Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain,
Jude v 11 KJV
Jude’s letter to the church is a letter of warning about false teachers within the church. He describes them as being those who have “gone in the way of Cain”. What does that mean?
Cain was a religious man. He worshipped. We see that in Genesis chapter 4v3, “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.”
The first thing to notice about false teachers is that they are religious, even spiritual people, who go to church services. But they are not submitted to the Divine inspiration of Scripture. They worship God according to their own will and way of doing things, rather than in the way the bible teaches. Cain brought an offering of his own choosing, i.e., the fruit of the ground. The fact that Abel brought a lamb as an offering signifies that he knew that this was an acceptable offering to God. We don’t know for sure as it is not recorded for us in Scripture, but we can assume that Adam and Eve taught their children that an animal sacrifice had to be made to atone for their sin. Later on, in the history of the Exodus we read of the institution of animal sacrifices, but the seed thought is already there in Genesis, the book of beginnings.
False teachers will present their own way of approaching God. This could be the gospel of good works. Many, many people today think that it is doing good deeds that gains you favour with the Lord. They think if their good deeds out-weigh their bad deeds God will be obliged to allow them into Heaven. They may spend their lives doing good, giving all that they have to the poor and needy around them, and even sacrificing themselves in defense of another person, but that is not the way of salvation. Heaven is not full of “good” people, it is full of saved sinners. The bible clearly teaches in Hebrews 9 that without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin. The animal sacrifices in the OT were just a shadow of the things to come. It is only through the shed blood of Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, that we can find forgiveness and acceptance with our heavenly Father. When we approach God in our own way, we are displaying a proud attitude instead of the humility that we as creatures should give to our Creator.
Cain was so angry with God for pointing out his pride in his own willful way of approaching Him that he developed a hatred for his bother who brought the right offering. He ended up murdering him. False teachers will stir up hatred for those who cling to the Scriptures as the ultimate truth. Since the birth of the church there have always been martyrs; those who were willing to die rather than deny the truth of God’s Word. This is still true today. Christians are being killed all over the world, just because of their faith in God. They are also being portrayed as intolerant and hateful because they stand by the teaching of Scripture as regards marriage, sexuality, and the sanctity of life. There are false teachers in the church today who will call wrong things right and right things wrong, but the Bible is clear about all these things. We cannot change the immutable (unchanging) will of God to suit ourselves and the changing tides of public opinion.
God is perfect holiness. Because we have only ever known the world in its fallen state, we really can’t grasp what perfection is. We do not see sin as God sees it. We are often quite comfortable with sin. But the Scriptures teach us that sin cannot come into His presence without being consumed. His holiness is like a fire that burns continually. God is serious about the sinfulness of sin. But He is also serious about the redemption of mankind. From the inception of sin God promised a Saviour. It is by faith in this Saviour that we find redemption. Cain’s faith was in his own ability to choose what sacrifice he considered to be acceptable to God. Abel’s faith was in what God had shown to be the acceptable sacrifice. As born-again believers, our faith is in the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us. It is not any good deeds that we have done that makes us right with God, but the embracing of Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
False teachers will have great faith in themselves and their own righteousness before God. The Scriptures play a secondary role in their thinking. In verse 18 we are told that these false teachers’ purpose in life is to fulfil their own ungodly desires, and they will teach other people to do the same, disregarding plain biblical teaching for their own version of truth. Jude exhorts us to defend The Faith that was given to us “once for all time” v3.
Let us always be careful to ensure that we are not walking in the ways of Cain; a man following his own ideas of worship, but that we are following the way of faith that God laid down for us in His Word.