(Click to enlarge.)
This is one of the weirder passages in the Gospels.
Is Jesus really commending what is, by just about any standard, unethical behavior?
I think that’s extremely unlikely.
What he is clearly praising, though, is worldly wisdom, prudence — canniness, if you will. Competence in real life. Functioning.
Disciples of Christ are not to be fools. They’re to be fully in the world, while, of course, not being of the world. They’re to be able to negotiate real life as well as non-Christians do.
Perhaps the Incarnation of Jesus is a parallel to this, in a way. He was fully divine, and his Kingdom was not of this world. But he was fully human, too.
Posted from Victoria, British Columbia
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