As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
Titus 3:10-11
The scriptures mentioned above are pretty straightforward. If a person is divisive and refuses to repent after being warned no more than twice, we are to have nothing to do with them. Yet, the vast majority of Christians from all walks of life, young and old, leaders and laymen, refuse to obey the scriptures about who we are to have nothing to do with.
Of course, many will talk about “good” reasons why they continue to deal with a divisive person or people. I’ve heard many such reasons, everything from, “I want them to hear the gospel” to “I want everyone to see how wrong they are to expose their error.” Yet, there is not one single godly reason to disobey God. Good reasons do not equate to godly reasons—worse, “good” reasons often if not always, lead to destruction. Let’s look at some examples of this from the Bible.
The “Good” Intentions of Eve:
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Genesis 3:4-6 (Emphasis mine)
We see here where Eve saw that the tree was good. Yet, that wasn’t what God wanted for her and Adam. God knew what was best for them, yet they disobeyed and broke intimacy with God. Of course, we know that their disobedience allowed sin to enter the world. The destruction hit much closer to home when Cain murdered Abel.
The “Good” Intentions of Saul:
Let’s read what King Saul was commanded to do and what he ended up doing:
Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction. Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” And Samuel said,
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.”1 Samuel 15:3, 9, 15, 20-23
We see where God commanded Saul to eradicate the Amalekites, including babies and every animal. Instead of obeying, Saul spared King Agag and the best animals. When God sent the prophet Samuel to Saul, Saul told him, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.” What was his reasoning as to why, in his mind, he obeyed? He and the people devoted “the best (or good) of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
The Lord tells us that obedience matters to Him, not our good intentions.
Instead of bringing blessings, here’s what Saul was told:
And Samuel said,
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.1 Samuel 15:22 (Emphasis mine)
Read that again. The Lord tells us that obedience matters to Him, not our good intentions.
What happened to Saul? The kingdom was taken from him; an evil spirit tormented him; he sought wisdom from a medium, and died by falling on his sword. Yes, because he thought he knew better than God and chose to disobey when he knew what God said; his end was destruction.
One last item to mention: by Saul disobeying God, the Amalekites almost ended up wiping out the Jewish people. We see this play out in the book of Esther when Haman the Agagite tried to make that happen. Haman the Agagite means a descendant of King Agag, King of the Amalekites. (More on this, watch here)
Good Intentions or Obedience?
The point is that good intentions and obedience are rarely the same thing.
I could give many more examples where people in the Bible had good intentions that had nothing to do with obedience. We could look at Abraham and Sarah and how they tried to “help” the Lord—the disastrous outcome of Ishmael and how that still affects the world to this very day. We could look at Moses when the Lord told him to speak to the rock to bring forth water. Instead, he struck the rock and could not enter the promised land.
The point is that good intentions and obedience are rarely the same thing. Yet, disobedience never ends well for anyone AND most often has a long-lasting impact. Let us be very careful not to equate good intentions with obeying God.
In fact, partial obedience is disobedience, which is the same as rebellion. Rebellion against God never ends well for the rebel.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 3:36
Did you catch that? Whoever does not obey God will end up in hell. There is no caveat there. No mention of intentions, ignorance, being a church leader, or anything else that will ever excuse any of us from disobeying God.
What about another Saul?
It’s important to highlight another Saul to drive home the point that we can be fully convinced with all our heart that we are right, yet be horribly wrong. In other words, we can be against God.
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women,
Acts 22:3-4 (Emphasis mine)
Saul/Paul tells his Jewish audience he was zealous for God while persecuting fellow Jews (there weren’t any gentile Believers yet). Then let’s look at that word zealous a bit closer:
ζηλωτὴς-zēlōtēs: 1) one burning with zeal, a zealot 2) used of God as jealous of any rival and sternly vindicating his control. (netbible.net)
Did you catch that? It says burning with zeal and used of God, sternly vindicating his control. With his entire being, Paul believed he was being used by God while persecuting his fellow Jews. Looking on while Stephen was being stoned to death for preaching the gospel, Paul believed with zeal it was the right thing (see Acts 54-60).
Yet, Paul tells us Jesus had something different to say.
And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
Acts 22:7:8
Despite Saul’s zealous intentions, he was living in rebellion against God. Thank God it didn’t stay that way for Saul; he chose to obey God. It doesn’t have to end that way for us, either. More on that in a bit.
What Is a Divisive Person?
We’ve covered what disobeying God does and its destructive end. Let’s go into what a divisive person is and why we are to cut them off.
We wouldn’t have to focus on this if it wasn’t such a massive issue within the Church.
Let me first say that I won’t go into details about naming names; I don’t think that would be in keeping with the Spirit of the Lord. I want to focus on the problem and teach you what is right to do so you make godly decisions going forward.
Let’s discuss what a divisive person doesn’t look like first. We could mistake bringing up a real issue or asking questions for a person being divisive. We could even mistake someone disagreeing with us for being divisive. I can assure you that none of those things are being divisive. I disagree with many fine men and women of God on their doctrines, theology, and other issues, just as I am sure plenty of people disagree with my doctrines, theology, and takes on specific issues. That is OK.
Being divisive is when the only reason a person speaks up is to be divisive. You may say that’s obvious; allow me to explain. The person has no interest in learning but only condemning. They are more than willing to tell you what’s wrong (often without factual evidence), but they are unwilling to hear your side. They usually go so far as to condemn the other side as heretics even though the issues are secondary, non-salvific. Also, a divisive person will ask questions with the only point to say how wrong you are. As soon as you answer with whatever they disagree with, they will quickly condemn you.
Notice how I am using the word condemn. The words condemn in the Bible, as in John 3:17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world.” means this:
κρίνῃ-krinē: to pronounce judgment, to subject to censure.
In other words, the divisive person is only interested in telling you and others how wrong you and they are. They are also very interested in proclaiming how right they are and why.
With a person like that, what do you think you will accomplish? Other than pushing up your blood pressure. That is a minor issue, though, compared to disobeying God.
Let’s look at the scripture from Titus again:
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
Titus 3:10-11
Remember that this is the same Saul/Paul from earlier. The very same Saul/Paul who thought he was doing the right thing by persecuting Jewish Believers. This same man was taught a lesson when he was knocked off of his high horse (quite literally). This is who is writing this instruction to Titus.
Paul tells us exactly why to have nothing more to do with such a person. They are warped and sinful, and self-condemned. What does that look like practically? Their way of thinking, their outlook, is entirely way off. We would say they aren’t structurally sound if we were talking about a building. Not only that, Paul says they are sinful. In other words, they are in such a state that God and God alone can do anything with them.
We see Paul using similar language when writing a different pastoral epistle, this time to Timothy.
holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
1 Timothy 1:19-20
Here, Paul tells us that having nothing to do with them is good. Here, just like in
1 Corinthians 5:5 talks about excommunication; nevertheless, the principle of cutting someone off is the same. Not only that, the why is the same. We are allowing God to take over by cutting off the divisive person. A person being handed over to Satan is them without the cover of other Christians. This can come in many forms. Hopefully, the person handed over to Satan is driven back to God. The burden is now off of us.
We will now want to win arguments instead of winning a lost brother or sister.
We see another warning in scripture why we should obey this:
Make no friendship with a man given to anger,
nor go with a wrathful man,
lest you learn his ways
and entangle yourself in a snare.Proverbs 22:24-25
Divisive people are angry people. If we continue with an angry/divisive man, we will become a divisive person. We will now want to win arguments instead of winning a lost brother or sister. We will only care about proving and showing others how wrong that person is, have no interest in learning but only condemn, and ask questions with the only point to say how wrong they are. No longer are we willing to dialogue. Yes, we now become divisive people. Now, our end is destruction.
Thank you.