Doing Right in the Sight of God

There are many things people will be resolving to do over the coming few weeks of the New Year; resolutions will cover everything from losing weight to spending more time with the family, but maybe if people strived to do just one thing everything else would fall into place.

What is that one thing — do right in the sight of God.

We all know the story, or at least we think we do, of Cain and Able. If not, let’s refresh a bit through Scripture.

“Now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering — fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.” — Genesis 4:2-5

Most people like to skip ahead and say Cain, out of jealousy, murdered his brother Abel, and God then banishes Cain and sets his mark upon him. That is true, but we’re leaving out something very important.

“Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 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; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’” — Genesis 4:6-7

In the book of Hebrews we have a better explanation of what was going on in those early days regarding the sacrifices of the world’s first brothers.

“By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.” — Hebrews 11:4

In commenting on this David Guzik noted, “Cain’s offering was the effort of dead religion, while Abel’s offering was made in faith, in a desire to worship God in spirit and in truth.”

All that’s interesting, but it still doesn’t get to the meat of the matter, which is doing right before the Lord. Faith must be more than an act of worship, it must be the cornerstone of our lives and by faith we will act as God desires us to act and if that faith leads us to repentance, God will accept us, just as he would have accepted Cain.

As a child we had rules in the house; the rules were not arbitrary as they were meant for our benefit and they were laid out for us so we would know what to do. When the rules were not followed it hurt when Daddy would talk to us and confront us with our wrongdoing.

Many times, like Cain, we were angry for getting caught and scolded, but look at the love in God’s voice as He talks to Cain. God is trying to root out the problem and the hurt inside Cain, just like a loving father does with a child.

Then God encourages Cain and tells him all he does will be accepted if he does what is right.

The same is true of us in our daily lives. If we do what is right God will accept us. Notice I said God. If we do what is right in the sight of God, much of the time the world will hate us for it, but that should not matter. The world is not our ultimate judge; that is reserved for Christ on the dreadful Day of Judgment when he will separate the sheep from the goats.

On that day, when Christ asks, “Why did you not do what was right in my sight?” Will the answer be, “The world thought I was good.”

Let’s hope not.

Temptations abound about us, begging us to give in and forget what Christ did for us on the cross, just hoping to get a foot in the door of our lives and as Christ said, banish us to, “where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Those are the choices we all must face — to do what is right in the sight of God, or not. It’s that simple.

You say, “I vote Republican, I go to church, I don’t steal — so I am a good person.” Well, that’s great, but is Jesus the No. 1 priority. Does he come before politics, your job, your hobbies and your family? Hopefully the answer is yes, but if you are like me, the answer is a resounding, no.

In everything I do, I do not do what is right, but through the conviction of the Holy Spirit I am driven to repentance.

God was encouraging Cain toward repentance, for if we repent God said he separates our sin from us as far as the East is from the West, but Cain became an enemy of God and refused repentance, instead choosing to go his own way.

Now, to sum this up, we must define what is right in the sight of God. There is a progression in this.

First and foremost comes an abiding faith in Jesus Christ, without this, we are doomed and nothing we can do will make us acceptable to God — only the blood covering of Jesus Christ.

Next, we must act upon that faith — not out of desire of gain because we can do nothing to gain favor with God outside of faith in Jesus — but through love of our Savior we live our lives in the quiet strength of Christ, proclaiming his name at every opportunity.

As Christians we must avoid the entanglements of the world and act as people who have been ransomed from its perils; we must live for Christ and not ourselves.

Those are things that are right in God’s sight — now we must resolve to do them.