I recently heard someone relate the story of Cain and Abel and as they began to explain it and tried to apply it to real world comparisons, I found they deeply misunderstood it.
For those that are unfamiliar with the story you can find it in Genesis Chapter 4. In the story the sons of Adam were commanded to make sacrifice to the Lord. Abel made Sacrifice of the firstlings of his flocks and Cain made sacrifice of the fruits of the ground. The Lord accepts Abel’s sacrifice while rejecting Cains. Why did Cains sacrifice get rejected? Under Levitical law grain sacrifice is acceptable but Cain’s was not. If we read 1 John 3:11-16 we read:
11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
We can gather from this reading and other sources that it wasn’t the type of offering that was rejected but the spirit with which Cain offers it. Cain could have humbled himself and made an offering to the Lord in love but instead in his pride continued down the destructive path of hate and murdered his brother.
The lesson to take is that it is important to have the correct spirit with an action as the action taken. With the Love of others should be the center of all we do. While not the only motivators out there love and hate are powerful. I’ve been finding those that are motivated by hate find it difficult to understand those motivated by love. They will often attribute different false narratives for while people are really doing what they are doing. They will often call people “haters” that don’t share that motivation. It’s a perverse reflection of what is the actual reality of the situation. All I can say is that we should follow the example of Christ and love one another.