Death, heaven and hell, may be distant for some people but the Bible warns us that we must be prepared for Jesus’s return at any time. We must also be prepared for our own physical deaths at any time because we do not know our number of days. God alone knows our number of days.

While worldly love is imperfect, we do experience God’s perfect love every day as we relate with Him and experience His presence in a myriad of ways, including through other people. In the power of the Holy Spirit and through Bible knowledge, God’s love assists us as we nurture and care for others. Our faith also helps us fend off the barbs of a hate-spewing world oblivious to God and His perfection. In love, the Bible is our plumb line, not used as a gavel.

Christians know that they need wisdom and discernment, and the Savior’s salvation and peace, to live every day like God’s innocent children. In Jesus’s instructions for long-term world missions, He describes how believers must be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves to fortify themselves against imminent persecution (Matt. 10:16).

Christians have always faced persecution. Today, it is with us and will only get more prevalent and severe according to the Bible. Christians who experience the world’s hatred against Jesus and His followers understand how prayer and Bible reading while fellowshipping with other Christians gives them strength to remain faithful.

Through their life witness, Christians bring Christ’s light to a dark world that is juxtaposed, and especially hateful, to God, His children, and all that they represent. It is only in faith through the strength of the Holy Spirit that Christians persevere the difficulties that they face every day because of their beliefs. While there is much that Christians may never know or understand in their lifetimes, God provides what is necessary for them to overcome their challenges.

Those who know and love God through Jesus work to reduce hatred by spreading God’s love and teaching His truth in perfect love. God’s love can breech all hatred, and some may be brought to repent of their sins and cease their warring against God and His ways. God provides wisdom and discernment for all who love Him first and accept Him through the blood of His Son.

True believers have circumcised hearts. They have hearts for God and desire to obey His will. These persons may not always be within God’s will, but when they err, their conscience (which has been circumcised by the Holy Spirit) convicts them to repent and return to God and His ways.

The Bible tells us that the devil knows and can quote scripture. Hence, to be as wise as serpents or as Bible-knowing as God’s enemies, Christians must know and quote the Bible at least as well as the devil. Many quote favorite literature passages, music lyrics, and famous movie lines, so quoting the most popular book in the world should not be problematic. The devil may know the Bible (and indeed he also knows God) but he does not love and obey Him as God’s children do.

The Bible sometimes uses a serpent metaphor to describe the devil and his demons. This is why Jesus says that Christians are to be as wise as serpents, knowing as much about the Bible as the devil does. If they know less about the Bible than he does, then they cannot fight him when he misquotes the Bible. Teachers cannot teach well if they do not know as much as their students know because their students could overwhelm them and possibly trick them. Likewise, if the devil knows the Bible better than Christians do, they are easily duped into falling into his traps. This is why Christians must be as wise as the devil and his army, and even more so.

Christians who are saved may have committed many sins, but they are no longer guilty because they have repented of and turned away from these sins. The truly repentant have been forgiven of their sins and have been washed clean by the precious blood of Jesus. Then they present before God as innocent of all crimes. Their innocence in God’s eyes reflects the perfect love of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

They then are as innocent as doves. Doves represent peace, purity, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. They exude a softness which is viewed as a most caring and compassionate love. The gospels record how heaven opened to reveal the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Jesus after He was baptised (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32-34). God expressed His pleasure with His Son on His baptism.

And so, then, when we are as wise as the devil, we can refute his lies and avoid his snares. We have no fear of him because he has been defeated by the blood of the Lamb. And when Jesus has washed us with His sinless blood, we know that His sacrifice redeems us and we are safe. We then have the most precious gift that there is, God’s pleasure that His Spirit indwells us and we are ready and prepared for heaven or Jesus’s return. What joy will fill our spirits on that day!