Genesis 4:7

“If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

     Many times we can feel as if we are the victim to sin. “The Devil made me do it!” is our cry. We try to pass the buck on to him, as if everything was out of our control. This is really very common in our society. People do not wish to take responsibility for themselves. It was the other persons fault that we punched them, not ours. They should not have said that. It really comes as no suprise then, since we allow ourselves the fantasy of others controlling us, that we believe that sin is what controls us.

     The problem with that line of thinking is that it is not Biblical. Here, God tells Cain two things important for our discussion. The first is that sin is waiting for us. Sin desires us. There is no doubt that sin tries to put a stranglehold on our lives. It wants to be our master, to dominate every aspect of our lives. We know that Satan is just looking for weaknesses in us that he can exploit. Sin is always there, trying to pull us in its direction. It is just waiting for us to fall, hoping that it can devour us.

      The second, and crucial, thing that God told Cain is that Cain must master sin. This is a message of hope, even though it is shrouded in responsibility. God would not command us something that we can not do. He wants us to master the sin in our lives, to take control of ourselves and keep sin at bay. And since that is what He expects from us, that means that we can do it! Granted, the discipline and work it takes to master sin can be a lot harder than the irresponsibility of letting sin have dominion. But to rule over sin is incomparably more desirable than sin ruling over you.

“If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”