LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 286

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286 SUPPLEMENT TO CTCR REPORT

This passage shows how St. Paul dealt with a sit-
uation when, in a synagogue in Ephesus, where he had
preached the Gospel and many had been converted,
some “were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil
of that way [the Christian faith is meant] before the
multitude.”

Realizing that here he was dealing, not with weak
or erring Christians, who needed to be taught, but with
hardened enemies of the Christian faith, Paul “departed
from them, and separated the disciples.” Evidently he
found a different place for his preaching, for after this
he “disputed daily in the school of one Tyrannus.”

2 John 7—11

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who
confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This
is a deceiver and an antichrist.

Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things
which we have wrought, but that we receive a full
reward.

Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doc-
trine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doc-
trine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

If there come any unto you, and bring not this doc-
trine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him
God speed:

For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his
evil deeds.

This passage speaks of traveling teachers who came
to the homes of Christians, making propaganda for their
teachings or seeking free meals and lodging or both.
These teachers are called “deceivers” and “antichrist,”
v.7. Their error is that they “confess not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh.”

This kind of false teacher is well known from the
first Epistle of John and from extra-Biblical literature.
The error is that of Docetism, which held that Jesus
was indeed the Son of God, but that His human nature
was not real. According to these teachers, the Son of
God had not really come into the flesh.

This was not an error which built on the foundation
“wood, hay, stubble” (1 Cor. 3:12), but which overthrew
the very foundation of the Christian faith. Therefore
the apostle also says concerning such a teacher, “Receive
him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his
evil deeds.”

This passage is properly applied to all who seek to
overthrow the foundation of the Christian faith, par-
ticularly those who deny the incarnation of the Son of
God in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It strikes with full force all those who would make
Jesus Christ something less than “true God, begotten of
the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of
the Virgin Mary.”

Rom. 16:17, 18

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which
cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine
which ye have learned; and avoid them.

For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus
Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair
speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

This passage, perhaps more than any other, has fig-
ured prominently in past discussions of what has come

to be called unionism. A number of widely divergent
interpretations of the passage have been proposed.

A careful examination of this passage in its context
reveals that it occurs in a chapter aimed by the apostle
at strengthening the fellowship not only in the congre-
gation at Rome, but between the Roman church and
other Christian churches as well. Phoebe, a deaconess
of the church at Cenchrea is commended to the church
at Rome, v.1; Aquila and Priscilla, and a host of others
who were known to Paul, were to be greeted. There
are in all 14 requests by the apostle to greet certain
persons with whom he was acquainted, and who were
then in Rome, though it appears that it had never been
Paul’s own good fortune to visit this great city (cf. 1:10).

After the greetings comes the request that the Chris-
tians in Rome express their fellowship with one another
with an holy kiss, v.16. This is followed by the assur-
ance: “The churches of Christ salute you.”

Into this context of fellowship in the church in Rome
and with the Christian churches everywhere, a fellow-
ship cemented by greetings and sealed with the holy
kiss, comes the warning: “Now I beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary
to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them;
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ,
but their own belly; and by good words and fair
speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”

Paul does not name these disturbers of the peace
and fellowship of the church, and it is of little use for
Christians today to try to say with certainty who they
were. The following facts, however, are clear from
his words:

1. Christians must be on their guard against those
who seek to disrupt their fellowship in Christ;

2. The men whom Paul here commands his readers
to mark and avoid are not the victims of past
schisms and divisions. Rather, they cause (Greek:
tous ... poiountas; RSV: those who create dis-
sensions, etc.) divisions and offenses. Paul tries
to cement the church together in love and fellow-
ship in Christ; these men try to divide it.

3. They make these divisions and offenses “contrary
to the doctrine which ye have learned.” This doc-
trine is the Gospel, which all Christians have
learned, and which alone brings the Christian
church into being and preserves it.9

4. Because these trouble-makers are not erring
Christians, who need to be taught, but people
who attack the church’s very foundation, namely,
the Gospel, the apostle commands the Christians
in Rome to avoid them, and judges: “They that
are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but
their own belly; and by good words and fair
speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”

A careful study of Romans 16:17, 18 underscores the
importance of observing the distinction between erring
Christians, who must be instructed, and heretics, who
attack the foundation of the church, as this distinction