until it becomes uncontrollable and reaches the extreme of murdering the beauty of fellowship marked by mutual love.
Our tendency is for Cain to always get the upper hand, since our hearts naturally lean in that direction. "For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder," Mark 7:21.
Before you speak or express any thought from your heart, carefully consider whether Abel or Cain is in control. If it is Abel, God will be pleased, because He knows very well what comes out of our hearts. If it is Cain, disaster will be complete and will end in the murder of fellowship, causing tremendous damage and leaving scars that may never be erased and losses that may never be recovered."