{"id":6818,"date":"2021-04-29T01:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T01:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=6818"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:02","slug":"getting-it-backwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=6818","title":{"rendered":"GETTING IT BACKWARDS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0<span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\">&#8220;I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.&#8221;\u00a0 Matthew 10:16<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">I believe it was author and song-writer John Fischer who I heard once expounding on Matthew 10:16 as he spoke and performed at Asbury Seminary for a special event back in the late 90s while I was a student there. Anyway, it seems like something he would say.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #001320\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">Even if I am uncertain of the speaker, I do clearly recall what was said:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #001320\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">&#8220;Jesus told his followers to be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. My experience is that too many Christians have gotten this exactly backwards: They are mean as snakes and dumb as birds.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #001320\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">I remember being impressed with the clever turn of phrase.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #001320\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">And discouraged by the accuracy of the assertion.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #001320\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">In the decades since I first heard this sentiment, I have, unfortunately, too often experienced both meanness and idiocy at the hands of self-professed Christians (as hinted at elsewhere in this blog).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #001320\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">What Fischer said is true. Sometimes Christians are mean as snakes and dumb as birds.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #001320\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">But I strive to forgive, recognizing that I too have been mean and dumb at times.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #001320\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">Even so, we are called to shrewdness and innocence, so stupidity and meanness among Christians should be called out and challenged &#8230; in a spirit of love.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0&#8220;I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.&#8221;\u00a0 Matthew 10:16 I believe it was author and song-writer John Fischer who I heard once expounding on Matthew 10:16 as he spoke and performed at Asbury Seminary for a special event back in the late [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6819,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818\/revisions\/6819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}