by Matthew W. Bassford<\/p>\n
In an epistle that contains a number of negative descriptions, Romans 16:17-18 is the last. Here, though, Paul is not concerned with degenerate Gentiles or hard-hearted Jews. Instead, he focuses on troublemakers within the Christian community. They have the following four characteristics:<\/p>\n
Disciples of Christ are supposed to be peacemakers like their Master. Some Christians, though, seek out division instead. They prefer quarreling to bearing with, and they savor the feeling of angry self-righteousness that comes from being “right” when other brethren are “wrong”. We must watch out for those who enjoy conflict in the church, and we must beware of becoming such ourselves.<\/p>\n
As all of us know, it isn’t easy to follow the commandments of the Lord. The path of righteousness is narrow. However, there are those who think it isn’t narrow enough. Pharisee-like, they bind heavy burdens on others that the word does not, and they reject those who do not agree with them. There is an appearance of holiness to this rigor, but it isn’t truly holy. We must be faithful to the Scriptures in what we condemn as well as in what we approve.<\/p>\n
Christ is to be master over us, but the devil constantly strives for dominance in every heart, especially the hearts of teachers of the word. He employs the familiar tools of I John 2:16, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye are obviously problematic, but it’s harder to spot ministers who are motivated by pride.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the best way to determine whether pride is an issue in a man’s heart is to analyze his behavior according to the previous verse and Jesus’ dictum about knowing a tree by its fruits. Does he look to cause division instead of making peace? Does he put obstacles in the way of those who seek Christ? If so, pride is the likely culprit.<\/p>\n
It is worth noting that Paul says that the unsuspecting are the prey of the false teacher. It is much easier to fool the ignorant and trusting than the knowledgeable and wary.<\/p>\n
Thus, we always must be on our guard against those who would deceive us in spiritual matters. This begins with a Berean attitude toward everything we hear. Even if the speaker is our favorite preacher or an angel from heaven, don’t take his word for it!<\/p>\n
Second, we must beware of appeals to extrabiblical information. There is much to be gained from the study of linguistic and historical resources, but the Bibles we hold in our hands are all any of us need to inherit eternal life. When somebody starts telling us that we don’t understand a verse right because the Greek actually means this or because scholars have determined that thus and such was true in Ephesus 2000 years ago, we should become very suspicious. Their goal is for us to put our faith in the expert instead of the Word. Bible helps and Bible scholars have their place, but that place is not to trump the plain meaning of the text.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Matthew W. Bassford In an epistle that contains a number of negative descriptions, Romans 16:17-18 is the last. Here, though, Paul is not concerned with degenerate Gentiles or hard-hearted Jews. Instead, he focuses on troublemakers within the Christian community. They have the following four characteristics: They Create Division Disciples of Christ are supposed to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[478],"class_list":["post-40509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-false-teachers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54798,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-rationale-of-the-tolerant\/","url_meta":{"origin":40509,"position":0},"title":"The Rationale of the Tolerant","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Warren Berkley via Truth Magazine - May 16, 1974 The idea of sinking all our differences into a sea of \"love\" and sweet tolerance and uniting in division seems to be rapidly reaching every part of the religious world. Denominational bodies who have formerly harbored revenge are now skillfully\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30794,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-there-denominations\/","url_meta":{"origin":40509,"position":1},"title":"Why Are There Denominations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: I Corinthians 1:10-15 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was asked by a gentleman in Nigeria why there were so many denominations \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A denomination simply means a division. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Among those who call themselves Christians, there are a great number of divisions \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even within various divisions, there are divisions \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49719,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/non-participation-in-sin-is-not-enough\/","url_meta":{"origin":40509,"position":2},"title":"Non-Participation in Sin Is Not Enough","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edward O. Bragwell \"And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them\" (Ephesians 5:11). Christians and local churches, when questioned about their silence concerning various popular sins, often defend and console themselves by answering, \"But, I (or we) do not participate in such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70896,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-paul-contradict-himself-regarding-division-in-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":40509,"position":3},"title":"Did Paul contradict himself regarding division in the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. I'm seeking clarification on why, in I Corinthians 1:10, Paul condemns division and pleads them to \"speak the same thing\" and be of the \"same mind and the same judgment.\" But ten chapters later, in I Corinthians 11:18-19, Paul seems to say that divisions are a \"must\" since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93869,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-lord-knows-how-to-rescue-the-godly\/","url_meta":{"origin":40509,"position":4},"title":"The Lord Knows How to Rescue the Godly","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier via Read the Bible, Make Disciples Let's admit it. II Peter 2 is pretty dark. A surface reading makes the prospect look dim. If we are not careful, we can read these two chapters as saying we are all in danger of falling away from God's grace.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81519,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-men-disagree\/","url_meta":{"origin":40509,"position":5},"title":"When Men Disagree","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Adapted by Raymond Warfel From \"When We Disagree\" by Mike Willis Guardian of Truth, XL:9, p. 2, 2 May 1996 Brethren do disagree from time to time despite their desire to be united in the Spirit. We are not likely to remove all areas of disagreement any more than we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}