Is cunning a Christian practice? Most of us would answer, “Absolutely not.”
The dictionary defines cunning as “having or showing skill in achieving one's ends through deceit, slyness, or clever planning, as in the phrase, ‘I have a cunning ploy that's guaranteed to succeed.’”
That hardly sounds like something a Christian should be doing. Yet, Jesus said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16, NIV).
We don’t have any problem with the “innocent as doves” part. The image of a dove brings to mind the dove that descended upon Jesus at his baptism. Doves connote peace, kindness, holiness, and innocence. Those are good qualities for a godly person to have.
However, we have a little problem with being “shrewd as snakes.” The image of snakes and serpents brings to mind the snake that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. He certainly was cunning, intentionally luring Eve and her husband into sin. Jesus telling us to be shrewd as snakes is a little confusing.
Let’s think again about cunning. What do cunning people do? First, they have clarity of mind about what they want, even if it is a selfish, unsavory goal. Second, they devise a plan to obtain their goal, even if it may involve trickery and devious methods. Third, they act on their plans to obtain their goal.
Consider Jesus’ Parable of The Dishonest Manager, also known as, the Parable of the Shrewd Steward, and found in Luke 16:1-9. In the parable, a manager of a farm is discovered to be dishonest and wasteful by the property owner, so the owner tells him to get his books in order because he is about to be fired. This puts the manager in a pickle. He knows no one else will hire him as a property manager because of his past offenses and he knows that he is too physically soft to make it as a farm worker.
He makes a plan to ensure his survival. He calls in all the tenant farmers under his supervision and has them renegotiate their contracts to more favorable terms, sacrificing his own cut and requiring of them only the amount owed to the property owner.
Thus, the tenant farmers become indebted to him because no one else can take advantage of them and they will reap a permanent economic gain. In effect, the manager changes sides of the negotiating table, and he is hired to represent the farmers instead of the owner in future contract negotiations.
Jesus then concludes the parable by saying, “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light” (Luke 16:8, NIV).
The manager was certainly cunning, and Jesus complimented him for his shrewdness. Jesus lifted up this crook as a positive example for his followers. Was Jesus saying we should be crooks? Of course not, but he is saying that we should realize what goals we need to set that are essential to our Christian lives and mission, making plans to reach those goals even if the plans are radical. Finally, we must enact those plans.
Consider another of Jesus’ parables: “The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matthew 13:44, NIV).
The man was cunning in his pursuit of treasure. Becoming right with God and belonging to his kingdom is the most important treasure any of us can ever have. It is worth any and every personal sacrifice we might make to achieve it, even if we have to sell everything we might have, give up all our idols and false gods, and surrender all our self-centered aspirations. It is a noble, all-important cause.
We must make obtaining the kingdom our ultimate goal in life, follow Jesus’ plan to achieve it, and then enact the plan in our everyday lives for the rest of our existence. Such self-sacrifice sounds crazy to the world, but it is what shrewd people do. It is cunning, but it is God-centered, not self-centered, and the plan is not devious, but innocent as a dove.
Christian cunning involves thinking, planning, and action. It involves self-sacrifice for the purpose of doing or obtaining that which is in accordance with God’s plan. Not only do we need to have goals involving our own relationship with God, but we also need to make some plans about how to reach our friends and neighbors for Christ. What is our mission? How shall we fulfill it? What qualities do we need to have in our lives to fulfill our calling? What sacrifices do we need to make? How can we use our charm, our intelligence, our beauty, and our ability to influence? What burdens do we need to bear? How can we use our resources, our personalities, our time, and our energy to achieve godly goals? How can we be single-minded and relentless in pursuing our objectives? How can we be as shrewd and cunning as serpents in our planning and actions while maintaining our innocence as doves to receive and promote the Kingdom of God?
Dr. Dan Darby is a retired United Methodist pastor.
