The Search For IdentitySample

SHEEP VALUES VERSUS WOLF VALUES The believers in Christ are expected to have sheep values: obedience to the Shepherd, gentleness, faith, peace, grace, simplicity, meekness, kindness, love, mercy, joy, patience, goodness, humility, contentment and self control. But, the Lord warned them before sending them into the world that the people of the world espoused values of the wolf: ruthlessness, aggression, cunning, sharp intelligence, desire for personal gain, greed, complexity, cruelty, deceit, impatience, evil, pride, arrogance, untruthfulness, pleasure and self seeking ways. In order to cope with such opposing value systems, the Lord exhorts us to be wise as serpents even though we are harmless as doves. Or else, we will become chicken feed for the wolves. We must not do anything that has even the appearance of evil, implying that we should not wear the masks of deceit. To be wise as a serpent implies to know the devices and methods adopted by Satan and his agents in this world and to try to stay clear of these traps. To be gentle as a dove, means that even though we are aware of the evil lurking in the world, we will not be a party to it. We must be careful and resourceful. We must be wise in our words and in our decisions. Though we do not harm others, we must try to keep ourselves from being harmed. Our apparent innocence and trust should not make us gullible. We must not fall prey to guile. We must have the innocence of a child in our belief but not the innocence of a child in our understanding. We must have the understanding of an adult. We need to understand the nature of evil, the forms of evil and the extent of evil in the world. We must understand that we are living in a grossly imperfect world with topsy turvy standards. We must not be superficial in our judgement and understanding. Yet, we are to respond to the Lord's call to try to be perfect. He gives us grace or enablement in every situation. Despite the heavy odds of a sheep against a wolf, we are guaranteed victory. We will be able to distinguish between that which is genuine and that which is counterfeit. As one teacher told me, even in matters of doctrinal truth, there is very little difference between the genuine and the counterfeit just as the percentage of difference between a genuine currency note and a counterfeit one is less than one per cent. When we are wise as a serpent, we will know our threats but we should not expose our vulnerabilities to the system. Being wise as a serpent means that we will have the ability to unmask untruth that masquerades as truth and identify the wolves in sheep skin. We will take effective counter measures to deal with the threats, like praying ahead of an imminent attack, storming heaven to overcome the powers of darkness manifest on earth. We wear the shield of faith to counter every type of fiery arrow or dart of misfortune that the enemy can throw against us. The wolves' fangs cannot hurt us. We also need to imbibe the Word that enables us to equally understand the world and equally the Kingdom of God. The Word of God says, “Cling to what is good, and let go of what is evil.” In daily life we don't deal with the ideal, we deal with the real that falls short or far short of the ideal but over time, we are expected to work towards the ideal.