“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.  For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.”  (ESV – read the chapter)

When it comes to non-Christians, the church is to be open to all people.  We should receive with grace and gladness anyone who is interested in becoming a follower of Jesus regardless of their background or what they’ve done.

In the church and among people who claim to be followers of Jesus the story changes somewhat.  Oftentimes today, people who are most concerned with protecting the purity and unity of the church work to keep out the world.  In the New Testament, the exact opposite approach is taken.  The biggest threats to the purity and unity of the church are never from without, but rather within.

Paul’s instructions here are tough, but they’re clear.  There are folks who claim to be followers of Jesus, but who do little more than sow division and disunity.  They work to create problems by distracting the church members from their mission by provoking debates over non-essential matters of doctrine.  Or they proclaim as consonant with biblical truth things which only ring with dissonance and create controversy around them.  They demand purity tests on matters which are either unorthodox or else debatable matters of Christian liberty.  They do all of this to advance their own power and position in the church.

What are we to do with them: Stay away from them.  Don’t play their games or join in their quests.  Don’t even give them much of the time of day.  They are only seeking to harm the church.  Satan uses folks like this, these wolves in sheep’s clothing, to distract and break up the church so that it is no longer effective in its mission.  Resist this and stay focused.  Make the mission the one thing that drives everything else.  Keep the guardrails of orthodoxy firm, but recognize which matters are essential and which are issues of liberty, holding fast to the former while living with grace on the latter, but make the mission the main.

The church is the hope of the world.  If we let ourselves get drawn aside and bogged down in nonessential, off-mission debates, we literally put the lives of our neighbors at risk, not physically, but eternally.  The stakes are too high to mess this up.