September 8, 2023
Passage Read: Romans 16 - 1 Corinthians 1
Meditation Verses: Romans 16:17-18
Thought
Paul says plainly that people who cause divisions, who introduce new ideas contrary to what has been laid down for us in Scripture, such people are not serving Christ, but their own appetites. They are seeking to draw people away after themselves, they are seeking to remove Scriptural boundaries so that they can freely indulge their fleshly desires, and gain converts to join with them in their sin, both as encouragement to perform their desires and as victims to participate with them in their evil deeds. Paul says to stay clear of them...and to not be naive, so as not to fall for their lies.
Application
God's Word is true and reliable. Anyone who teaches something contrary to what is recorded and taught therein, I need to watch out for. If they're doing it deliberately, they are trying to separate me from God and His sound doctrine, and I don't want to fall for it and perhaps fall from God's grace. If they're doing it because of their own ignorance and immaturity, I can try to help them by showing them the truth, but if they insist on their own understanding, they are on the path to becoming one of these dividers. Unless God opens their heart to understand, I can do nothing for them and have no further obligation to them, but should keep my distance.