Matthew 10:16: “I am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Remember, this is my series talking about the animal analogy of Jesus. I have already talked about the wolves and the sheep. Now I want to consider what it means to be “wise as serpents.”

In my mind, this means you need to be able to blend into the environment as much as possible. You need to adapt to the situation and circumstances. Paul said, “I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). So there is, in my mind, an adaptability: in a way, you blend with the environment; you are using stealth. You are as wise as a serpent.

That does not mean you become a wolf. The wolf, as I said before, is someone who takes advantage of other people. Rather, you are calculated, you are targeted, you are deliberate. You are not merely instinctive. You are clear‑eyed about your objectives, and you can “strike” as someone being sent, someone on a mission for Christ.

This whole verse is in the context of being sent out into the world to be on a mission for Christ, and even to live generally. He is sending us out to be on a mission for Him and simply to exist in this world. He is telling you: you are surrounded by wolves, but you need to be calculated, you need to be targeted, you need to be clear‑eyed about the mission and how you are going to achieve the mission.

So I am saying you need to blend with the environment—not in the sense that you lose your distinctiveness, but in the sense that there is a way things are, and you take that into account. I am using the example of Paul, who said, “I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some.” If there is someone who is uncompromising, you know that is Paul, and yet we can see how he did that in different contexts.

When he went to the synagogues, he opened the Scriptures because the people there were familiar with them (Acts 17:2). When he stood and spoke with the people in Athens at the Areopagus, he used examples and analogies they could connect with (Acts 17:22–28). He did not start by quoting chapter and verse. He talked about what they could connect with. He started from where they were. And how many people did he win in that place? He won a few people (Acts 17:34). I believe that happened because he was wise. In another place he said, “Like a skilled master‑builder I laid a foundation” (1 Corinthians 3:10). So he is telling you that there is a technique to it, there is a style to this, a way of going about it.

You cannot just take what you did in one context and expect to reproduce it in another. That, to me, is an example of what it means to be “wise as serpents.”

So what about being “innocent as doves”?

That means you are not supposed to use the tools of violence and destruction and think that is how you are going to achieve your aim. You do not see what people use to worship their gods and think, “I am going to go and smash it down.” You do not see people worshiping a tree and then say, “I need to go and cut it down.”

When Paul preached in a place, the people themselves burned their own magic books (Acts 19:18–19). After some preaching in a certain place, he became a risk because others thought, “If he continues preaching like this, people will stop following our gods.” But Paul did not march people into the temple of that god to cause chaos there. He did not create a scene in the name of his God.

People have done that; people will probably do that. But I am saying Jesus Christ is giving us a hint here: be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. Paul called himself a wise master builder, and he used some techniques we would be wise to pay attention to and embrace —being “wise as serpents”—not being so obvious, not thinking, “I must achieve this in three seconds.”

It may be a slow burn, a work of consistency, just moving almost imperceptibly, because you have adopted the posture of being wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove.

God bless you.