Avoid Divisions
Now I urge you, brothers, to keep your eye on those who create divisions and causes for stumbling contrary to the teaching that you have learned, and avoid them. 18 For men of that sort are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattering speech they seduce the hearts of unsuspecting ones. (Romans 16:17, 18)
The teaching that you have received: Paul is not referring to the teaching in his letter but to the common fund of Christian instruction on which we have seen him draw several times (1:3,4; 4:24,25; 6:3,17; 10:9,10; 12:9-21; 15:14)
Paul is urging or “exhorting” the church (cf. Rom_12:1) and calls them “brothers [and sisters]” in order to stress his relationship with them. This points to a serious admonition. He commands them to watch out or maintain constant vigilance regarding the dangerous heretics who may come at any time. The first problem with these people is that they cause divisions or “dissension” in the community. Their teaching is divisive and would further erode the cohesion of a community already experiencing problems over the “strong” and “weak” factions (Rom_14:1—Rom_15:13). Second, they put obstacles or “stumbling blocks” before the believers. As stated in Rom_9:33 (cf. Rom_11:9), these are forces that destroy one’s faith and can lead to apostasy. This is in fact a primary characteristic of heresy. It is not just serious error but actually destroys the core doctrines of the Christian faith. Such people are not Christians because they espouse what is contrary to the teaching you have learned. Such teaching contradicts the cardinal doctrines of the faith. These are not issues like the security of the believer or predestination (on which see the discussion on chapters Romans 8—Romans 11) but central tenets like the doctrine of Christ or of salvation. The only proper response is to keep away from them; that is, have nothing to do with them. This is more than just avoiding them, for that would imply a modicum of tolerance. This is a more direct opposition involving both censure and discipline. It could infer a type of excommunication such as found in Mat_18:17 (“treat [them] as you would a pagan or a tax collector”) or 2Th_3:14 (“do not associate with” them). Of course, such discipline should also be done “gently” with the purpose of bringing them to “repentance” (2Ti_2:24-26). The goal is not primarily to remove them from the church (though that is certainly an aspect of it) but rather to wake them up and help them to get right with the Lord. Nevertheless, the purity of the church must be guarded zealously.
The reason (gar, “for”) that the church must act strongly is that such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites (literally, “their bellies”). All the false teachers in the early church passed themselves off as Christians and ministered out of the church. The danger was the kind of tolerance shown by Pergamum and Thyatira in Rev_2:14-16; Rev_2:20-25, for they allowed the false teachers to work within their church. Paul wants to make it absolutely clear that such pretension will not work. Those people were not ministering for the Lord but for themselves. The language of “serving their own bellies” is similar to Php_3:19 (“their god is their stomach”), and while it could point to a libertine background (they live for pleasure) or a Jewish background (pointing to the food laws), it is best to take it as a metaphor for a greedy, self-centered ministry (so Cranfield 1979; Stott 1994). They serve only their own interests, not the Lord’s.
The second reason the church must be vigilant is that false teachers deceive the minds of naïve people. Satan is the great “deceiver” (Rev_12:9; Rev_20:3), and they follow in his steps (the connection with Satan is made in Rom_16:20). Paul has used this word in Rom_7:11, where he says “sin … deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.” He pictures the false teachers as deliberately manipulating truth to suck in the “foolish” or “simple-minded” people. These are weak Christians (Eph_4:14 calls them “infants”) who do not understand the deep things of God and are easily fooled by the smooth talk and flattery, that is, the smooth “eloquence” of the heretics. What they say sounds so plausible and convincing that the gullible are easily drawn into their pernicious lies. This happens all too frequently. One is astounded at the ease with which a Jim Jones or a David Koresh finds adherents. I was once asked by Christianity Today to write an article on why it is that the cults seem to draw so many of their followers from evangelical churches (Osborne [1979] pp. 22-23). I discovered two reasons: one, the lack of true fellowship and caring in many churches; the other, the lack of hermeneutical and theological awareness on the part of too many Christians. When they hear these cult leaders twisting Scripture, they cannot tell that truth is being compromised. The answer is clear. We must develop Berean Christians who “search the Scriptures daily to see if these things are true” (Act_17:11). We need to stress theological truth and help our believers learn how to study the Bible for themselves and so know when God’s Word is being misused. (IVP New Testament)