receive him not into your house, nor bid him God speed." (2 John x.)
"These are they who separate themselves, sensual[1], having not the Spirit." (Jude 19.)
"I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences[2], contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them." (Rom. xvi. 17.)
"If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness: he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railing, evil-surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself." (1 Tim. vi. 3–5.)
2ndly. Consider the manner they are represented in, who cause disunion in the Church. The terms are, indeed, so harsh to modern (so called) liberal notions, that one feels sure of incurring the reproach of being a bigot for venturing thus to apply what we read in Scripture; and the general view respecting these passages probably is, that the time of their application is quite gone by, and that they have long since become a dead letter. And yet, reflect these terms are not used of persons, who were infidels, or heathens, or of those who corrupted the main doctrines of Christianity. St. Paul blames the Corinthians, because they expressed a preference for one teacher above another, and though they all taught the same thing, still he says of such a difference, "that there are contentions among you," and speaks of it as an evidence of their "carnal mind." (1 Cor. iii. 3.)
3rdly. There are many passages in the Epistles, in which the
- ↑ Sensual:—The Greek word, which is so translated, does not at all imply a person who lives a vicious and voluptuous life, given up to the lusts of the flesh, but a person who rules himself, and walks according to the visible course of things in the world around him, trusting entirely to human reasonings in religion, and to what is called, "fleshly wisdom," and having no part in that wisdom, which is from above.
- ↑ "Which cause offences," i.e. causes of perplexity or pain to others, stumbling-blocks, obstacles, snares, &c.
