Leaving Babylon pgs. 79-80
And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” No other commandment is greater than these. —Mark 12:30–31 (nlt)
By default, we were all born the children of Babylon. The sin in Eden left humanity with an unpaid debt, leaving all human beings to be born in sin. In Eden, we were taken into captivity and forced to learn at the feet of the Great Prostitute. We took on her nature, and we began to live and work under a shroud of strife. We were taught that we must fight for everything to survive. Therefore, we fight. We fight each other within every aspect of our existence. In our families, our work, our religions, and our governments, we fight. We reject God’s way for peace on earth, seeing the fight as the only way to live.
As we look back through human history in the book of Genesis, we see the first acts of strife in the story of Cain and Abel—human against human, brother against brother. Cain, the older brother, resented Abel because Abel was more careful and excellent in his work. Abel presented to God a sacrifice that he developed in obedience and reverence. Cain, having had the same opportunity as his brother to please God, chose to do his work halfheartedly and in disobedience. When his work was rejected, he became angry and resentful of his obedient brother. God reached out to Cain to teach him what was right and to warn him of what would happen if he continued in this attitude. But Cain chose to embrace the ways of Babylon. This embracing cultivated within him a murderous heart, and Cain eventually attacked and killed his younger brother (Gen. 4). Here we see the first offspring of the demons of jealousy and sloth in human history called murder.
As we fast-forward through human life on planet earth, we see the same scenario of Cain and Abel lived out over and over in the children of men. Our curse of sin has been encapsulated in three terms: the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
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