“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”
-Matthew 10:16
The above verse sums up who we are in the world and how we need deal with it and engage with it. How do you think you or we, as His church, as Christians are doing with this mandate?
What do you think about this mandate?
The first thing I think is: What kind of shepherd would actually throw his sheep into a pack of wolves? That’s crazy! Who would do that? But this is exactly what Jesus has done with His sheep…He has thrown us into the middle of a pack of wolves.
Here’s the point:
- We are sheep and they are wolves and there’s a big difference between a sheep and a wolf. One is prey and the other is a predator.
- We are sent into their midst…a flock of sheep in the middle of a pack of wolves. We were not sent away from them and we are not told to hide from them…but there may be times where the sheep need to be “shrewd” and step aside from them.
- Just because we are in the midst of wolves does not mean that we take on their mannerisms and behavior…we don’t become like them. We don’t dabble in their affairs. We don’t set our minds on the same things as wolves do (we have the mind of Christ and set our minds on heavenly and Kingdom things). We simply don’t do what wolves do! When a sheep becomes like a wolf, he starts devouring his own kind. Sound familiar?
- So, we are told to be “shrewd.”
- Shrewd meaning, we need to be thoughtful, sensible, careful, practical, prudent and wise. Christians should be the most thoughtful and wise people in the world. But we have failed to be so in so many ways (I sure know that I have). We have been careless in our engagement with the wolves. This is not good for us sheep and it is not good for the wolves as well. It’s gotten to the point that the wolves don’t even know if we are sheep…sometimes they just can’t tell the difference. Can you?
- Remember, James tells us to “keep ourselves unstained from the world.” Instead of being covered and cleansed by the blood of Christ, we’ve been bitten by the wolves and now show forth the stain of our blood.
- Then He tells us to be innocent.
- “Innocent”, that’s a real interesting word in the Greek. We most likely think of it as being “not guilty.” But is also means harmless and get this, it means to be unmixed. So here we are in their midst, but we are not to mix with them. What an amazing concept! There’s a clear distinction.
- Jesus is not giving us a picture of a field with the sheep way off in one corner and the wolves way off in another. Neither is He giving us a picture of the sheep and wolves intermingled and moving about together. How can He shepherd a flock of sheep when they are intermingled with a pack of wolves? He knows His sheep and He has called them out of the pack of wolves and into His flock.
- Despite being in the midst of the wolves, we do not cause them harm (physically, mentally, financially and especially spiritually). And we certainly don’t participate with them in causing harm to others. This is where the sheep have caused the most harm. They’ve mixed with the wolves and caused harm to other wolves and unfortunately, have turned their backs on their own kind and caused harm to other sheep with the aid of the wolves. Not good! It makes you wonder…”whose side are they on?”
- Here’s the good news for us sheep in all of this: While we may be in the midst of them, Jesus, our Chief Shepherd is in the midst of us, leading us, watching over us and keeping His eye on the wolves as well. As long as we are among His flock and not mingled with the pack of wolves, we will certainly be under His care and protection. Amen!