“The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry?…If you do well, shall you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must rule over it.’”

— Genesis 4:6

In the account of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, we see a great contrast between true religion and false religion. Of course, in our day when people believe truth is relative, many recoil at such a notion as true versus false religion.

The nature by which Cain’s works were unrighteous and Abel’s works were righteous was very simply this: Abel held to the right views and practice of religion, while Cain held to false views and practices of religion.

Abel you may recall came before God and brought the sacrifice of one of his flock and offered this sacrifice with the shedding of blood and the giving of a life. Whereas Cain, on the other hand, brought the fruit of the fields from his toil as a farmer and he brought that, and he offered it to God, and he was rejected, whereas Abel’s sacrifice was accepted.

Everywhere in the world there is the same picture of Cain’s type of religion where man brings the fruit of his own labors and offers it up to God—his own goodness, his own morality and piety and benevolence—and he is astonished and chagrined when it is not accepted by God, and he does not receive that inward peace of knowing that he has been forgiven and accepted by God. Whereas the Christian knows that it is only by the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, that he is accepted.

Lord God, we see Cain and the chance You gave him to find victory over temptation. Sin is always crouching at the door. Please give us strength for today to overcome it. Help us to please You today…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE
CAN OVERCOME TEMPTATION.