For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I rejoice therefore over you: but I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple unto that which is evil. [I warn you, for your obedience and docility, being so notorious, will sooner or later draw them to seek you as an enticing spoil. The apostle rejoiced in their simplicity, yet urges them to be careful in whom they placed their trust. (Comp. Matthew 10:16; John 16:4-5; 1 Corinthians 14:20; 2 Corinthians 11:3) If the church could only attain the paradoxical state of being simple toward Christ, and wise toward those who pervert his word, sectarianism, with its divisions, would be at an end.]

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Old Testament