God calls us to be as shrewd as the world in the way we fight darkness, but to be completely innocent of its evil. We are called to fight a better way, for a better cause, with a better source of power.

All evil is a perversion of good. There is nothing evil creates. All evil is a disruption or a perversion. The prince of darkness twists and perverts what God created for our good into that which harms. The enemy steals, kills, and destroys. He does not create.

Our challenge is to use the resources God has given us without perverting them. As tempting as it may be to pursue shortcuts, relying upon our own power, and our own sense of control, we must be diligent to pursue the better way. God’s way. But God’s way includes being a shrewd warrior.

Jesus, the Lamb of the World, was killed by his enemies. But Jesus secured the true victory. Our tempered shrewdness is a better method of fighting for a better cause, in obedience to the best source of power in the universe. Our victory is sure. What victory looks like is up to God.

We cannot back down from a fight with darkness. The sword of the spirit is truth, and needs to be wielded every day. But neither can we let the fight dictate our identity, and twist us into being of the world. We fight out of who we are in Christ, and who sent us forth. It is Jesus who sent us out to be shrewd sheep in a world with many wolves, equipped, empowered, and defended.

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”
– Matthew 10:16