Turning the Other Cheek

Cain was very angry and upset that the Lord didn’t look with favour on his offering but looked with favour on his brother Abel’s offering (Genesis 4). The passage seems to indicate that it was Cain’s jealousy of his brother which caused the Lord to be displeased with his offering. The Lord asks him why he was angry and upset, and told him that, if he did right, he would be accepted, but if he didn’t, that sin would be crouching at the door, and that Cain needed to resist and master the urge to sin. However, Cain chose to open the door to sin and we read that, tragically, he killed his brother.

I think most of us are familiar with what jealousy is like, either having been the subject of someone else’s jealousy or having experienced it personally at some stage.

We learn from Isaiah 59:2 that sin separates us from the Lord. ‘But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear’. But I have experienced that sin also separates us also from each other. Hearing juicy gossip or criticism about a loved one, or colleague, can lead us to judge them, and we can feel a bit of a distance inside our hearts towards that person when that happens.

However, when we are treated wrongly by someone who is jealous of us, we have to choose to respond in a godly way, and that it is not always easy. Many years ago, a work colleague, who was jealous of me, treated me badly, day in and day out, no matter how obliging or helpful I was. I got the blame for things I hadn’t done, and she ganged up on me with other colleagues. I felt hurt and angry towards her for treating me so horribly. I cried out to the Lord to help me to deal with this situation in a godly way, and that I would not open the door to a sinful attitude.

I was hoping to get moved to a new department to get away from her. But instead, I was challenged to keep forgiving her, as she was promoted in our department, giving her even more authority over me. Eventually I said, “Lord help me to see this manager through Your eyes and to love her in spite of her bad treatment of me.”

Then God did a precious thing, and very soon I was experiencing a God-given love for her, as I would have for a sister. After that, something changed in how she treated me, so much so that I was quite happy to remain in the department. But funnily enough, after the lesson was learned, God moved me to a new department!

If you have a challenging relationship in your life right now, take heart, the Lord wants to walk you through it, and have you come out the other side with a more Christ-like character.