Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Tuesday, Oct 20, Titus 3:10

"As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing to do with him."

It is one thing bearing with people who struggle and seek help. It is another for those who are deliberately trying to cause discord and disrupt the church. Most of the time people who may disagree with the words of the gospel preached will leave the church, but others want to deliberately mold the church into their "brand", which usually involves taking out biblical essentials and putting in their own little heresies.

This is why leadership and membership are so vital in the life of the church. Leaders should be vetted according to the Scripture, and membership is important to show a commitment that can be counted on by the congregation, as well as a thorough understanding of the doctrine of the church to which they are committing.

Many "tolerant" churches don't have the guts to keep purity within their church doors. Their goal is simply to get more people. The teaching is surfacy, and accountability is nonexistent. In one of the churches I attended, most of the people didn't even know what the denomination to which they belonged believed, and when they found out they were shocked.

In our church, we have a "newcomers orientation" class that people interested will watch, so they hear our doctrine plainly and know exactly what we believe. In this way they can make an informed choice as to whether this is a church dedicated to Biblical teaching or not.

We can lose people this way, but what we gain are serious Christians, not hangers-on who just come for "the show". It's hard to infiltrate false doctrine in a church that has their doctrine plainly visible. Some churches make their real doctrine vague in order to bring people in, and then maybe pull a "bait and switch" on them as their true colors begin to be laid out.

And this gives rise to situations like what Paul is warning Titus about in this passage. We never want to get into a situation like this, and we often use the "Matthew 18" principle in situations like this so that maybe the person might see the Scriptures and repent.

But if you go through that principle and they still want to go their own way, send them on their way. And have nothing to do with them so they don't ruin the whole church.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps

"As for a person (4 wds)
who stirs up division, (4)
after warning him once (4)
and then twice, (3)
have nothing to do with him." (6)

To help remember this verse, I put it in a "44436" word pattern. This is helpful to keep the right words into your verse, because we tend to add or subtract while rehearsing the verses.

A comical way to remember this for me is seeing "a person who stirs up division" as a student who is told to figure out a "division" problem on a chalk board. Instead, he takes his chalk and "stirs up" the problem by scribbling it out. The teacher warns him once, then twice, and then puts him out in the hall where she has "nothing to do with him".

Linking verse numbers:

I use "Daisy" duck from Disney fame as my memory character for verses 10. That's because D-S= 1-0 in the phonetic alphabet, vowels fillers. I'll use her as the schoolteacher, and "Titus", our guy with holding the "S" tightly (Tight S) as the recalcitrant student.

And of course, all of this is done on top of a "Tree", because it rhymes with chapter "Three". And when she "has nothing to do with him", she is dropping him out of the tree.