Behold, *I* send you as sheep in the midst of wolves; be therefore prudent as the serpents, and guileless as the doves.
The Lord has just sent out His twelve disciples with their mission, and from this verse His tone turns to warning. He pictures them as sheep among wolves, and He arms them not with weapons but with a character: caution joined to innocence.
One writer weighs what the word "sent" adds, and why the two qualities must go together.
If sheep were simply exposed to wolves it would be bad enough, but to be sent among them is more serious still... You want the combination. It is a sad thing to have only the prudence and a very weak thing to have only the guilelessness.
He does not soften the odds. He tells them in advance, and He does it to steady them.
The Lord does not hide from the disciples that the nation, indeed the world, would reject Him, and therefore them. He puts this fully before them, to prepare them for it and to encourage them in view of it. He was sending them out as sheep among wolves — a hopeless thing to natural expectation. They were therefore to be as prudent, or wary, as serpents, but pure as doves, without the serpent's deceit.
Going out with love in their hearts would not guarantee a welcome. The prudence He asks for has its own character.
From verse 16 the Lord warns them of the circumstances in which the gospel of the kingdom was to be preached... He calls for prudence, heavenly prudence. The aim and character of that prudence were to be entirely holy, and free from any just charge of harming men. "But beware of men" — do not suppose that, although you go out with love in your hearts, you will not meet with wolves.
The comparison sounds strange until you trace the word behind it.
The Lord told His disciples to be as wise as serpents, probably a reference to Genesis 3:1. The word "subtil" there is translated by the same word in the Greek Old Testament as the one used in this passage. It is "prudence."
Yet a believer's caution comes from a different source than the world's:
The world may be prudent, knowing evil. The heart may be simple through ignorance and find itself betrayed. The Christian may be wise or prudent by the wisdom of God who directs him, and simple because he walks according to the life which is in him... This is not the simplicity of ignorance, but the simplicity of good. It avoids whatever would make one leave one's true position before God.
Innocence shows in the care a servant takes over how his actions look. (Older translations read "harmless as doves"; the ESV has "innocent as doves.")
All who truly seek to build up the church will carefully avoid actions that by their nature can be misread. To be wise as serpents is no less necessary than to be harmless as doves.
One writer notes that this part of the chapter reaches far past the mission the disciples were starting.
Verses 16 to 23 involve far more than the commission in effect while the Lord was on earth; for it goes on to the testimony seen in Acts, and then further still, to what will be revived in the tribulation period, as verse 23 shows. They were sent as sheep among wolves, and so were always to be on guard: wise as serpents, yet unlike serpents, guileless as doves. Wisdom and transparent honesty are a true protection for the servant of the Lord.
The same pairing surfaces elsewhere. Writing on Romans 16:19 — "wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil" — Kelly calls it the divine remedy, and adds that human wisdom, by contrast, "seeks to guard itself by a thorough knowledge of the world and of all evil ways."
- Sent. The danger is no accident. He sends them among the wolves, and tells them in advance to prepare and encourage them.
- Sheep. Their position is one of weakness by design — a hopeless thing, judged by natural expectation.
- Serpents. The wisdom asked for is prudence — the word used of the serpent in Genesis 3, but without the serpent's deceit.
- Doves. Innocence is the other half. Prudence alone is sad, innocence alone is weak; only the combination will do.
- Safety. Wisdom and open honesty are the servant's real protection. They give men no just charge, and they draw prudence from God, not from a close study of evil.
But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to sanhedrims, and scourge you in their synagogues;
The Lord has just sent the twelve out as sheep among wolves, and here He names the danger: not wild animals, but men with courts and whips. Two questions follow: who are the disciples to beware of, and what good can come out of a beating in a place of worship?
The Lord sent the disciples to their own nation. Yet His warning is not limited to one group of people:
But — and this is a terrible word about man — "Beware of men," says the Lord. He does not say, beware of Israel. All men are now thrown into the same mass. It was in Israel itself that the disciples worked, yet Israel is blinded along with the whole mass of human wickedness. God could still think of them and of the promises, but in fact the heart of man was the same there as everywhere else.
The two places named were real institutions with real power. People gathered in the synagogue to read the Scriptures. They also handed out punishments there.
Pilate said to the Jews about the Lord, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law" (John 18:31). This shows that they were allowed to judge certain matters and to give limited punishments... The Lord told His disciples that they would be flogged in the synagogues (Matt. 10:17). Paul confessed that when he was persecuting the church, he had imprisoned and beaten in every synagogue those who believed on the Lord (Acts 22:19). Paul himself no doubt suffered the same punishment in the same buildings (2 Cor. 11:24). So they put their places of worship to a very undignified use.
Good motives do not disarm opposition. And the same people who hated Gentile rule — rule by the non-Jewish nations — would gladly use Gentile courts against Christ's followers:
"But beware of men" — do not think that you will escape meeting wolves just because you go out with love in your hearts. The Jews are plainly meant... While hating the Gentile yoke, they would be quite willing to call in Gentile authority where it became a question of Christ's followers. The Jews would drag them before the Gentile kings and governors, hated as those rulers were.
So the Lord asks for caution without cunning. He also marks out two kinds of court ahead of them:
He was sending them out as sheep among wolves, which looks hopeless from a natural point of view. So they were to be as prudent — or wary — as serpents, but pure as doves, without the serpent's deceit. Men would hand them over to councils, or sanhedrins. These were religious courts attached to the synagogues themselves. But beyond this they would bring them before governors and kings, the worldly powers of the Gentile nations.
The Lord does not just predict the trials. He tells the disciples what the trials will produce:
If they did not beware of men (a sad testimony about men), they would only suffer. But when they were flogged and brought before councils and governors and kings, all this would become a testimony to them. It was God's way of presenting the gospel of the kingdom to kings and princes. It did not change the character of that gospel, or adapt it to the world, or mix the Lord's people up with the world's customs and false greatness. What is more, circumstances like these made their testimony far more visible than links with the great ones of the earth would have done.
Nothing like this happened while Jesus was still with them. The words looked past the trip they were about to take:
While the Lord was on earth, there is no record of His disciples suffering the opposition of verses 17 and 18. John the Baptist did suffer prison and death. But in the book of Acts they were handed over to the Jews' councils and flogged for their testimony to Christ. Some of them were also brought before governors and kings for His sake. This is first a testimony against the Jews, but the Gentiles are added too. That shows these words go beyond the commission of verses 5 and 6.
- Warned. "Beware of men" names no single nation. The disciples worked in Israel, but the heart of man is the same there as everywhere.
- Whipped. The councils were courts attached to the synagogues. People turned their own houses of worship into places of beating — Paul gave such beatings before he received them.
- Wary. Love in the heart does not stop wolves, so the Lord asks for the serpent's caution without the serpent's deceit.
- Witnessed. The hostility carries the message upward, to governors and kings. The servants never have to soften it or borrow the world's greatness.
- Waiting. None of this happened on that first mission. It began in Acts, and it reached further than the first orders — out to the nations too.
and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the nations.
Jesus warns His twelve disciples where their preaching will land them: not in pulpits, but in courtrooms, in front of governors and kings. The Lord treats what looks like the ruin of their mission as its widest platform.
The chain of events begins with religious opposition and ends in the civil courts. One writer points out the irony in who does the handing over.
While the Jews hated Gentile rule, they were quite willing to call in Gentile authority when it became a question of Christ's followers. They would drag the messengers before the Gentile kings and governors, hated as those rulers were.
The two courts named are of different kinds. Another writer separates them:
Men would hand them over to councils — the religious courts attached to the synagogues themselves. But beyond this they would bring them before governors and kings, the secular Gentile powers. As we see in the Lord's own case, the charge there had to be a different one, and it was brought with malice. Yet He would turn that malice into a testimony in the highest places, and to the Gentiles at large. Grace was content to reach them even in such a way.
The arrest is not an interruption of the mission. It is how the message travels upward.
When they were scourged and brought before councils and governors and kings, all this should become a testimony to those rulers. It was God's way of bringing the gospel of the kingdom to kings and princes. And it did that without changing the character of the gospel, without adapting it to the world, and without mixing the Lord's people up with the world's ways and its false greatness. What is more, circumstances like these made their testimony far more visible than any link with the great ones of the earth could have done.
The same writer notes what this preserves about the preachers themselves:
This is the means the Lord uses to carry the gospel to kings and to the great of the earth. The preachers are not the great of the earth. His disciples would always have to keep their true character. So they would stand before kings and rulers as prisoners, giving an account of their faith.
Nothing like this is recorded during the Lord's lifetime. It began after He left.
While the Lord was on earth, there is no record of His disciples facing the opposition of verses 17 and 18. John the Baptist did suffer prison and death. But in the book of Acts they were handed over to the Jews' councils and scourged for their testimony to Christ. Some of them were also brought before governors and kings for His sake. This is first a testimony against the Jews, but the Gentiles are added too. That shows these words go beyond the commission of verses 5 and 6.
Paul's case is the fullest example. One writer sees God's own purpose in it: "God's intention, however, was that Paul should appear before other governors and kings, and at last before the Emperor himself. And this is what happened" (J. N. Darby).
Commentators differ on the force of this phrase. One reading makes it a witness against the judges. Another makes it a witness delivered to them. Both senses appear in the writers quoted here; the ESV takes the second: "to bear witness before them and the Gentiles."
The promise in the next verse is often stretched to cover preaching in general. One writer draws a firm line.
We see this happen in Acts, where Paul stands before Felix and Festus, and then before King Agrippa. The Lord gives them clear instructions in verse 19. People misapply those words when they use them of preaching the gospel. They have no reference to any service for the Lord, but would save the disciples from anxiety when on trial.
One writer holds that this verse reaches past the days of the apostles. Israel's rejection of Christ cut the mission short. It will start again.
I could not doubt that this preaching of the kingdom of heaven by the twelve apostles will start again in days to come. Israel's definite and utter rejection of Christ interrupted it. And it is to this renewed testimony that much of Matthew 10 has its most definite application. See especially verses 18, 22, 23.
- Malice — the nation that hated Gentile rule was glad to use Gentile courts against Christ's messengers.
- Method — the arrest was God's way of putting the gospel of the kingdom in front of kings and princes. The message never changed to suit them.
- Manner — the preachers stand there as prisoners, not as great men. That lowly place makes the witness more visible, not less.
- Model — Acts shows it happen: councils, floggings, and Paul on trial before Felix, Festus, Agrippa and the Emperor.
- Measure — the words reach beyond the mission to Israel's cities in verses 5 and 6. One writer holds that this testimony is still unfinished.
But when they deliver you up, be not careful how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given to you in that hour what ye shall speak.
The Lord is sending His disciples out, and He warns them that they will face arrest and trial before rulers. Now He tells them what to do with the fear that would rise in that moment — and the answer is not a rehearsed speech.
The promise belongs to one situation: arrest and trial before rulers. Commentators warn against stretching it to cover preaching in general.
We see this in the Acts, where Paul appears before Felix, and Festus, and then before king Agrippa. Verse 19 gives them clear instructions. People misapply the verse when they use it of preaching the gospel. It has no reference to any service for the Lord, but would save them from anxiety when on their trial.
The older wording "take no thought" can mislead a modern reader. It does not forbid thinking. One writer's list of corrections to Matthew's wording marks the same change here as in Matthew 6.
In Matthew 6, verses 25, 27, 28, 31, 34 (and Matthew 10:19), "thought" should be "anxious thought."
The Lord promises the words for the moment of need. That means no advance script and no clever legal strategy.
When these things happened they would need no speech-writer. They would not even need to study in advance the wisest or most fitting answer to the charges. Instead, they were to depend fully on God to give them the words to speak at the time they were needed. In this they would allow the Spirit of their Father the freedom to speak without hindrance. We see this beautifully carried out in the cases of Peter and John in Acts 4:8-12 and 5:27-32; Stephen in Acts 7; and Paul in Acts 24:10-21 and 26:1-29.
The words would come with power, but they would not be the disciples' own. One writer roots this in the relationship they already had with the Father, and adds who this mission was first sent to.
They would receive such power and guidance from the Spirit of their Father that the words they spoke would not be their own words. They would be the words of Him who inspired them. Once again, their relationship with their Father is the basis of their fitness for the service they had to do. That same relationship clearly marks the Sermon on the Mount. Remember that this testimony went to Israel only. Yet Israel was living under foreign rule, so the testimony would reach their rulers.
Paul's hearing before Felix shows the promise working under pressure. The other side had an orator to speak for them; Paul had no one.
What about the accused? No orator that we hear of volunteered to present his case in the most favourable light before the court. No one pleaded his cause. Was he deserted? Was he worse off for this? He had One with him whom Ananias, Tertullus, and Felix did not know. Relying on His help and guidance, he could stay perfectly calm and let the orator speak first. He was sure that no human eloquence, no shameless flattery, and no cunning misrepresentation could damage his defence.
Commentators differ on the range of this verse. One reads it as still ours in principle, even though it was first spoken to men setting out on a particular errand.
One cannot but feel that such a truth as this, though it has special application to apostles setting out on this mission, most surely remains for us.
Another writer draws a firm line. No preacher should use this verse as an excuse for skipping preparation.
Wherever possible, a person should think over and study the subject he expects to speak on. It is no mark of spirituality to take no thought how or what we shall speak, and we do not believe this is a correct use of the Scripture... Here, He assures His disciples that He will never desert them when they stand before kings and rulers for His name's sake. They need not work out in advance any line of defence, or any elaborate statement of what they hold. Suppose they have been living in the enjoyment of these things and bearing faithful witness. Then they may be sure that the Lord will not desert them in their time of need.
- Setting — this promise covers the courtroom, not the pulpit. It saves the disciples from anxiety on trial.
- Anxiety — "take no thought" means anxious thought; the Lord bans the worry, not the thinking.
- Timing — no speech-writer and no rehearsed defence. God gives the words at the hour of need.
- Speaker — the power comes from the Spirit of their Father, so the words are not theirs but His.
- Proof — Peter and John, Stephen, and Paul before Felix all stood with no one to plead their case, and the Lord deserted none of them.
For *ye* are not the speakers, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.
Jesus is sending His disciples into open hostility, where rulers and kings will put them on trial. Right there He tells them not to worry about what to say — so how far does this promise reach, and who may claim it today?
One writer traces how the chapter widens out beyond that first short mission:
It seems clear that up to verse 15 the group of apostles is mainly in view. That mission was marked by the personal presence of the King. From verse 16 to 20 the language is more general. It looks at the preaching in Acts and on to the fall of Jerusalem. By then the King has gone away, and His servants are handed over to be flogged and brought before rulers and kings. The Holy Spirit from the Father would be in them and would be the power for every emergency.
The heart of the verse is a substitution: the disciple is not the source. One writer describes what that does to the servant:
It is the calm of one who does not think of himself, either through fear or through human eagerness. It is full of the Holy Spirit; everything he says and everything he does comes from Him. Such a man works perfectly on God's side, because the man himself is out of the way, and God by His Spirit works in him... If man works, then there is imperfection. God works in man, and then man is what he ought to be.
Jesus does not say "the Spirit of God." He names a relationship. One writer makes that title the root of the disciples' fitness for the work:
They would receive such power and guidance from the Spirit of their Father that the words they spoke would not be their own words, but the words of Him who inspired them. Once again, their relationship with their Father... is what makes them able for the service they had to do.
The Spirit speaks in the disciple without ever becoming the disciple. One writer sets this beside the New Testament letters. They describe the same Spirit living in believers:
Those who believe the gospel of salvation have the Holy Spirit of God living in them, and He seals them. He is certainly a distinct person from those He lives in. He bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God (Romans 8:16). At the same time He identifies Himself with us in a wonderful way. He helps us in our weakness, and He makes intercession for us with groanings that words cannot express.
One writer points to Paul's trial as the promise in action. Paul stands before Felix, the Roman governor. A hired speaker, Tertullus, accuses him for the high priest Ananias, and no one speaks up for Paul:
No one pleaded his cause. Was he deserted? Was he worse off for this? He had One with him whom Ananias, Tertullus and Felix knew nothing about. Leaning on His help and guidance, he could stay perfectly calm and let the hired speaker go first, as the trial required. He was sure that no human eloquence, no shameless flattery and no clever twisting of the facts could damage his defence.
Some stretch the promise to cover ordinary preaching. One writer ties it back to the courtroom:
Taking no thought about how or what we will speak is no mark of spirituality, and we do not believe it is a correct use of that Scripture... Here He is assuring His disciples that He will never desert them when they stand before kings and rulers for His name's sake. They do not need to work out a line of defence in advance, or any careful statement of what they hold... The same holds good when someone cannot know in advance what he will speak on, or when an unexpected opening for preaching the gospel comes. At such times there has often been the greatest liberty and directness, and the Lord's help has been clear.
One writer reasons from that one hour in court to words meant to last for ever:
Even before an enemy, the Lord told the twelve apostles to have no anxiety about how or what to speak, because in the hour of need it would be given to them... How much more was that divine power needed and given when the question was not their own defence, but passing on God's mind and will to His own people, and for ever!
- Setting — Jesus speaks to men on their way to floggings and royal courts, where they must testify in public.
- Substitution — the disciple is not the source; when the man is out of the way, God works in him, and only then is he what he ought to be.
- Father — Jesus names the Spirit by relationship, and that relationship is what makes them able to serve.
- Proof — before Felix, Paul had One with him whom the court could not see; hired eloquence could not damage his defence.
- Limit — the promise covers the hour of trial; it is not a reason to leave ordinary preaching unstudied.