I’m still fascinated by the interaction between God and Cain in Genesis 4. In verses 6 and 7 God asks Cain why he was angry and then cautions him, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door...”
I’m struck by the simplicity of the statement. Do right and avoid sin. Let anger control you and sin is ready to master you. Maybe Cain didn’t pay attention but I’d like to learn from his mistake.
What does it mean to do right?
I remembered one of my favorite cartoons as a kid, “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show”. One of the cartoons featured Dudley Do Right. My research on the internet described Dudley as a dim-witted, conscientious and cheerful fellow who pursued his love interest Nell, the woman who really was interested in Dudley’s horse!
How like the world to portray doing right as dim-witted and misguided. I would like to think that doing right means we’ll be wise (the opposite of dim-witted), conscientious and content (much better than cheerful).
Flip the coin
Perhaps doing right is like a coin, which has two sides that make up the whole. One side shows the denomination or value and the other side shows the source. The conscientious side gives us our witness and our mission to follow the laws, human made and spiritual. Romans 12: 17-21 tells me to do right in the eyes of everyone. Take pain to do right (2 Corinthians 8:21). Isaiah 1:17 tells me to follow the laws and protect the defenseless.
The second side is the source and foundation of doing right, wisdom, which comes from a deepening relationship with God. Isaiah 1:17 also tells me I can learn to do right. Exodus 15:26 gives me some action steps to learn to do right:
Listen carefully to God’s voice. To recognize His voice, we need to spend time with Him. Just as my pup recognizes my voice and follows commands, it takes repetition and time to find that bond of familiarity. We finished fourth in obedience class because I didn’t spend enough time with her in training and practice.
Pay attention when He speaks. That probably means I need to be quiet and quit listing my requirements and needs. Guess I need to really listen? This must be why God so often speaks when I’m doing a mindless task, like brushing my teeth! I don’t have so much interference in the way.
Remember what God has done. Reflect on my experiences in the past trusting God and learning from others successes and failures. Think about His characteristics and attributes. God works in and around our lives everyday but have I noticed?
Don’t follow other gods, or other so-called truths. Do not fall for the tricks of the world that makes the latest way the right way. I love all things new but there comes a time when the tried and true way is the best. It may be the paperless, digital age but I still needed to print this page to revise and find the typos!
Seek the easy way
Cain’s response to God’s voice and the consequences that follows reminds me that sin makes life harder, meaningless and directionless. Sin makes life more complicated because sin leads to more sin. Satan’s trick is to tempt us to sin to achieve success yet that sin robs us of success.
Doing right is really the easier way. My mom always reminded me, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when at first we deceive.” Don’t even start the web. To do right should be to do right, right away, all the time.
We’ll never know what right is without God. God wants to show us the right way. So take the easy way, God’s way.
Expect to do right
Always look to do right
Strive to do right
Yes, you can do right.
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