March 8

Romans 16:17 (NIV)
17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.

I feel like I could just let this scripture ring and not comment. What an extreme view huh? Paul is urging people to avoid or severely limit contact with people who cause divisions (In some languages the equivalent of ‘causing division’ is literally ‘to cause two groups in place of one group,’ but more frequently the equivalent is expressed in terms of attitudes, for example, ‘to cause people to be angry at one another’ or ‘to cause people not to like one another’ or ‘to cause people to think of one another as enemies.’), or who turn people away from the solid teaching they have received. Paul must have been thinking about grace, works, sin and justification by faith, etc…, but something else came in my mind when I was reading. Some people, well meaning or not, turn others away from trusting God through criticism or doubt. They utter words against the miraculous and cause people to doubt God could or will come through for them. Paul is saying that we need to be on our guard against them! That is because you can’t always identify them easily or it may be that we easily fall into the same trap by causing people to dislike or distrust one another or to distrust God’s faithfulness to fulfill His entire Word.

We have to not only watch out for “those people”, who are out there, but we have to be alert to not fall into that ourselves. Speak well of others, build unity and encourage people to believe God’s Word in total. Reprove others who speak about others negatively in your presence. These sins that Paul mentions are some of the most harmful if not the most harmful sins. If we want to take the cities for God, we have to stop being divisive. It’s a big deal and needs to be stopped!

Titus 3:10 (NIV)
10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.