Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it

We were saying yesterday, that God’s rejection of Cain and his offering had nothing to do with his anger, but his anger was certainly a problem. The warning about sin desiring to have us is, of course applicable to all sin. Jesus puts it this way “he who sins, is the slave of sin” (John 8:34). The fact of the matter, is that either we rule over sin, or it rules over us. And the picture given here in Genesis 4:7, is of a crouching tiger waiting in hidden readiness, to pounce upon us unawares. The phrase “at your door” is about the danger being very, very close to home. James tells us, that the first step towards putting our head into the lion’s mouth (to mix metaphors), is that we are drawn away by our negative emotions and desires (James 1:14).

In the case of anger these negative emotions could be jealousy, the desire to get even, it could bitterness etc., etc. We are not told what was going on inside Cain’s heart, but as a general principle, it’s not hard to see that when we nurse such negative thoughts and emotions, they grow exponentially. And they will be diminished neither by stuffing them down, nor by giving them free range! The writer to the Hebrews likens bitterness to a root growing within us. Such a root chokes out the positive emotions such as love, joy, peace etc.. The negative emotions overflow and defile many, likely including those we love the most (see Hebrews 12:15; Galatians 5:22). In Cain’s case, it lead to murder (Genesis 4:8).

The early chapters of Genesis chronicle the history of what happens when sin is left unchecked. We read “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). The default then, is to go wrong, sin desires to have us too, and we too must rule over it. In particular we need to be continually reminded that we are in the war to the death with the enemy of our souls. And starting with love, forgiveness and the like, we must make sure that we do not fail to obtain the grace that we so desperately need to overcome (Hebrews 12:15; 4:16). In the case of anger we need to learn to take it to God (Psalm 142:2), and by the Spirit put to death both the deeds and the desires of the flesh (Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:24).

Father, it is safe to keep coming back over and over to the key verses on this subject. In particular Lord while anger in and of itself need not be a sin, we do need to make sure that we do not sin in our anger, and that we do not let the sun go down on our wrath (Ephesians 4:26). And while self-control is both part of the fruit of Your Spirit and a command, it is only in partnership with Your Spirit that can put to death the deeds and the desires of the flesh. When we do our part Lord, You make up for what we cannot do (Philippians 2:12, 13). And I thank You for the comfort and empowering nature of these things this morning Lord in Jesus Name Amen