For our thinking is to be mature, which is to say grown-up and adult or, in Jesus' vivid words, "wise as serpents." We are not allowed to suppose that the dove of innocence is incompatible with the serpent of wisdom.
Such language -- wise as serpents! As usual, our Lord teaches with a boldness of authority that is enough to get people rattled. We might ask, "You mean, like the serpent in the garden who god Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?" Yes, that serpent. Jesus knows how to choose his metaphors. We are to be wiser than that serpent and all his ilk, staying away from his shortcut to the knowledge of what is good and bad.
The name of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Hebrew contains the same pairing of words as Solomon's prayer asking for a heart that discerns between good and bad. Solomon is praying for what the serpent was offering, but he's not accepting the serpent's shortcut. He doesn't believe in magic potions or recipes or fruit that could make him wise with one bite. He wants the real thing, which means it must be his own heart that is shaped in wisdom by the Spirit of the Lord; he's going to have to learn. That's why the book of proverbs of Solomon begins with a scene of instruction and the commandments to seek wisdom and understanding. There is no shortcut to learning wisdom, no bypassing the hard work of learning to make good decisions, because the aim is to acquire a heart of wisdom -- and such a heart must be formed by a wisdom that is truly its own.
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