The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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John writes in his first letter: “For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: “We should love one another, unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous” (1 John 3:11-12).

John repeatedly states that true followers of Jesus love one another – so much so that this differentiates us from unbelievers (cf. 1 John 2:7-11; 3:11-18; 4:7-21; 5:1-4). This message does not originate with John, for Jesus taught the same truth: “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). 

Now, John sets this command against the backdrop of a dark event in human history: the story of Cain. John has in mind Genesis 4, where we read the account of Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve. Both sons offer sacrifices to God. Abel, a shepherd, brings the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions to the Lord. Cain, a farmer, presents some of the land’s produce. 

The Lord accepts Abel’s offering but rejects Cain’s, a judgment that infuriates Cain. We can’t be certain that Abel’s offering is more pleasing to God because it is an animal sacrifice, for grain offerings later come to play an important role in the sacrificial system under the Mosaic Law. Rather, it seems Cain and Abel offer their sacrifices with totally different attitudes toward God and one another.

The Lord asks Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent? If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (vv. 6-7). These verses infer that Cain’s offering is rejected, not because of its contents, but because Cain’s heart is evil. 

John’s reference to Cain as “of the evil one” has no parallel in the Genesis account. However, in some Jewish texts, the murder of Abel is regarded as a satanically inspired act. Philo, a first-century Jewish philosopher, portrays Cain as a man enslaved to self-love. In the Targums, Cain reportedly boasts, “There is no judgment, there is no Judge, there is no other world, there is no gift of good reward for the just and no punishment for the wicked.” Surely, Cain reflects the evil one’s arrogance and malicious attitude toward others. 

Reflecting on Genesis 4, the writer of Hebrews notes, “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith” (Heb. 11:4). In other words, what differentiates Abel from Cain is the former man’s faith and the latter man’s lack of it.

Unrepentant after the Lord’s gentle rebuke, Cain urges his brother to go out into the field with him. There, Cain attacks Abel and kills him. When the Lord inquires as to the whereabouts of Abel, Cain’s infamous reply is, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9 KJV). 

The Lord responds with a curse: “So now you are cursed, alienated from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood you have shed. If you work the land, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth” (vv. 11-12). 

Even so, the Lord places a mark on Cain to protect him, threatening vengeance seven times over to anyone who kills him. Cain goes out from the Lord’s presence and lives in the land of Nod, east of Eden. His descendants are enumerated to the sixth generation. Gradually, they become so corrupt that God sends a deluge to prevent the final triumph of evil. 

John perhaps draws the concept of Cain being “of the evil one” (Gr. ek tou ponerou) from Genesis 4:7, where God warns Cain that “sin is crouching at the door.” As Daniel Akin observes, “The adjective ponerou (‘evil’) indicates the active exercise of evil in one’s behavior. Cain demonstrated the defining actions of his spiritual father.” Cain drew his murderous inspiration from the evil one, the archetypal murderer from the very beginning (John 8:44). 

In his description of the murder, John reveals Cain’s diabolical nature when he uses the Greek word esphazen, which means “to slaughter, butcher” – literally, “to cut the throat.” This is killing for the sake of killing, with no remorse. It is taking another person’s life for the sake of self-satisfaction and in the name of self-justification. And it begs the question: Why?

John answers: “Because his [Cain’s] deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous” (1 John 3:12). The brothers’ deeds – Abel’s sacrifice and Cain’s murder of Abel – flow from their characters. Abel’s reverent offering of a blood sacrifice provokes jealousy in Cain. Jealously descends into hatred, and hatred into murder. 

In a sense, Cain murders his brother before he strikes him dead because Cain sets his mind to the evil task. This serves as a severe warning to us that our thoughts and attitudes, if unchecked, lead to all kinds of malice. It’s the point Jesus drives home in the Sermon on the Mount when he teaches about murder and adultery (Matt. 5:21-30). In a nutshell, Cain murders Abel because wicked people hate righteousness in the same way that Satan hates God and God’s people. Cain sides with the evil one and thus emulates his spiritual father. 

In the end, Cain has no ground for complaint, just as Satan has no excuse for rebellion. If Cain does what is right, he and his sacrifice are accepted (Gen. 4:7). In the same way, the evil one had all the advantages of an anointed guardian cherub before his fall (Ezek. 28:14). Both are willingly disobedient. Both are shameless. Both are cast out. 

In his short epistle, Jude writes of false teachers who have infiltrated the church: “Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain …” (v. 11). Simply put, the way of Cain is the way of religion without faith. It is the way of pride, a man establishing his own righteousness and rejecting the righteousness of God that comes through faith in Christ. Warren Wiersbe writes, “Cain became a fugitive and tried to overcome his wretchedness by building a city and developing a civilization (Gen. 4:9ff). He ended up with everything a man could desire – everything except God, that is.”

Cain rejects God’s way of salvation, though he is not ignorant of it. By clothing Adam and Eve with the skins of animals (Gen. 3:21), God makes it clear that the only way of forgiveness is shedding the blood of an innocent animal substitute. Cain would have none of it, preferring to approach the altar with the fruits of his own labor – and later, spilling the blood of an innocent human being. 

Why does God reject Cain’s offering? Because Cain’s heart – like the heart of his spiritual father – is not right before God. Cain is the prototype of human wickedness. As such, Cain, and all those who mimic his attitude toward God and God’s people, reflect the nature of the evil one, who was a murderer from the beginning.

Next: The Evil One Doesn’t Touch Him (1 John 5:18-19)