Turn Away from Them

by Bill Robinson

The sharpest warning Paul ever wrote sits in the middle of a thank-you list.

Romans 16 is the warmest chapter he ever put on paper. He names close to thirty people. Phoebe, who carried the letter. Prisca and Aquila, who risked their necks for him. Mary, who worked hard. Rufus and his mother, who had been a mother to Paul too. Household after household, greeted by name.

Then verse 17.

"I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive" (Romans 16:17-18 ESV).

Where that warning sits tells you how to read it. This is not a bitter man looking for a fight. This warning is tucked inside a roll call of people Paul loved, most of whom he had never met. He had just spent fifteen verses honoring them. Now he is protecting them.
If we read the command to avoid apart from the affection surrounding it, we will misread it every time.

Two words are worth slowing down on. "Divisions" is the word Paul lists in Galatians 5:20 among the works of the flesh, alongside jealousy and fits of anger. "Obstacles" translates a word that meant the trigger stick of a trap, the piece that springs the snare. So we are not talking about people who are merely difficult to get along with. We are talking about people who split, and people who set traps.

Notice also who is being addressed. "Brothers," plural. The whole congregation. Paul does not hand this to a preacher or a committee. Watching is work the church does together.

Now the word everything turns on.

"Avoid" is one word in English. In Greek it's a picture. The word is ekklino, built from "out" and "to bend or lean." To bend away out of the path. Standard lexicons render it "to turn away from, to shun." Paul adds "away from them," which reinforces what the verb already says. And the form is continuous. Not one dramatic gesture, but a settled direction.

It shows up only three times in the New Testament, and the other two are worth sitting with.

• In Romans 3:12 Paul quotes the Psalms: "All have turned aside; together they have become worthless." There the word describes the whole human race swerving away from God.
• In I Peter 3:11, Peter quotes the Psalms too: "Let him turn away from evil and do good." There it describes exactly what a Christian is supposed to do with sin.

Same verb. So when Paul tells the church what to do with a man who divides it, he reaches for the word that describes the instinctive movement a believer makes when sin is put in front of him.

I don't raise that as a hypothetical. Elders have told me the word "avoid" does not mean "avoid." I understand the desire to handle a hard text carefully. But a word that means to bend out of the path can't be made to mean stay on it.

Now the part that keeps this from becoming a weapon.

Look at the standard: "contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught." That clause authorizes the warning and limits it at the same time. A fixed standard exists, so division measured against it can be identified. And the standard is not the preacher's judgment, the elders' preferences, or how we've always done it. It's apostolic teaching.

Every misuse of this verse I have seen has been a misuse of that clause, either by skipping it or by quietly substituting my opinion for the apostles' teaching. If I can't show from Scripture that something is contrary to what was delivered, this verse gives me nothing to say.

One more honest note. Romans 16:17 gives a direction, not a procedure. It isn't I Corinthians 5. It isn't Titus 3:10. Where Scripture is silent on the mechanics, we should be too.

But it does require one thing plainly. You cannot avoid a man you have not identified.