There is a specific misreading that happens to straight people in places that are not, and it wears them down over years in a way that open hostility never would.
Picture the man. He is thirty four. He does not exaggerate his figures, he does not take credit that is not his, and he says what he actually thinks about a proposal when he is asked.
And there is a way people in that building talk about him.
Nobody has ever been unkind. It is warmer than that, and worse. It is affectionate. He gets described as a good guy, in a tone. Somebody said, at a leaving do, that he was refreshingly straightforward, and everybody smiled, and it was meant nicely, and he thought about it for two weeks.
What he heard underneath was: he has not learned yet.
That is the reading. Not that he is honest, but that he has not yet been in the world long enough to know better, and that in a few more years he will be like everybody else and this phase is quite charming.
And after six years of that reading, something has started happening in him that is worth naming. He has begun to feel foolish. Not guilty, and not tempted exactly. Foolish, which is a much more effective solvent than temptation ever is.
Because a man can withstand being told he is wrong for years. Being treated, kindly, as somebody who has not caught up yet is far harder, and it does its work slowly and from underneath.
Two animals in one sentence
There is a sentence in Matthew that is one of the most practical things Jesus said, and the reason it works is that it names two creatures rather than one.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16, King James Version)
Wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Two animals. Not one. And they are two different qualities that most people assume you have to choose between.
The dove is what this man has. He is harmless in the exact sense meant there, which is unmixed rather than weak. He does not have anything in him that is working an angle.
The serpent is the half he has never been given permission to have. Wise, shrewd, aware of what is going on in a room, alert to how things actually work.
And the sentence puts both in the same instruction, which means being straight was never meant to come packaged with being unaware.
You are permitted both halves, and Matthew 10 names two animals in one sentence rather than asking anybody to choose (Matthew 10:16), and the Holy Spirit is the one who supplies the half that a decent person has usually never been taught.
And notice what surrounds the instruction. Sheep in the midst of wolves. Jesus is not describing a friendly environment and He is not pretending it is one.
You are not being told the room is safe, and Matthew 10:16 names wolves before it names anything else (Matthew 10:16), and the Spirit of God is the one who sends people into rooms like that with both qualities rather than one.
Simple concerning evil
There is a line in Romans that says the same thing with different words and adds something useful.
I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. (Romans 16:19)
Wise unto good, simple concerning evil.
Notice the arrangement. The wisdom is directed toward what is good, and the simplicity is directed toward what is not. That is the opposite of the world's usual arrangement, where people become sophisticated about how to work an angle and simple about what actually matters.
You have the arrangement the right way round, and Romans 16 puts the wisdom toward good and the simplicity toward evil (Romans 16:19), and it is the Holy Spirit who makes that a strength rather than an absence.
And Philippians describes what that looks like from outside, and the image is worth having.
That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2:15)
Among whom ye shine. The shining is described as happening in the middle of the place rather than after leaving it.
You are shining in the middle of it rather than after getting out, and Philippians 2 puts the lights among the crooked place rather than beyond it (Philippians 2:15), and the Spirit of God is the one who does that in a person who feels foolish rather than luminous.
What this is not
Let me be plain, because this could turn into something unpleasant.
This is not saying his colleagues are wolves. Most of them are ordinary people in a system, and thinking of them as wolves would make him worse at his job and worse to work with.
It is also not telling him to become shrewd in the sense of playing the game. Wise as serpents does not mean adopting the tactics. It means understanding them.
And it is not saying he should stop being straight. That is the dove and it is not up for negotiation.
And plainly: if being read that way for years has reached past work, if you have started to feel foolish about your whole life, if you cannot get out of bed, or if some part of you wants it all to stop, that is bigger than an office culture. Call or text the 988 crisis line, and say the true version out loud to a doctor or a counselor or a pastor you trust. Getting help is not naivety either.
You are not being asked to become somebody else, and Matthew 10 adds a quality rather than replacing one (Matthew 10:16), and the Holy Spirit is the one who can make a person sharper without making them harder.
So here is the turn, and it is a word rather than a change.
You are wise as serpents and harmless as doves, and Matthew 10:16 puts both in the same instruction to the same people (Matthew 10:16), and the Holy Spirit is the one who takes a sentence spoken to people being sent into hostile towns and lays it over an office where somebody is called refreshingly straightforward.
Now the counterfeit, and this one does its work without ever sounding like an attack. It says: you will grow out of it. Look at the shape of that. It names the man rather than a thing, it opens no door, and its only instruction is to feel foolish about the best thing about him. Conviction from the Holy Spirit names one specific thing and always opens a door in the same breath.
You have not failed to catch up with anything, and Philippians 2:15 has the shining happening in the middle of a crooked place rather than after somebody escapes it (Philippians 2:15), and that work belongs to the Spirit of God, who has been in that building for six years and has never once mistaken decency for inexperience.
Nothing here promises the reading changes. They will probably go on saying it. What is settled is that both animals are named in one instruction, that the wisdom is pointed at good rather than absent, and that a man who knows exactly what is going on and has chosen otherwise is not naive.
Declare this over yourself
Say these out loud, on a walk or in the car with the radio off. You are in Christ, and that is what makes the authority to speak over your own conduct delegated rather than invented. God named two animals in one sentence, so speak to the reading of you as somebody who has not learned yet, and then leave the outcome to Him.
- Reading of me as somebody unfinished, you are not accurate and you never understood what I chose. The Word of God says be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves, and it asks for both in one breath.
- Word innocent that gets used about me, you are replaced in the name of Jesus. Romans 16 says wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil, which is the right way round and not an absence.
- Father, Philippians 2 says ye shine as lights in the midst of a crooked nation. I name my own conduct with the true word today, and I thank You that Your Spirit has never once mistaken decency for being green.
Matthew 10:16
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