Am I being prudent and discerning since some people are not who they appear to be?

16 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17 Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to local councils and flog you in their synagogues.

INSIGHT:   I have learned from painful experience, it is unwise to just trust that people are who they say they are, or even who they think they are (Pro 12:26).  We are in the “terrible times in the last days” and very few professing Christians have a true saving faith in Christ (2 Thes 3:2).  The most dangerous people to Jesus and the disciples were their own religious “brothers”.  The most dangerous person to a Christian is often another professing Christian, because we tend to let our guard down, thinking they are one of us.  We fail to consider how rare true Christians are these days, and how many are captive to Satan through some sin.  I have been especially vulnerable to this because I minister to broken Christians who have usually been badly wounded, and who are often still in bondage to Satan through a deep root of unforgiveness against those who hurt them.  They are unknowingly captive to the spirit who is at work in the disobedient (Eph 2:2, 2 Tim 2:26), and who patiently waits to strike through them at the opportune time (Lk 4:13), like a Judas. 

In 2023, led of the Lord, I filed with the Florida court a motion to terminate my parental rights with my four youngest children (only two are still minors) whom my 1st spouse had legally kidnapped from me in 2013, through parental alienation.  As of 2024, in the State of Florida, parental alienation is still not a crime.  In retaliation she filed a counter motion against me, which included letters of betrayal written against me by a few people that I had met and loved and helped through my ministry.  They were all people who had been badly wounded in their past by others.  One by a cult group leader, another by a prosperity gospel teacher, another by his brother who had bullied him for years as a child, and who still hated him as an adult, and another by two ex-husbands who had treated her like trash.  Each of them followed the ministry for years, and eventually connected with me personally.  At some point I had confronted each of them individually about sin I saw, just as I have done with hundreds of others over the years, yet they remained unwilling to repent.  Eventually, they all found Keri under Taylor’s video and began slandering me and legally conspiring against me in hopes of getting me arrested, v. 17 “they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues.”

Jesus said people hated Him because He told them their ways were evil.  He said the same would be true of his servants.  Paul said he made enemies of people who previously would have pulled out their eyes for him, by telling them the truth about their sin (Gal 4:16).  Now, we can see another reason why the Sprit commands we not even eat with someone who calls themself a Christian, but who still lives in sin.  They are dangerous because Satan still has authority in their life, and he can use them to strike at us at will. 

Sometimes we can see and avoid these troubles and sometimes we cannot. We are to do our part and be on guard, just as Jesus commanded, but sometimes God still allows these strikes for his higher purposes.  Not even the apostle’s discernment was good enough to detect Judas.  He was among them every day for three years and none of them had any clue that it was Judas when Jesus made the announcement that He would be betrayed (Jn 13:22). God hid that on purpose.

All these years later, I know why Leonard Ravenhill and A.W. Tozer were so thankful to have each other and why Tozer wrote, “The Saint Must Walk Alone”.    If you have one true loyal friend, praise God!  We must exercise prudence—discerning the fruit of people’s lips and actions, over time, before we jump into relationships with them.  We are to be cautious (snakes), and to be gentle and non-threatening (doves), giving no justifiable reason for people to attack or despise us, but considering carefully who we fellowship with.  There is enough evil that will get to us, even when we have good discernment.  Let’s not make it any easier.