How to Commit Murder

How many of you ever think that your student pastor would be here today to teach you how to commit murder. Rest assured. There will be no breath spent discussing how to actually end a life.

Instead, we are going to ask the question, why would Cain kill Abel. What drove an older brother to take the life of his younger brother?

Murder starts in the heart long before the hands act.

This is critical if we are going to develop a biblical understanding of our emotions and feelings. If we are honest, we have all felt anger and rage. Its important for us to understand why Cain murdered Abel so that we can know something about ourselves and where our uncheck feelings can lead us. So, lets turn to our text and see what I mean.

Cain murdered Abel because of the anger in his heart.

Cain’s hardness towards the Lord allowed sin to creep into his life.

Read Gen 4:1-5

“comparision is the theif of joy”

Cain is Adam and Eve’s first son, and its important for us to understand, again, the excitement of Eve and the hope that this new child brought. Even names the baby Cain. It might seem insignificant to you, but Cain’s name shows us just how excited she was. The verb “gotten” here sounds like “Cain”. She hopes for Cain that he is the promised son of whom God’ promised will crush the serpent’s head.

Her identifying this as the “man” she got from the Lord seems to amplify this effect.

Of their professions, there is not much to comment, but of the setting itself there is a great deal to comment on. The boy and his brother grow up together, presumably in the instruction of the Lord. So, in a pattern of faith they offer sacrifices.

The New American Commentary: Genesis 1–11:26 (1) Cain and Abel’s Birth (4:1–2)

The biblical setting is worship, and the factor that led to Abel’s death was Cain’s exaggerated pride. Like his parents before him, Cain desired recognition that did not rightly belong to him (4:7). Pride dominates his lineage (Lamech) and is revisited among the “men of renown” in Noah’s day (6:4) and the later builders of Babel’s tower (11:4).

While there is nothing inherently better about either vocation (God , the fruits of their labor which they offered to God make all the difference. Do you see that Cain only offers “the fruits” while Abel offers the firstfruits.

This is the reason that God had regard for Abel’s sacrifice.

I remember being a kid an just thinking, okay, so God would have been happy if Cain had just given more---or given first. Even recently in my teenage years, it took the form of the question: does God demand me to tithe from the gross pay or net pay (before taxes or after taxes)?

The wrong thing to do at this text would be to read into the sacrifices themselves. Instead, we should look at the hearts of the men who offered them.

Commentary on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis Chapter 4

It is not to be doubted, that Cain conducted himself as hypocrites are accustomed to do; namely, that he wished to appease God, as one discharging a debt, by external sacrifices, without the least intention of dedicating himself to God. But this is true worship, to offer ourselves as spiritual sacrifices to God.

Cain was a hypocrite, and did not want to sacrifice his first fruits. Abel’s sacrifice was offered in faith to God.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks

Cain’s initial problem was his indwelling sin and unregenerate heart. He despised the Lord by not making an acceptable sacrifice by faith and got angry when the Lord didn’t approve of that sacrifice.

That made him angry. Why was Cain angry? 1) He didn’t want to have anything to do with God; 2) He was angry of his brother’s sacrifice; 3) He was envious that God showed favor on Abel.

Cain was unwilling to control his sin.

Notice here that the Lord warns Cain, and this clarifies even more for us the issue in Cain’s heart. The Lord makes it plain to him “If you do well, you will be accepted. If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

The Lord is warning Cain that the right action would bring about a good reward, but a wrong course would give sin an oppurtunity to destroy him.

By this divine analysis we learn that sin has a pervasive power that seizes occasion to enslave its victims (cp. ; ; ). But Cain is urged to repent lest he be consumed; he cannot claim helplessness nor ignorance, for he has divine counsel. The apostle Paul testified to the inner struggle against the power of sin and conceded that the power of Christ alone could liberate him (). Cain’s refusal to deal rightly with his sin permitted his anger to fester into murder.

Uncontrolled anger led him to take an irreversible step: ending his brother’s life.

K. A. Mathews, , vol. 1A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 271.

Cain’s uncontrolled anger caused him to murder Abel

Cain killed his brother because he was evil. ().

How to Commit a Murder

The Bible makes it plain that everyone who hates his brother (or sister) is a murderer. This is not less than siblings. It includes everyone.

So, is anger sinful?

In general, yes. Jesus got angry and it was not sin. The difference between sinful anger and holy anger is that the latter is motivated by love and directed at an aim.

To be clear, it is good to be angry about injustice in this world. The fact that there are still 30 million slaves in the world, 60,000 of which are hidden and abused here in the United States should make us angry.

The fact that there are families destroyed by divorce, marriages ruined by adultery, children hurt by families…these things should make us angry.

There are many, many more. But there is a biblical category for holy anger. Its what drove Christ to fashion a whip and drive the money changers from the temple.

Yet, God’s righteous anger is restrained, controlled, and holy. His holy anger is clarified by his being merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ).

What are some ways that we can be angry and not sin?

We can hate all things that violate God’s holy character. We can be jealous in our lives and hate the sin that seeks to dethrone God and put us there in His place.

We can humbly see the log in our own eye before we point out something to others (). How much grief could Cain have spared for himself if he had done this?

Righteous anger does not seek to usurp God’s slow patient process to let redemption take its place. We should want mercy to triumph in any situation, knowing that God worked mercy in our lives.

Righteous anger intervenes in love to save those who are in danger of being abused, neglected, mistreated, or hurt. “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.”

11  Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.”

So, what makes anger sinful?

Anger rooted in our sin nature produces “quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder” (). It produces “enmity, strife . . . fits of anger [i.e. tantrums], rivalries, dissensions, [and] divisions” (). Sinful anger is so common in us that we must be regularly reminded to put away “anger, wrath, [and] malice” () and that “everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” ().

Jesus explicitly teaches this in

Sinful anger is concerned about us and me primarily. It is controlled—not by love—but of self-service or envy or jealousy. This hatred can be focused on others or even on ourselves. Our envy or jealousy towards other can contribute to self-hate which can grow into the same irreversible decision that Cain fell into. Hate or self-hate primarily discounts the humanity in another person and fundamentally seeks selfish gain or good above love for others.

How do we conquer this anger?

Look to Christ. Only by looking to Christ can we be freed from self-love, envy and jealousy.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

How do we love one another?

Seek the Lord. Ironically, the way that you love neighbor best is by loving God the best. Thats what is the key to . We know love by knowing God and we love better because we know how much God loves us. Make no mistake, God does love you. He loves you, [student]. He loves you, [student] enough that he would send his son to die for you.

Meet one another’s needs—and don’t wait for them to ask. Intervene in peoples’ lives around before you know they need it.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Watch out for one another emotionally too. Physical needs are easy to spot, but people are hurting emotionally too.

Tell Josiah’s story

Josiah’s story

3. Celebrate the good in others lives. The key to killing envy and jealousy is thanksgiving. No one has anything in life that God didn’t give them, so they don’t have any reason to boast in themselves and you don’t have any reason to be jealous of whatever they have. Thank the Lord that he gives good gifts to others and I promise you that you’ll find more joy and realize how much God has given you too that you’ve looked past because you’re concentrating on someone else’s shoes, clothes, haircut, parents, or life.