~ Cunning as a Snake, Inoffensive as a Dove

We, the followers of Jesus, live in a world that is fundamentally apathetic to and at times downright negative to our Faith Community in our Master Jesus.  Just start living out the faith at the coal face and before long someone will be in your face, challenging your faith, or the relevance of the Bible/Church.

Society itself seems set upon a confrontation of “faith.”  There is a general malaise in the standards of conduct that have moved from a seemingly Christian foundation of say fifty, or a hundred, years ago. 

Fifty years ago marriage, with all its faults at the time, was considered the normal way to live and most of the time a family unit had one surname. Sometimes a couple for reasons of their own would decide to retain both names and hyphenate them.  Now, it is anything goes, people are living in such a way that the family unit may be made up of any assortment.  Marriage itself is often deemed an irrelevance or entered into after years of experience, and as much as anything to give the children the couple have had “security” or to use the old concept “a name”.

Marriage is but one of the aspects of normal life that seems to have gone counter to a Biblical standard.  Ethics have become kind of “fuzzy” or “wobbly”.  Every situation now seems to have its own justification, be that a life situation such as abortion practice and euthanasia, or an economic decision where not everybody wins.

Even, laws about religion are used to block Christian activity.  The Racial Vilification Act, which in and of itself seems a good thing, by having the intent of providing protection to minorities within society.  This has been used by certain groups to claim that comments made by “Christians” have been racially and/or religiously offensive, to this point I have not heard of s case going the other way: perhaps it is our turn the other cheek attitude.

We are being held to ridicule by the society that Jesus is calling us to love and serve, and I am not entirely sure how much that ransom is being taken out of our own hide.  If we become immersed in the society in which we live, and fail to make more than a token “Sunday and perhaps Wednesday” stand for Christ then we, as a Community of Faith, within a community of unbelievers imply acceptance of what it is doing.

At this point it is necessary to differentiate between the standards of society, and the individuals living within that society.  We are to be “in the world but not of the world” the Bible tells us and Jesus said that we are to “love our neighbour as ourselves” and more in Matthew 10:16 He also said this

"Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning you. You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.” (The Message

The KJV used “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” at the end of the verse and the NIV “shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” 

I tend to think that there is a middle ground between the three translations that might run something like this.  Be as wise as a snake and as inoffensive as dove.  Snakes know when to fight, either for defence of for food, at other times they are usually gone before you are upon them, and inoffensive as a dove because the person you offend is the one who you cannot reach for Christ, and others may not also because of it.