By: Mike Riley
The opposite of following God’s pattern in His word is to neglect it. This removes God’s pattern from a person’s life. Additionally, adding things to God’s pattern does not produce what God desires. Will God be pleased?
Consider Cain and Abel. Cain was a tiller of the ground and Abel was a shepherd. Cain offered the fruit of the ground in worship to God. Abel brought the firstlings of his flock. God respected Abel’s worship, but God was not pleased with Cain’s (Genesis 4:1-5). Why was God pleased with Abel’s but not Cain’s?
The book of Hebrews answers this question. Hebrews 11:4 states, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it, he being dead yet speaketh.” First John 3:12 also helps us to understand; this verse says that Cains’s works were evil, but Abel’s were righteous. How could Abels’s works be righteous? God instructed Abel on how to please Him. Abel heard God’s word and presented that offering by faith, for faith comes by hearing God’s word (Romans 10:17).
Abel had a pattern from God, and he followed it. Cain did not. Cain offered worship that he invented. It was an offering of his own righteousness. It was not what God wanted. It was not pleasing to God. Mankind needs a pattern to avoid presenting his own righteousness to God. However, when we follow God’s pattern, God counts it as righteousness (Romans 4:3, James 2:23).