Clearly, Cain worshipped God, but God rejected his worship.
And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” (Genesis 4:3-7 NKJV)
Apparently, on that occasion and under the period of Patriarchy, God required worshippers to worship Him with animal sacrifices and not with fruits and vegetables. Probably neither Cain nor Abel were aware of the significance of the shed blood of animal sacrifices as types or figures of the shed blood of Christ that would occur about 4,000 years after they lived. It is unlikely that either brother understood why fruits and vegetables were unacceptable for worship, but animal sacrifices were acceptable for worshipping God. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).
Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:12-14)
However, Cain and Abel did not have to know why God required them to worship Him with animal sacrifices. All they needed to know was that God required them to obey Him. Still today, nearly 6,000 years later, obedience of divine instructions leads to salvation. “…He [Jesus Christ] became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9).
In addition, one learns from the incident with Cain, as well as acknowledgement that God accepted Abel’s worship, that it is not enough to simply worship God. One must also worship God correctly. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). The word “truth” in this verse refers to divine instruction; we, today, would say, “the Bible” or “the New Testament.” Despite worshipping God, each of us today must ask our self, “Does God reject my worship?”
Cain may have sacrificed fruits and vegetables, but evidently, he did not follow God’s instructions for worshipping Him. One can know certainly that Cain disregarded divine instructions as to how God required one to worship Him in that era. It is evident from God’s rebuke of Cain that Cain marginalized God’s worship instructions. “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.” God implied that Cain did not do as he had been told to do, resulting in sin. “Sin” there means “an offense.” Cain had offended God by the way in which he worshipped Him! Furthermore, sins come between sinners and God (Isaiah 59:1-2).
It is evident that God had specific expectations of Cain and Abel consistent with them having received instructions from God about acceptable worship. Thereby, Cain did not do well, though he could have done well, and Abel did do well in his worship of God. Besides, Hebrews 11:4 implies that Abel followed instructions for acceptable worship. “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” Forasmuch as “faith” derives from divine instruction, in order for Abel to have exhibited faith by his acceptable worship, he had to have acted consistently with divine instruction that he had received. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
Worship offered to God today that does not correspond to divine instruction in the New Testament is no more acceptable to God than was Cain’s worship acceptable to God eons ago. We in the Gospel Age need to follow what God has placed in the New Testament about how He wants to be worshipped in order for our worship to be acceptable to Him. Each of us today needs to ask our self, “Am I following God’s instructions for worshipping Him?”
While it is true that Cain worshipped the true God, it is obvious that he pleased himself instead of God by the way he chose to worship. We must never forget that our worship is intended primarily to please God rather than ourselves; our worship of God may be pleasing to us, but it must be pleasing to God in order for it to be acceptable to Him.
Many people around the world still worship idols and false gods. Yet, many people do worship the true God, but like Cain, they worship in such a way as to please themselves rather than to please God – by worshipping Him as He directed in the New Testament. This was also happening in the first century, and the apostle Paul referred to it as “will worship” (Colossians 2:23 KJV). The NKJV renders the verse, “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion…”
How we worship God is a choice that we make, just like Cain made a choice of how he worshipped God. Worshippers today can choose to worship God in His own appointed way, or they can choose to worship God with their “self-imposed religion” or “will worship.” Ask yourself, “Am I exercising myself in will worship, or am I worshipping God in the manner in which He has instructed me to worship Him?”
Cain’s worship to the one true God of the universe was rejected because it was not authorized by God. Cain definitely sinned by not worshipping God correctly, and likewise, everyone in the Christian Age who worships God in unauthorized ways also sins.
Anyone the least familiar with New Testament instruction knows that God does not expect mankind to worship Him in the Christian Age with animal sacrifices. That type of worship and other details under Patriarchy and Judaism do not apply today because the New Testament has replaced the Old Testament (Romans 7:6-7; Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14). Instead, there are five activities of worship that God requires or has authorized for Christian worship.
In no particularly prescribed order, Christian worship involves the Lord’s Supper, teaching or preaching, prayer, singing and a contribution. The Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:20), communion (1 Corinthians 10:16) or “to break bread” (Acts 20:7) occurs weekly on the first day of the week. Breaking bread is accompanied with teaching or preaching (Acts 20:7) for the purpose of edifying those assembled (1 Corinthians 14:12). Worship also includes prayer and singing (1 Corinthians 14:15). Singing words rather using instrumental music or miscellaneous vocal sounds are authorized to sound forth “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:19) whereby singers “teach and admonish one another” (Colossians 3:16). Each week, Christians also gather a contribution. The specific reason for which the “church of God which is at Corinth” (1 Corinthians 1:2) took a collection weekly then was to alleviate the benevolent needs of famine-struck Christians in Palestine (1 Corinthians 16:1-3); there are a number of additional financial responsibilities that the church has (1 Corinthians 9:1-14), but freewill giving according to one’s prosperity and determination (2 Corinthians 9:6-7) is the biblical pattern for financing those responsibilities. Ask yourself, “Am I worshipping God in a way that He has authorized for me to worship Him today?”
So, Cain worshipped God, but how he worshipped God mattered, too. The way in which you and I worship God today also matters. Offering God worship that He rejects defeats the true purpose of worshipping God in the first place.
