Sermon 1. Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves
(Matt 10:16) “Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
The apostle says that all Scripture is given by inspiration (2 Tim 3:16). God's word is compared to a lamp, for its enlightening quality (Ps 119:105), and to refined silver, for its enriching quality (Ps 12:6). Among the other parts of sacred writ, this text is not the least: “Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” This is the speech of our blessed Savior; his lips were a tree of life that fed many; his works were miracles; his words were oracles, deserving to be engraved on our hearts as with the point of a diamond. This is a golden sentence: “Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” In this chapter our Lord Jesus first gives his apostles their commission, second foretells their danger, and third gives them several instructions.
First, Christ gives his apostles their commission. Before they went abroad to preach, Christ ordained them: “These twelve Jesus sent forth” (Matt 10:5). Those who exercise the ministerial function must have a lawful call: “No man takes this honour to himself, but he that is called of God” (Heb 5:4). Christ gave a call to their office not only to the apostles and prophets, who were extraordinary ministers, but even to “pastors and teachers” (Eph 4:11).
Question: But if someone has gifts, is that not sufficient for the ministerial office?
Answer: No. As grace alone is not sufficient to make a minister, neither are gifts alone; it is worth observing that Scripture distinguishes between gifting and sending: “How shall they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom 10:15). If gifts were enough to make a minister, the apostle would have said, “How shall they preach unless they are gifted?” But he says “unless they be sent,” which denotes a lawful call, an investiture into the office.
An attorney pleading at the bar may have gifts as good as the judge on the bench, but he must have a lawful commission before he may sit as judge. If this holds in civil matters, it holds still more in church matters, which carry greater weight. Those, then, who take up the work of the ministry without being solemnly set apart for it show more pride than zeal, and can expect no blessing: “I sent them not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord” (Jer 23:32). So much for the first point, the apostles' commission: “These twelve Jesus sent forth.”
Second, Christ foretells their danger: “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matt 10:16). The apostles were going about a glorious work, but a hazardous one; they would meet enemies as fierce and savage as wolves. As all who will live godly in Christ will meet with suffering, so Christ's ambassadors commonly meet the deepest trials. Most of the apostles died at the hands of tyrants: Peter was crucified with his head downward; Luke the evangelist was executed on an olive tree; John was cast by Domitian into a vessel of scalding oil. Maximinus the emperor, as Eusebius relates, charged his officers to put none to death but the governors and pastors of the church.
Ministers carry Christ's colors before his army, and so they draw the heaviest fire; they proclaim his truth: “I am set for the defence of the gospel” (Phil 1:17). The word translated “set” pictures a soldier stationed in the forefront of the battle, with all the enemy's arrows flying about his ears. The minister's work is to come between men and their sins, and this stirs up opposition. When Paul preached against Diana, the whole city was in an uproar (Acts 19). This should stir up prayer for Christ's ministers, that they may be able to withstand the assaults of the enemy (2 Thess 3:2).
Third, Christ gives the apostles their instructions, of which this text was one: “Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Here is the exhortation, “Be ye wise”; the comparison, “as serpents”; and the qualification of this wisdom, a wisdom mixed with innocence, “harmless as doves.”
This union of the dove and the serpent is hard to find. “Who then is a wise and faithful servant?” (Matt 24:45). On this text Chrysostom says it is hard to find one who is both faithful and wise. Faithful, there is the dove; wise, there is the serpent; it is hard to find both together. Seek for a faithful man, and you may well find many; seek for a wise man, and you may find many; but seek for one who is both wise and faithful, and this is a rare bird indeed, hard to find, yet possible, though not common.
Moses was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22), there was the wisdom of the serpent; and he was the meekest man alive: “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Num 12:3), there was the innocence of the dove. Daniel was an excellent man: “Excellent wisdom is found in thee” (Dan 5:14), there was the prudence of the serpent; and, “The presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel, but they could find no occasion nor fault” (Dan 6:4), there was the innocence of the dove.
Look at Paul: “When Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out, I am a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6); by this speech Paul won all the Pharisees to his side, there was the wisdom of the serpent; and, “I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day” (Acts 23:1), there was the innocence of the dove. How lovely is this union of the dove and the serpent!
Scripture joins these two together: “meekness of wisdom” (Jas 3:13); wisdom, there is the serpent; meekness, there is the dove. This is what beautifies a Christian, to have the serpent's eye in the dove's head. We must have innocence with our wisdom, or else our wisdom is only craftiness; and we must have wisdom with our innocence, or else our innocence is only weakness. We must have the innocence of the dove, that we may not circumvent others, and the wisdom of the serpent, that others may not circumvent us. We must have the innocence of the dove, that we may not betray the truth, and the wisdom of the serpent, that we may not betray ourselves. In short, religion without policy is too weak to be safe, and policy without religion is too crafty to be good. When wisdom and innocence, like Castor and Pollux, appear together, they signal the soul's happiness.
Doctrine: Christians must be both wise and innocent.
I begin with the first: wise: “Be ye wise as serpents.”
1. I will first speak of wisdom in general. Solomon says, “Wisdom is the principal thing” (Prov 4:7). It is better than riches: “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom; for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver” (Prov 3:13). If the mountains were pearl, if every grain of sand in the sea were a diamond, they would not compare to wisdom. Without wisdom, a person is like a ship without a pilot, in danger of splitting on the rocks. Job sets forth the praise of wisdom: “The price of wisdom is above rubies” (Job 28:13, 18). The ruby is a precious stone, transparent, of a fiery red color; it is said that one of the kings of India wore a ruby of such size and brilliance that he could be seen by its light in the dark. But wisdom casts a more sparkling light than the ruby; it makes us shine like angels. No chain of pearls you wear adorns you as wisdom does. Wisdom consists chiefly in three things.
1.) Knowledge to discern where happiness lies.
2.) Skill to judge what will be the fittest means to reach it.
3.) Activity to pursue the things that will certainly accomplish that end. So much for wisdom in general.
2. More particularly, wisdom is variously distinguished: it is either natural, moral, or theological.
1.) A natural wisdom, seen in uncovering the secrets of nature. Aristotle was called by some of the ancients an eagle fallen from the clouds, because his intellect was so exalted, and his insight into the causes of things so profound. This natural wisdom is an adornment, but it is not sufficient for salvation. Jerome pictures Aristotle with his syllogisms, and Cicero with his rhetoric, crying out in hell.
2.) A moral wisdom, which consists in rejecting what is harmful and choosing what is beneficial; this is called prudence. Knowledge without prudence may do harm; many a man's wit has undone him for want of wisdom.
3.) A theological or sacred wisdom, which is knowing God, the supreme and sovereign good. Greece was counted the eye of the world for wisdom, and Athens the eye of Greece, but neither knew God: “I found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God” (Acts 17:23). To know God, in whom is both truth and goodness, is the masterpiece of wisdom: “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father” (1 Chr 28:9). This knowledge of God comes through Christ; Christ is the glass in which the face of God is seen (Col 1:15). We know God rightly when we know him not merely by speculation but by appropriation: “This God is our God” (Ps 48:14). This knowledge of God is the most sublime wisdom, and so it is called “wisdom from above” (Jas 3:17).
But to come nearer the text, and speak of the wisdom of the serpent: “Be ye wise as serpents.”
Question: But must we in every way be like the serpent?
Answer: No. Our Savior did not mean that we should imitate the serpent in everything. I will show you, first, in what respects we should not be like the serpent, and second, in what respects we should be like the serpent.
1.) Points in which we should not be like the serpent.
a) The serpent eats dust: “Dust shall be the serpent's meat” (Isa 65:25). This was a curse laid upon the serpent. So we should not be like the serpent, feeding immoderately on earthly things. It is absurd for one who has a heaven-born soul, capable of communion with God and angels, to feed greedily on the serpent's meat; a Christian has better food to feed on: the heavenly manna, the precious promises, the body and blood of Christ. It is counted a marvel to find a diamond in a mine of gold, and it is just as great a marvel to find Christ, the pearl of great price, in an earthly heart.
The lapwing wears a small crown on its head, yet feeds on dung; to wear a crown of profession on the head, yet feed without restraint on these dunghill comforts, is unworthy of a Christian. What a poor, contemptible thing the world is! It cannot fill the heart. If Satan took a Christian to the top of the pinnacle and showed him all the kingdoms and glory of the world, what could he show but a show, a pleasant delusion? There is a lawful use God allows of these outward things, but the sin lies in the excess. The bee may sip a little honey from the leaf, but put it in a barrel of honey and it drowns. The wicked are described this way: “Who mind earthly things” (Phil 3:19). They are like Saul, hidden among the baggage. We should be like eagles flying high toward heaven, not like serpents creeping on the earth and licking the dust.
b) The serpent is deceitful. It uses many tricks, and glides so cunningly that we cannot trace it. This was one of the four things wise Agur could not fathom: “the way of a serpent upon a rock” (Prov 30:19). It is a deceitful creature; we should not be like the serpent in this, in deceitfulness. By nature we too much resemble the serpent in fraud and collusion: “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer 17:9).
First, deceit toward man: to feign friendship, covering malice with pretenses of love, to praise and to condemn, to flatter and to hate, a Judas's kiss and a Joab's sword, honey in the mouth, gall in the heart; or to feign honesty, pretending fair dealing while using false weights. Second, deceit toward God: to draw near to God with the lips while the heart is far from him, to serve God while seeking ourselves, to profess love for God while remaining in league with sin. We should not be like the serpent in this, deceitful and given to tricks. Be upright! Be what you seem to be! God loves plainness of heart (Ps 51:6). The plainer the diamond, the more it sparkles; the plainer the heart, the more it sparkles in God's eyes. What a commendation Christ gave Nathanael! “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile” (John 1:47).
c) The serpent casts its coat, but another new coat takes its place; we should not be like the serpent in this, casting off one sin only to let another as bad take its place. The drunkard leaves his drunkenness because it harms his health, his credit, and his purse, and falls into the sin of cheating; the prodigal leaves his prodigality and turns to usury. This is as if one disease left a man only for him to fall into another as bad, his fever leaves him and he falls into consumption. Do not be like the serpent, casting one coat only for another to come! This is like the man in the gospel who had one devil go out of him, only for seven worse spirits to take its place (Matt 12:45).
d) The serpent is a venomous creature, full of poison (Deut 32:24). Do not be like the serpent in this. It is said of wicked men that their poison is like the poison of a serpent (Ps 58:4). What is this poison? It is the poison of malice. Malice is the devil's own portrait. Lust makes men brutish, and malice makes them devilish. Malice carries its own punishment within it; a malicious man, to hurt another, will injure himself. Quintilian tells of a man who had a garden of flowers and poisoned them so that his neighbor's bees, sucking from them, would be poisoned and die. Do not be venomous like the serpent! Malice is mental murder; you may kill a man without ever touching him: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). Malice spoils all your good works; the malicious man defiles his prayer, poisons the sacramental cup, and eats and drinks his own damnation.
I have read of a man who lived in malice, and when asked how he could say the Lord's Prayer, he answered, “I leave out the words, ‘as we forgive them that trespass against us.’” But Augustine imagines God replying, “Because you do not say my prayer, I will not hear yours.” The malicious man is not likely to enjoy either earth or heaven: not the earth, for “the meek shall inherit the earth” (Matt 5:5); nor heaven, for God “will beautify the meek with salvation” (Ps 149:4). So the malicious man is cut off from both earth and heaven.
e) The serpent is given to hissing, as is said of the basilisk. Do not be like the serpent in this, hissing out reproaches and slander against the saints and people of God; it is the seed of the serpent that hisses at godliness. The Lord will one day settle accounts with men for all their harsh words (Jude 15). Lucian was such a man, who hissed and scoffed at religion, and as a just judgment of God he was afterward torn to pieces by dogs.
f) The serpent stops its ear; this is an obstinate deafness: “They are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear” (Ps 58:4). Do not be like the serpent in this, obstinately stopping your ears to the voice of God's word. While God calls you to repent of sin, do not be like the basilisk and stop your ear: “They refused to hearken, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear” (Zech 7:11). The word denounces threats against sin, but many, instead of being like the tax collector, smiting their breast, are like deaf adders, stopping their ears. If you shut your ear against God's word, take care that God does not shut heaven against you; if God cries to you to repent and you will not hear, when you cry for mercy, God will not hear: “As he cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zech 7:13).
g) The serpent casts its coat but keeps its sting; do not be like the serpent in this sense, casting off the outward acts of sin while keeping the love of sin. Whoever loves a sin in his heart is a hypocrite. A man may forbear a sin and still keep his love for it; he may abstain from a gross sin for fear of hell, just as a man may forgo a favorite dish for fear it will bring on his gout or his stone. A man may also forsake a sin and still keep his love for it, giving it up out of policy or necessity: out of policy, because the vice will harm his health or his credit; or out of necessity, because he can no longer follow the trade of sin, the adulterer has grown old, the prodigal has grown poor, and either his purse or his strength has failed him.
So a man may refrain from the act of sin while still holding its love, which is like the serpent that casts its coat but keeps its sting. Take heed of this! Do not be like the serpent here; remember Jerome's saying: it is worse to love sin than to commit it. A man may commit sin through temptation or ignorance, and once he knows it to be sin, he is sorry for it; but the man who loves sin has given his will to the sin, and that aggravates it, like the dye that gives wool its crimson color.
