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The J.B. Phillips NT version best expresses the gist of Titus 3:9 – “but mind you steer clear of stupid arguments, genealogies, controversies and quarrels over the Law. They settle nothing and lead nowhere.” Strife is an age-old issue. Peter and Paul, for instance, had a difficulty at one stage in meal fellowship with Gentile believers. Paul confronted Peter in Antioch for siding with the “party of the circumcision” choosing not to eat with Gentile believers causing Barnabas to be affected by this hypocrisy (Gal 2:12-13).
Ideological difference is the root of dissension. Disunity is the result of it. Believers in so many churches, including ours, argue over points of doctrinal beliefs. We want to appear so right, we become so wrong. Members start aligning themselves with particular people – simply put, I friend you, I don’t friend him – some leave the church, some form factions and undercurrents create disharmony. So sad! We have played right into the devil’s hand. In the book, Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, the chief devil (Screwtape) writes to the junior devil (his nephew Wormwood), that the best way to upset the work of the Enemy (God), is to cause strife.
That is not to say that Christians – myriad in personalities as we are, for we are made that way – become some sort of uniform, bland community. But in the bigger scheme of things, one thing is needful – that we are as one. Jesus Himself prayed: “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (Jn. 17:12) before He died. Apart from avoiding a heretic (Tit. 3:10), the body of Christians should be a uniting force, ready to do good works – not a factious group. The Greek word “hairetikos” (heretic – divisive person) refers to those who directly contravene Bible doctrines, including the virgin birth of Jesus or Jesus’ full deity as Son of Man. The heretic must be rebuked twice, then avoided and his ideas left to rot.
The point is: We should not needle one another in useless debate, for instance, over whether people should raise hands in praise and worship or – in some circles – whether women should wear pants. These are encumbrances that so easily entangle us in the heaven-bound race – to finish well in living for Christ and to take others along with us. Do you think we will be fighting over shades of grey in heaven? No. We will be basking in the glory of the Lamb. There is no colour for that. Only brilliance.
