shrewd as snakes, pure as pigeons

8/6/2019 Shrewd as Snakes, Pure as Pigeons

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Word from The WORD

Shrewd as Snakes, Pure as Pigeons

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as

snakes and as innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16 NIV)

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise asserpents and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16 NKJV)

This was part of the instructions that Jesus gave to His twelve apostles on the

day He was sending them out to minister. In our times this can be equated with

the graduation speech given in theological seminaries to the graduating

seminarians. Before giving them a detailed instruction, Jesus gave them AIM.

1. Authority He called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority

(Matthew 10:1)

2. Instructions These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions

(Matthew 10:5,6)

3. Message As you go, preach this message. (Matthew 10:7)

These days many are commissioned (either by the seminaries or by their

churches or by themselves) to conduct programs rather than changing people.

So ministers are also interested in programs rather than people. Because, they

either lack AIM or are unaware of its proper usage or it is misused.

I am not going to go into the details of the AIM in this post, but I will focus on

one, but a major instruction that Jesus gave to His apostles, which is very much

applicable to all who minister. The reason why this instruction occupies the majorportion of Jesus instructions here is, He does not want us to be thoroughly

occupied with this, but whenever we face it we need to deal with it as a minor

(that is not spending much time & energy) and go on concentrating on the major

the work of the gospel.

What did Jesus mean when He said that we should be shrewd as snakes and

innocent as doves? Jesus said this in the context of dealing with difficult people.

Even as we would go on ministering for the Lord in a far away mission field or in

the confines of our office, we will face such people. And most of the time instead

of fighting the infernal & invisible enemy, Satan we will be fighting our own

people. Instead of focusing on our ministries, we will be spending all our time,

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Word from The WORD

energy and thoughts in fuming against and battling our co-labourers. But if we

know how to face such people & situations and have a healthy Biblical

perspective, our time & resources would be properly utilized and we will be able

to accomplish much & all that God wants to do through us.

1. People who do not welcome us or listen to us

Matthew 10:11-15

When someone does not welcome us, we feel bad and when he/she does not

listen to us, we might contend with him/her. We might try to prove our point by

arguing. But here Jesus does not say if they do not welcome you or listen to

you, argue with them and try to prove your point. He just says, walk off. Many

a times we might win the argument, but will lose the person. Contention only

brings irritation. The Lord does not want us to carry any irritation against anyone

when he/she does not welcome us or listen to us. We need to keep going where

He sends us and keep saying what He says to us.

When others do not welcome us or listen to us we are not to contend with them,

but to just calm down and come away.

2. People who accuse us

Matthew 10: 17-20

Here the verse does not say that we are accused because we did something

wrong. But we are accused on the account of being true to God and His

commission. When people accuse us, the natural outcome would be to try proveourselves. Because we never want others to think bad of us, we would always

like to be in the good books of others. That is not possible. People WILL accuse

us. But we are not to react to such accusations and think it over and over again

in our minds and find ways to answer the accusations. Jesus only says, Do nor

worry about what to say or how to say it.

While answering accusations we should not be self-motivated, but Spirit-

motivated.

3. People who hate us

Matthew 10:21-23

We will not only be hated by others but also by our own family members. People

hate us because they do not like what we say and what we do. So we might try

to change ourselves for them. It might mean, disobeying God and His call, to

please people. Jesus says, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. We

need to stand firm in obeying God and in decisions that we made for God, until

the end.

When we are hated & persecuted we are not supposed to retaliate, but only

retire from that place.



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4. People who do not value us

Matthew 10:24-31

Here Jesus quotes Himself as an example. If people called Jesus himself as

Beelzebub (the prince of demons), how much more will they call us! When we

get caught up in the trap of I-need-to-know-what-he-thinks-of-me, we lose focus

and purpose. Because instead of trying to spend time in listening from the Lord

and hearing His whispers (Matt 10:27), we start listening to gossips & whispers of

others about us. But we need to fear God and not men. (Matt 10:28)

We might also get into yet another trap of do-they-value-me-? Jesus says that

when we try to value us by others appreciations/depreciations, we consider

ourselves less than sparrows! Our value and worth comes from Above and that

happens only when our thoughts and actions are God-centred and not self-

centred. And only when we are concerned about glorifying God and not us; when

we do not worry for ourselves but for Gods reputation and His glory. (Matthew10:32-33)

Our mental make-up is like that we seek to be counted worthy by others. And

that determines our actions & reactions to people. But Jesus says that we need

to be worthy of Him. (Matthew 10:37-38). The writer of the Hebrews resonates

this truth while talking about the heroes of faith, of whom the world was not

worthy (Hebrews 11:38) For us too to be part of the list of heroes of faith, we

need to seek to live a life worthy of Him, not seeking the worth of the world.

And this can happen only when,

1. We take up our cross and follow Jesus (Matt 10:38)

2. We are ready to lose our life for His sake (Matt 10:39)

Having difficult people in our lives is one of the cross that we need to carry.

When we are concerned about our life, our reputation, our value, we will lose it.

But when we would be willing to lose it all for Christs sake we will find it in Him

and we will be able to declare with Paul,

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ

who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son ofGod, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 (ESV)


This message if from the blog Word from The WORD. To read all other

articles and post visit http://mariyoshwordfromtheword.blogspot.com

To author can be contacted in [email protected]
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