Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. Romans 16:19 (NIV)
“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” Matthew 10:16 (NIV)
If we are much in communion with God through the reading and meditation of His Word and prayer the tempter will have little communication with us and if he does it will have little effect. We are to take captive every thought making it obedient to Christ. When God is your all – your sufficiency and strength – your soul is secure.
There is no depth to depravity, Amen? We always find sin spiraling further down still – it never stays static. And to what benefit is its knowledge? In contrast, there is no end to the knowledge, wisdom, goodness and glory of God and the benefit of that pursuit is blessed beyond imagination and measure as “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him”. If we love our Lord Jesus we will not be desirous of a love for sin. We need to keep our conscience tender being aware of and fleeing from the least evil. A good conscience is delicate and feels the smallest touch of a known sin and stands grieved by grieving God. Want what He wants. Love what He loves. It is this that leads to the best life no matter what the world screams at you. Admit no peace with sin as all sin leads to death and bondage yet in Christ there is life, perfect peace and freedom.
Immerse your soul in the goodness and faithfulness of God and the everlasting beauty of His holiness and you won’t be wooed by the horror and ugliness of evil.
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. Colossians 1:9-12 (NIV)