Stay Far Away

The last chapter of Romans is mostly shout outs from Paul. However, towards the end he does give some final advice to the church. Stay away from people who cause divisions through false teaching. Good advice. Notice that he doesn't say sit around and argue with them and try to persuade them with the truth. Nope, he says get away from them. Divisive people aren't to be messed around with, especially when they are causing division based on false doctrine. Of course, that means you have to have a good handle on what the truth really is, otherwise you won't be able to tell! So pay attention, really listen to what people are saying, false teaching is dangerous and those people aren't to be trifled with.

I think that today we are so concerned about being inclusive and tolerant that we often let things slide that we shouldn't let slide. Can we just get back to calling evil evil? Can we just get back to calling false teaching false teaching? I think we may find that it is far better to just call things what they are than to let them slide in the name of tolerance. Is it any wonder that God isn't blessing our churches the way He did in the New Testament? Paul would have kicked these people out immediately. But we don't want to upset anyone so we have meetings to talk about how we can persuade this person without actually saying they did anything wrong. Well I don't know about anyone else but I'm tired of it. I'm tired of pretending that things that aren't ok are ok. I'm tired of sitting by and letting things I know to be wrong continue to be done so that no one will get upset.

Maybe it's time we took a cue from Jesus and started turning over a few tables.

Enjoy the Journey