¹⁰Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, ¹¹knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.

Feel-good Christianity runs rampant today, but the sharpness and soberness of Scripture cannot be avoided. The effort in some corners of the faith is to tame (some might say water down) the Bible to make it more palatable in our so-called modern, “advanced” culture, which exalts non-judgmentalism as a virtue. However, this effort, while it may fill cushy seats in our Sunday morning Christian theaters, robs both the world and Christians of the full counsel of God’s Word. It does a severe injustice to its hearers and actually demonstrates a lack of love, akin to not warning your neighbor that his or her car tire is flat—you certainly don’t want to hinder his getting to work on time! (In case you missed it, that was written with tongue planted firmly in cheek.)

The love of God requires—no, demands—that the bad news be told. The terseness a loving father voices to a rebellious child, the injury to the skin and muscle tissue that a surgeon carefully makes when going for the cancer that needs to be excised from the body—we cannot get around these necessities of life. Nor can we miss the necessity of warnings in Scripture.

To be sure, passages like this do not make for a “comfort food” reading of Scripture, but we need a balanced diet for spiritual health. We need to be warned that Paul’s teaching about doctrine is serious stuff that we must study and know well. To miss this is just as bad as allowing people to waste theological talk time in worthless debates. The solution is not to quench all discussion, but to engage only in the essential issues of the faith—not to win arguments, but to save souls for fruitful life and service for the Lord.

Anyone working against the goal of right doctrine and causing factions is to be warned. Christianity does not minimize sound doctrine; it roundly chastises those who pervert it. This is serious business! Paul describes people who cause division over unimportant issues as “perverted.” He is not being opinionated but inspired—and quite serious!

So, the factious person is out and out sinning, not just being a difficult personality. He has brought condemnation on himself! Verses like this are intended to warn people, to protect them from themselves. For believers, their judgment is the danger of excommunication, that is, being rejected from the fellowship of the believing community. For unbelievers, their actions will also be held against them on the day of judgment before the Lord.  Yes, we need to hear these things as much as the comforting truths of Scripture.

Lord, thank You for not holding back on the difficult truths we need to know.