Matthew 10: 16
Sheep/Wolves; Serpents/Doves

The Lord was a charming teacher who gained the attention of the multitudes with his frequent use of animal metaphors, not for their actual animal characteristics so much as for their traditional characteristics.  Here he uses 4 similes to describe the Christians and the world into which he was going to send them.  (The second of the 4 is actually a metaphor; but a simile is merely a variation on a metaphor.)  He sends his disciples as sheep into the midst of wolves and they are to behave as wise as serpents but as harmless and innocent as doves.  The word innocent -- or harmless as the K.J.V. has it -- has a larger meaning than just one definition.  It probably refers to the kind of naiveté seen in small children.  "Guileless" is our common word for it.  It is interesting that the NIV translates the word before serpents as "shrewd" -- "as shrewd as serpents" -- and that is a very helpful interpretation of the probable meaning and fits when mated with the word "naiveté" or "guileless."

This applied to their situation of walking the thin line between compromise and martyrdom.  Notice some areas where it also applies to us.

I. IT IS A WARNING ABOUT THE MALEVOLENCE OF HUMANKIND. 

1. This metaphor of the wolf is like the label the government requires on step- ladders, warning of their danger in certain situations. But in this case, it is not a matter of the design of the product but a result of some post-manufacturing circumstance.  ("vv.16-18")

2. It is a fact that only the most romantic or the intuitively challenged can look at history and not see mankind as being severely malevolent.  History is just one long series of atrocities committed by humans against humans.  Not only the persecution of the church up to 300 A.D. with thousands of God's saints martyred, but every age continues the saga.

This past Friday was St. Bartholomew's Day in the Medieval church calendar.  On that day is observed the remembrance of the St. Bartholomew's Massacre in 1572.  About 30 to 40% of the French people had turned to the Lord -- at least nominally -- through the wing of the Reformation led by Calvin.  Under the leading of the Jesuits nearly 100,000 people were slaughtered on that day and during the following week.  Eyewitnesses reported that French rivers were so filled with corpses that fish were unsafe to eat for months afterwards.  When news of the massacre reached the Vatican there was jubilation.  Cannons roared, bells rang and a special commemorative medal was struck.  And the artist Vasari was commissioned by the Pope to paint a mural of the massacre which, I understand, still hangs at the Vatican.

And then the Holocaust during World War II when millions of Jews were massacred, reminds us of the malevolence of humanity under the right -- or should I say, the wrong -- circumstances. And they extend to this very year when a whole sub-race of people was almost entirely exterminated in Rwanda and has been in the news this past week.  In the atrocities in Cambodia and China and Stalin's Soviet Union the inhumanity of man is graphically illustrated.

3. These sorts of things remind us that we are like sheep in the midst of wolves -- not just because of our faith but because of the malevolence of humanity.  And we are doubly vulnerable because of our faith in Christ.  And it becomes us to be as wise as serpents.  But we are to exercise this serpentine wisdom and understanding in a way that is described as being as harmless and gentle as doves.  We must not be cynical people who are haters of mankind but those who are kind and loving while at the same time being as wise as serpents. Obviously, the Lord was telling his disciples not to "volunteer" for persecution or martyrdom. It means that when we are taken advantage of we commit it to the Lord and ask his mercy and his blessing and learn next time to be more careful. 

1. Francis Schaeffer who was a teacher of numerous ones of us often pointed out the antithesis between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the world.  We have entirely different goals and values because of God's Revelation and our having the Holy Spirit as a result of our justification and regeneration. The way that the Christian sees things is absolutely different from the way that the world sees things -- or at least should be absolutely different.

2. And because of this, Schaeffer gave us the advice that we must never be allies and partners with the world or with worldly institutions but mere co-belligerents -- is the term that he used.  We temporarily agree with them on single issues and in specific matters but we never build a consensus that could be called a partnership.  We realize that we have a world-view that is different from the world-view and goal of our neighbors and friends.  And we should never give them carte blanche approval and participation.

3. And yet we are to exercise this reserve and this insight in a spirit of graciousness and harmlessness, demonstrating dove-like character as we do so.

And this also has an important application to those of you who are students.  We are certain that those who do not know the Lord and do not recognize his Word as authoritative will come up with different understandings of true reality in science, in sociology, in psychology, education, political science, religious studies, Biblical criticism and in many other areas.  It is one of the reasons you need the community of God's people during your study years inasmuch as you are not in a school committed to God's truth.  But we exercise this insight in an attitude of graciousness that hopefully keeps us from looking like self-important critics on the sideline. We are to be as wise as serpents but as harmless and benign as doves.

4. And too, this applies to our attitude toward the majority society's standards for morality, marriage and family relations, divorce, child rearing, male and female roles and a host of other things.  In these things too, we are to be as wise as serpents and as benign and harmless as doves.  Our position is neither liberal or conservative or trendy but one given to us from the Word of God.

1. We must never discount the possibility that we will be persecuted for our faith.  It is entirely possible that there will be a division between officially accepted, liberalized, homogenized establishment Christianity and "the faith once for all delivered to the saints."  And if that happens, we will be sheep in the midst of wolves.  It has happened repeatedly in the past and it can happen in the future here.  Even now you may have experienced minor persecution for your faith, in the form of ridicule or rejection.  You may eventually join the great many people in the world who are actively persecuted in a way that restricts their lives.

2. But more pressing right now is your own personal life.  Your vocation and your attitude toward it may make you a sheep in the midst of wolves.  The Christian is never to make his vocation or profession into the end-all of his life but to hold it as a means of supporting his life and work for God and the support of others.  He fulfills his responsibilities and does his work "as unto the Lord," but the work must never become an idol.  This higher priority he holds in the context of being as wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.

3. And it touches one's life in the area of personal relationships and use of his time. Experience shows that the people with whom a person spends his time will usually have a huge influence on his life.  The Christian should be aware of this wise bit of knowledge, for he is the Lord's sheep and he must be careful in the company of wolves.  He must hold this truth and behavior in a way that is kind, gracious and does not appear to be mere exclusivity and arrogance.  He must be as wise as a serpent but as harmless as a dove.

We give thanks to our dear Savior who gave this teaching to his servants, the Apostles, and one of them, Matthew, by the Holy Spirit, passed it on to us.  May we each apply it to our life as it is needful.  May we be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.