We have all heard that phrase, and some of us have even said it. We all have some understanding of Cain. The Hebrew word means possession. Among most ancient authorities, Cain represents the genius of evil; the term possession in its entirety embodies acquisition, centralization, that which draws to itself selfishness. Cain refers directly to that part of human consciousness which strives to acquire and possess. He was the first son of Adam and Eve and a tiller of the soil (farmer), which places him in this earthly domain. Paul the apostle called him the flesh. The killing of all human sympathy and love, which is represented in Cain slaying Abel, his brother.
When the body demands the possession of all the resources of mind and soul and reduces existence to mere material living, it has slain Abel, and his blood cries out continuously from the earthly to God for expression. When the selfishness of the body has killed the finer impulses of the soul and reduced all the higher aspirations to material existence, there is no longer pleasure in living. Without the soul, the body is a machine, with little sensation and no progress. Cain tills the ground, but it yields to him no strength. No matter how deep the degradation and transgression, even when the body may be carrying the mark of Cain, the body still bears the stamp of God and should never be killed by another. Remember, the centralization of power leads to killing, and that’s Cainish.
Accompanying Bible Verses:
- Genesis 4:9 – “Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?'”
- 1 John 3:12 – “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.”
- Romans 8:6 – “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”
