Someone once said, “He who spares the wolf sacrifices the sheep.” My pastor, Roy Hicks, Jr., who pastored Faith Center in Eugene, Oregon, told a group of us young pastors-to-be, “You don’t try to convert wolves -you shoot them.” Roy wasn’t talking about actually shooting someone. Roy was referring to a spiritual reality that requires confronting a spiritual wolf when detected. Spiritual wolves should not be allowed to feed on God’s sheep without being challenged.

In recent years, there has been a dumbing down of biblical leadership in the Church, producing timid leaders who try to explain away the presence of wolves in our midst and attribute wolfish behavior to something similar to a personality disorder. Those who hold such an opinion would be offended by the two opening comments in my first paragraph.

Paul wrote, “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30). The word “perverse” means to distort, corrupt, or misinterpret the truth.

There will always be people or institutions in a nation that are not part of God’s Kingdom who will partner with Satan to steal, kill, and destroy what is good and right. While we need to challenge that influence and the unrighteous changes it seeks to bring about, a more critical task is to become aware of what’s happening within our own ranks. A spiritual wolf will attempt to draw away unsuspecting and naïve Christians into a vulnerable place and convince them to believe things that are perverse to God’s truth and will eventually lure them into deception.

The time when we need to be most aware that wolves are among us is when the Church looks and sounds more like the surrounding culture than a separated people devoted wholly to God and the truth of His word.

We are living in a defining time. Part of that definition will include an understanding of the nature and activity of a spiritual wolf. That is a critical aspect of what it means to be a spiritual leader.

A trustworthy spiritual leader is someone who discerns that a wolf in sheep’s clothing is present and prowling among God’s flock, looking for its next victim. The presence of that kind of leader will protect and defend the flock under their care whenever a wolf is at work.