WISE AS SERPENTS

... so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine,, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ....

Ephesians 4:14-15

Repeatedly our Lord calls us to repent and become as little children - with our hearts. To free ourselves of the pride, the vanity, the self-importance which blinds us to the reality of God.

But while Jesus calls us to have the heart of a child, nowhere does he ever counsel us to have the mind of a child.

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

Matthew l0:16

Innocent as doves, with hearts that are childlike and tender toward God ... but at the same time wise as serpents.

- The heart of a child.

- The mind of a serpent.

Somehow we seem to have gotten it backwards and we end up all too often with the heart of a serpent and the mind of a child.

The childlike mind, which allows others to do its thinking for it, is actually being cultivated in much of Christendom today.

- The child-mind is equated with faith and virtue.

- Whereas minds that think and test and weigh are often accused of lawlessness and rebellion.

It's frightening how many teachings we have in our heads which we consider to be ours and which we think we have thought through. Whereas someone else has presented them as gospel and we've swallowed them.

Many of these teachings, so neat and pat, are built on sand. And when the storm comes they all crumble – and every life standing on them will fall.

From the beginning of time the battle for possession of the human heart has involved the mind. Satan's appeal to Eve in the Garden was to her mind.

-He reasons with her.

- He gives her things to think about.

- He holds out the promise of instant wisdom:

"All you have to do is swallow this marvelous fruit,"

But in reaching out to take the fruit which is supposed to make her wise, Eve fails to use the mind of wisdom she already has. She swallows a "truth" without thinking it through. Doubtless she passes on this great new teaching to her husband as she hands him some of the fruit. And he too swallows it without thinking.

"Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

If David had been wise as a serpent he would have remained innocent in regard to Bathsheba. He would have guarded his mind against fantasy that day when he looked down from his rooftop and saw something that set his mind going.

Our Lord's temptation in the wilderness was a thing of the mind. Every appeal Satan made to Jesus was made through his mind. And with his mind Jesus stopped each temptation cold. He choked off the mind-thought before it could get started. He was wise as a serpent.

It was not a mechanical quoting of scriptures that was the battle, but the flowing of scriptures through a mind that was concentrated on the Father's face and on doing the Father's will.

Not only did Jesus use his mind in cutting his way through the confusion of temptation, he commands us to use our minds as well.

"Be wise as serpents."

"Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves."

"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees."

Nowhere does Jesus say, "Submit your mind to Peter and he'll keep you on the track." Jesus makes each of us responsible,

- to think,

- to watch,

- to stay awake.

To answer this call to be wise as serpents most of us are going to have to do some stirring and some repenting ... for in many cases our minds have been out of it for a long time.

1. There is the gullible mind ... which lets others do the thinking.

The gullible mind is not so concerned with what is presented as with how it's presented. If the teaching is given with force and clarity, especially if the teaching purports to be an answer to a heartfelt longing, it is received with joy.

- "Seven steps to a successful marriage."

- "Two secrets of jet-age prayer."

- "How to get the desires of your heart from God."

- "The Bible Basis of prosperity."

- "How to praise your way out of trouble."

The gullible mind never bothers to distinguish between truth and half-truth and so becomes putty in the hand of every false prophet with a smooth message and an appealing style.

2. Then there's the infantile mind ... which lets circumstances rule it.

When things are going well it clearly sees the goodness of God.

When things are going badly it sulks and withdraws and buries itself in other things.

The infantile mind is tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine ... it bobs up and down on the waves of fortune. It never thinks in terms of God and his will, his kingdom, his compassion. It thinks only in terms of how things are going for me.

"Do they like me?"

"Are they treating me right?"

"What's going to happen to me?"

"What about my future?"

"How's my ministry going?"

3. Then there's the lazy mind ... which allows itself to be engulfed in clutter.

"I'll think about that later. I don't feel up to thinking about that tonight."

"The Bible - yes, I know it's good, but I prefer reading spiritual books they're so much easier to understand."

4. Then there's the hysterical mind ... which alternates between panic and exhaustion.

It's forever jumping to^-conclusions ... like a fire truck ... always roaring toward a new fire until there's no strength left, and _.the mind collapses and can't seem to concentrate on anything. Then suddenly it's awake and screaming toward another emergency.

So, how are we going to bring these troubled minds of ours to the place where they are consistently wise as serpents?

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal o£ your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

The renewal of the mind is a daily thing. You don't get wise as a serpent and stay that way like the woman who gets her PhD and stays a PhD for the rest of her life.

You become wise as a serpent daily by renewing the mind daily. Just as surely as the heart has to be surrendered daily and the body presented as a living sacrifice daily, the mind has to be renewed daily.

And the renewing of the mind has nothing to do with our I.Q. Followers of Jesus with low I.Q.'s often manifest far more wisdom than their genius brothers and sisters.

A renewed mind comes from a fresh vision of God.

Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you' and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

Revelation 3:18

...may see what?

- see the Lord!

May enter once more into a vision of the living God. When our vision of God blurs our minds become dull.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. Psalm 27:4

A vision of God comes to those who pursue it.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Matthew 5:8

The pure in heart seek, knock, desire God above all things.

They want to know him above all things, at any cost ...just to know him.

A renewed mind comes from a realistic vision of our place in God.

For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him. Romans 12:3

We have a place in God prepared for us by God himself and God has given us a measure of faith so that we can take that place as his son or daughter.

When I see the meaning and purpose of my life as coming from my place in God, I am no longer a sucker for every new vanity doctrine that promises to fulfill me, or every heavy discipleship teaching that plays on my guilt. My life is hid with Christ in God.

That's my center, my source, my everything.

A renewed mind comes from a realistic view of our place in the world.

"Behold I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves."

In this world we're not heroes, we're not celebrities, - we're sheep, surrounded by wolves ... including wolves in sheep's clothing ...

- religious wolves,

- phonies,

- false prophets.

This is the world into which we are sent and in this world of wolves we're satisfied to be sheep.

A renewed mind comes from a fresh vision of our call.

"Behold I send you out...."

We're here because we've been sent ... there is a call resting on us. So, our lives are not our own,

our minds are responsible to stay alert, to think, to cut our way through temptations so that we fulfill our call to proclaim God's kingdom.

... so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.

Ephesians 4:14

No longer children, but wise as serpents. A branch that abides in the Vine cannot be blown away by the wind. And abiding in the Vine is not only a matter of the heart, but of the mind.

- If you allow someone else to do your thinking for you, you're abiding in them instead of the Lord.

To stay in the Vine ... Jesus ... you have to think, you have to know who you belong to, and you have to know what He's sent you to do.

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."