There is a natural order in our world. Day follows night, after winter there is spring, and it’s a new year every January 1.
There is a natural order in botany: first the seed, then the sprout, and finally the fruit.
In the animal realm, the natural order is predator and prey.
Jesus drew attention to this natural order when He said to His disciples, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16 ESV).
Just as wolves in the wild are the natural enemy of sheep in the fold, naturally-minded men seek to devour spiritually-minded believers.
Jesus combats this natural action with His instructions to His followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. To be wise here means “to think, have a mindset.” To be innocent means “without any mixture of deceit, without any defiling material.”
Ultimately, this means to be like Christ as we go about our everyday life. We are to have His mind and His uprightness. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30 KJV).
But how does that keep us safe from the wolves?
How does living the Christian life as lambs keep us from being devoured by the slayers of this world?
Because two millennia ago the ultimate killer, who murdered from the beginning, slayed the Lamb of God. With the slaying of that Lamb, we have been given the power to become the lambs of God. It is a power that protects us from the slayers of this world because death, and its fear, have been conquered!
With the slaying of the Lamb of God, the natural order has been reversed for the believer. The predator becomes the prey, for he has no power over the Lamb that was slain!
Speak it with me: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing” (Revelation 5:12 KJV).
Amen.
