A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject; (Titus 3:10).
But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: (2 Thessalonians 2:13 KJV)
(In the above Scriptures, the underlined words are from the same root word in Greek.)
We normally think of a heretic as someone who introduces false doctrine into the church of God. In many cases, heretics do just that. But the word signifies a divisive person. It is derived from the Greek word for “choose.” A choice always makes a division between the chosen and not-chosen.
Heretics are not necessarily known by what they say, but by what their words and actions cause: division, suspicion and a fracturing of the peace of God’s church. Sometimes they divide the people of God by setting forth some doctrine they have recently “discovered” and make it the dividing line between the sheep and the goats. But, in truth, their doctrine casts a line of division between sheep. So, by their judgments, they have made a choice that is not the same as God’s choice, and they have become false dividers of the sheep of God: they rejected some whom God chose. What wickedness, to put one’s self in the place of God to “choose” who God’s people are!
Sometimes men are found heretics because they love to stir up trouble among God’s people. Some people just cannot stand peace. They introduce entirely useless issues into the minds of God’s people and spread suspicion and controversy among the sheep.
In most, if not all cases, the motivation is self-advancement. Heretics “choose” a few people out of the assembly and try to draw them away after themselves. They use subtlety and deception courting the affections of God’s people and slyly introducing their poisonous message into their minds. It is not unusual to find them going from house to house and engaging in private conversations with the members of the church in order to draw away a sizable group before making an open play for the power and position they crave.
But they are virtually powerless if the church will follow Paul’s instruction: ignore them. If someone comes to you bearing some strange or new doctrine, or if someone comes to you stirring up dissension among the sheep by insulting some of them or casting doubt on whether they are even sheep at all, or if someone comes to you insinuating some fault in the message of a faithful minister of the gospel, or if someone’s message confuses you and disrupts your peace in Christ and corrupts your mind from the simplicity that is in Christ, correct him once, and again the second time. After that, have nothing to do with such a person lest your attention to him gives him the impression that his activities are worthy of attention, or worse yet, his divisive spirit infects you.
Listen to divisive nonsense no more than a couple of times, and then return to the message of the Lord Jesus wherein the sheep find peace and fellowship. Let the potshards of the earth strive with the potshards of the earth. We who have been called into the fellowship of God’s Son have better things with which to occupy our minds.
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