Bane means to separate. Separate. Don’t lump it together. Separate. Often we we don’t separate. [music] And that’s not wisdom. Often we treat people as if they are angels or demons. Oh, now they’re all blessing and now they’re all demons. That we all have to deal [music] with the world and everybody we here we have to deal with evil, with darkness, with what is not right.
But how do we do that effectively? and at the same time keep our purity, our innocence with God and yet deal with the world. How do we deal with the darkness and preserve the light? How do you effectively deal with the schemes of the enemy and walk effectively against it and yet also preserve your heart open to God? We’re going to find the keys through the words of Messiah where he says this and I’m just going to focus on these words here.
Matthew 10:16 and it’s these words I’m focusing on. Be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. Now, first, what’s the context? The context here is this. He says, “I’m sending you out as as lambs among wolves. I’m sending you into the world. There’s going to be persecution. You’re going to be arrested.
All the the culture, everything is against you. Be wise as serpents. Be gentle as doves.” Now, of all generations since the beginning, we can identify with this. Now, there’s more persecution of believers in our time than any other time since the beginning of the age. And we can see the signs of it. A culture that increasingly wars against God’s ways, God’s works, and God’s people.
A culture that says evil is good is going to also say good is evil. Very important to get this what I’m going to share today for as an end time believer and simply dealing with life. Now, normally we don’t think about serpents as being good because the enemy really messed it up for serpents.
They’re a symbol of evil. But here he says, “Be like a serpent.” The word in Greek is fronos, which means discretion. We say it says wisdom. Your Bible might say shrewd. Be thoughtful. It means cautious. Be careful. Cautious. The Lord never says don’t be wise. Some believers think wisdom is a sin or caution is a lack of faith. It says here, “Be cautious.
