They have to begin to trust their own faith and love and power. He tells them to be like sheep or serpents or doves a strange menagerie, if I every saw one. If you press these notions too far, they can become seriously uncomfortable. It isn t pretty. A sheep that wanders deliberately among wolves is committing suicide.
Wolves eat sheep.
Few of us have had much experience with sheep, though we have some basic idea of their personality stupid, timid, and submissive. They tend to be helplessly dependent, easily led, and when they get into trouble, they just stand there and bleat a lot. We can imagine a lone wolf, but not a lone sheep. Its gets uncomfortable when Jesus starts describing his followers as sheep. We would rather be tigers.