Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

for I will give you such words

and a wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.

The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good, yet innocent about what is evil.

Brothers, don’t be childish in your thinking, but be infants in regard to evil and adult in your thinking.

But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a complete and pure devotion to Christ.

Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—

For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time.

Harmless

for such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites.

They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.

For this is our confidence: The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with God-given sincerity and purity, not by fleshly wisdom but by God’s grace.

We are taking this precaution so no one can criticize us about this large sum administered by us.

But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a complete and pure devotion to Christ.

so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.

You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers.

Stay away from every kind of evil.

General references

He thought, “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, the remaining one can escape.”

Put my cup, the silver one, at the top of the youngest one’s bag, along with his grain money.” So he did as Joseph told him.

So David sent out spies and knew for certain that Saul had come.

M Like a lily among thorns,
so is my darling among the young women.

Why do You force me to look at injustice?
Why do You tolerate wrongdoing?
Oppression and violence are right in front of me.
Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.