by As a new follower of Christ, I consumed a lot of Christian media. Around the year 2002, a local TV station launched which broadcast content from mainly American televangelists, 24/7. I was a few years into my salvation then, and I was besotted that there was a channel where God’s word was proclaimed every minute of the day. To say I hogged the TV remote would be an understatement. My dad would want to watch news or a local show, but his shows aired the same time the Christian station aired its prime-time speakers and I was not giving up the remote. Dad was not amused.
I recall one time going to a cyber cafe and subscribing to receive the physical newsletter of one of the televangelists. Sure enough, a few weeks later it landed at our postal address in Eldoret, Kenya, from the USA. It’s around this time I realised how gullible I was, swallowing hyperbole as whole truth. I was having a conversation with my friend Debz about a particular gospel musician. A popular mega-church televangelist introduced musician as the best worship leader in the world. Debz, who was a worship leader then, called me out when I regurgitated the preacher’s words as the stamp of authority to the claim. She said the preacher was simply hyping the congregation to welcome the artist.
But it was said on Christian TV! Wouldn’t that be lying? I was left feeling that I was supposed to test the truths behind the claims made by my favourite preachers.
But it wasn’t just Christian media that made me credulous. I was also generally an impressionable new believer. See, I was having so much fun in church, attending youth concerts, retreats, camps, Bible studies and spending time with my churchmates watching movies and eating French fries… glorious times! If you had told me that the church had issues then, I would not have believed you. To me, church was pure. People did not have ill motives. They went to church because they loved the LORD. They prayed passionately both when alone and with others. They read their Bibles and were in some form of Bible-reading plan. I agreed with the psalmist in Psalm 133:1: How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in peace!
But then I became a young adult and I began noticing some people wore masks to church. They were like mafia lords. During the week they were assassins, drug lords and kidnappers, but on Sunday they had front-row seats in church, taking holy communion and making generous charitable contributions. I saw church members talk from both sides of their mouths. One moment they were the eager counsellor ready to hear your challenge; the next minute they were using you as a good bad example for others. Gossip melted in their mouths like chocolate.
I have since learned that we all need to grow in the basic spiritual discipline of using God’s word as a winnowing fork. We lift the teachings and traditions presented to us against the evening God-breathed wind to sift out the rubbish so that we can say like Paul, ‘Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, ‘ Philippians 3:8.
What kind of dung would the Spirit would blow out of your life? A Reddit thread differentiates the cultural meaning of different kinds of dung in literature. If someone called what you said or did cow dung, or pig dung or horse dung, the comments on the thread give its etymology, which makes me ask: what untruth (cow dung), nonsense (horse dung), exceedingly low quality stuff (dog dung) or extremely stupid (pig dung) beliefs or practices do you need labelled as such in your life and faith by scripture? For Paul, having confidence in his own efforts for salvation was rubbish. He told the Philippians he was a Benjamite, who was circumcised when he was eight days old, a Pharisee who demanded strict obedience to the Jewish law that, in his zeal, he harshly persecuted the church while obeying the law without fault. But all this was worthless to him compared to the value of knowing Christ.
As humans, we have a lot of dung because we are limited in our understanding — for we naturally only make observations with our sense of sight, hearing, touch and taste (Job 13:1). It is, therefore, easy for us to be taken advantage of by those who have more factual knowledge of the natural world or circumstances. However, Jesus told us to be as gentle as doves and as wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16). He recognised our need for discernment, which is spiritual insight or practical skill in the knowledge presented to us, so that we be not fools but those who live wisely (Proverbs 10:23).
Discerning people learn from rebuke (Proverbs 19:25). You may be inexperienced in exegesis, hermeneutics, socratic discussion and textual criticism, but you can learn to be cautious in your interpretation of God’s word. Your inexperience is not an excuse to mock or express contempt for others, especially those rightly dividing God’s word or those who desire to. Philip, the evangelist, would have lacked discernment had he ridiculed the Ethiopian official in Acts 8:26-40 who was expounding the text.
To be wise as serpents is to be fully aware of the circumstances around you. Like a sheep is among hyenas, know when to bleat, when to be still and when to take flight. In other words, be an example in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith and your purity (1 Timothy 4:12). This is wise living.
In Proverbs, young people are encouraged to get this wisdom or discernment from their parents (Proverbs 4:5), and from God (Proverbs 8:14), for a person who seeks wisdom will understand the fear of the Lord and every good path (Proverbs 2:5,9).
Therefore, take time to reflect on what you are learning and see which worldviews need changing. Snakes shed their skin to grow. If we are to be as wise as serpents, we need to let God change the way we think and not copy the behaviours and customs of the world (Romans 12:2), with the understanding that our world (culture, denominations, politics, education) is part of the world if not submitted to Christ.
