Tag: harmless as doves

End Times Bible Verses: Be Ye as Wise as Serpents

 END TIME SCRIPTURES:

Be as wise as serpents, harmless as doves
End Time Scripture – Geneva Bible: Be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16 [photo: Wikipedia]
Bible verses for the times in which we live

“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. “
–Matthew 10:16

WHAT DOES THIS BIBLE VERSE MEAN?

Christ shows how the ministers must behave themselves under the cross. You will be in great danger. You will not so much as take revenge for an injury: and by the mixing of these beast’s natures together, he will not have our wisdom to be malicious, nor our simplicity mad, but a certain form of good nature which is composed exquisitely of both of them.

–1599 Geneva Bible notes

Wise (fronimoi prudent) as serpents, and harmless as doves.] This is a proverbial saying: so in Shir hashirim Rabba, fol. 16, “The holy blessed God said to the Israelites, Ye shall be towards me as upright as the doves; but, towards the Gentiles, as cunning as serpents.”

There is a beauty in this saying which is seldom observed. The serpent is represented as prudent to excess, being full of cunning, Ge 3:1; 2Co 11:3; and the dove is simple, even to stupidity, Ho 7:11; but Jesus Christ corrects here the cunning of the serpent, by the simplicity of the dove; and the too great simplicity of the dove, by the cunning of the serpent.

—Adam Clarke‘s Commentary

Be wise as serpents, etc. Serpents have always been an emblem of wisdom and cunning, Ge 3:1. The Egyptians used the serpent in their hieroglyphics as a symbol of wisdom. Probably the thing in which Christ directed his followers here to imitate the serpent was in its caution in avoiding danger. No animal equals them in the rapidity and skill which they evince in escaping danger. So said Christ to his disciples, You need caution and wisdom, in the midst of a world that will seek your lives. He directs them also to be harmless, not to provoke danger, not to do injury, and thus make their fellow-men justly enraged against them. Doves are, and always have been, a striking emblem of innocence. Most men would foolishly destroy a serpent, be it ever so harmless; yet few are so hard-hearted as to kill a dove.

—Albert Barnes‘ NT Commentary

be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves–Wonderful combination this! Alone, the wisdom of the serpent is mere cunning, and the harmlessness of the dove little better than weakness: but in combination, the wisdom of the serpent would save them from unnecessary exposure to danger; the harmlessness of the dove, from sinful expedients to escape it. In the apostolic age of Christianity, how harmoniously were these qualities displayed! Instead of the fanatical thirst for martyrdom, to which a later age gave birth, there was a manly combination of unflinching zeal and calm discretion, before which nothing was able to stand.

—Jamieson-Faussett-Brown Commentary

BIBLE VERSES WITH SIMILAR THOUGHTS

“…but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.”
–Romans 16:19

“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;”
–Philippians 2:15

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
–Ephesians 5:15-16

Related articles

posted by Jeremiah J. Jameson© Jeremiah J. Jameson and End Times Prophecy Report, 2012-13. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jeremiah J. Jameson and End Times Prophecy Report with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.