Almost twenty-five years ago, a movie called Remember the Titans came out. Based on a true story, it focuses on the football team of T. C. Williams High School. The setting is 1971, Alexandria, Virginia. On the heels of the Civil Rights movement, schools were beginning to be integrated. So, what was wrongly a “whites only” school starts receiving black students. Relational strains are tense. Racism is prevalent.

But into this chaos steps Coach Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington. He slowly wins the trust and friendship of the former coach, Bill Yoast. Together, through discipline and teamwork they build strong unity between these athletes. Once enemies, they become like family, especially two characters named Julius and Gerry.

But a few players work against that unity. One guy named Ray—he misses a block on purpose to harm his black teammate. Gerry, who’s captain, is then forced to make a hard decision. If Ray is working against the team, he can’t let Ray play for the team. So, Gerry has Ray cut from the team. Because Ray worked against the team’s good, Gerry tells Coach Boone, “Sometimes, you just got to cut a man loose.”

Sometimes, a church has to cut someone loose. To protect what’s good, a church must reject those who work against the church’s good. I wonder if you believe that? To this point in Titus, we’ve seen that a church in good order devotes itself to gospel doctrine, godliness, and good works. But what happens when someone works against that good order? How should we respond? Our passage today offers much wisdom. A church in good order works to protect good order. We’ll focus on verses 9-11. But I’ll start in 3:1 to get the context and see some important contrasts.

¹ Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, ² to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. ³ For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. ⁴ But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. ⁸ The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. ⁹ But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. ¹⁰ As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, ¹¹ knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

How does one protect good order in the church? Based on where we’ve been in Titus, how would you answer? Maybe you’d say, “Appoint good elders, who can teach gospel doctrine and rebuke those who contradict it.” You might then add, “Adorn the gospel with godliness and good works, helping others mature into the Christian life.” Maybe you’d also add that underlying those things would be an ongoing love for the Lord who reveals his loving kindness in the gospel.

All of that would be a good summary of where we’ve been. But verses 9-11 add a corrective element in protecting good order. Verses 9-11 contain two imperatives, and they set the structure for today’s message. One is “Avoid,” in verse 9: “avoid foolish controversies.” The other, in verse 10, is “Reject” (or, as the ESV has it, “have nothing more to do with him”). Let’s take these, one at a time, and see how each applies to us.

Avoid Foolish Controversies

First, avoid foolish controversies. Titus himself must be careful to avoid foolish controversies. “Steer clear of them,” is another way to put it. Paul doesn’t give too many specifics on the controversies in view. His audience knows what he’s talking about. But a few clues—both here and elsewhere in the New Testament—help sketch in the picture.

For starters, he calls these controversies “foolish.” It’s not mere controversy. Merely engaging in debate is not wrong. That’s often necessary to contend for the truth. Think of Acts 15:2—Paul and Barnabas have “no small debate [same word]” with those who were teaching that circumcision was necessary for salvation. Then in Acts 15:7, there’s much debate between the apostles and elders on getting the gospel of grace right.

Examples from church history shouldn’t evade us either—some controversies were necessary that we might preserve the truth about Christ’s deity, for example, or justification by faith alone. Some controversies are necessary, worthwhile; and we shouldn’t be afraid to engage in them when the gospel is at stake.

But others are foolish. Think of the Pharisees in Matthew 23:16-17. “If anyone swears by the temple, it’s nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he’s bound by his oath.” Or “If anyone swears by the altar, it’s nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that’s on the altar, he’s bound by his oath.” Leaders would spend gobs of time debating these things. Jesus tells them, “You blind fools!” They miss the point of the temple—fellowship with God in Christ—to argue about swearing by its furniture.

Paul also mentions “genealogies.” Again, he’s not stating that genealogies in themselves are bad. The Old Testament is full of them; and they usually serve a theological purpose. They help us trace God’s promise to bless all nations in Abraham’s offspring, for example. Two of our Gospels begin with Jesus’ genealogy; and I’d say they’re rather important for showing God’s faithfulness in bringing a Savior.

The problems come when you miss their purpose and start using them to prop yourself up, to boast in your national identity. I think Philippians 3:5 gives us a taste, when Paul confesses how much confidence he once placed in his flesh: “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.” Of course, after his conversion, Paul counts that rubbish to gain Christ—but you can see how a Jew might use a genealogy to puff themselves up: “Look at my heritage, my religious history.” In 1 Timothy 1:4 Paul sets genealogies alongside myths, “which promote speculation rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.”

Avoid “dissensions,” he also says. Sometimes our Bibles translate this word “strife.” Paul often includes it among his list of vices. It describes a person who enjoys a good fight. They revel in rivalry.[i] They destroy anyone who disagrees with them. They are quarrelsome, whereas Paul says a bondservant of Christ must be “kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.”

1 Timothy 6:3-5 puts it this way: “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”

Lastly, he mentions “quarrels about the law.” Again, read Romans or Galatians, Paul had much to argue about the law, especially when people were using the law to justify themselves and compromise the gospel. He also used the law as prophecy, showing its fulfillment in Jesus. The law served as wisdom for the Christian life as well. The law is “holy, righteous, good,” Paul says.

His point here seems to be that Titus avoid getting bogged down in vain discussions about the law. 1 Timothy 1:5-7 sheds some more light on this: “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.”

Perhaps this is comparable to the Pharisees griping about the disciples doing what’s not lawful, when they pluck some grain for a snack on the Sabbath. Or when they can’t seem to accept that healing a man on the Sabbath was good. Or when the Pharisees bring up divorce with Jesus—they quote the law, but they miss its purpose in mitigating the evil of their hardened hearts. They’re more interested in how many ways someone can get out of marriage; they’re not interested in “from the beginning it was not so.” Stupid fights that miss the law’s intent. Avoid these, Titus.

Why? Well, he tells us in verse 9: “for they are unprofitable and worthless.” They don’t serve the church’s good order. He’s not saying that things won’t come up as you’re interacting with outsiders or as church members come with their questions. His concern is with the sort of controversies that replace the gospel as the steady diet of the church. They’re like ripping the sun from the solar system—planets lose their orbit. Churches lose their orbit when foolish controversies draw them away from Christ.

These foolish controversies stand in contrast to the gospel and its fruit, which he just covered in verses 1-8. According to verse 8, what things are “excellent and profitable for people”? What things are going to save people and transform people and empower people in good works? It’s not the foolish controversies and genealogies and quarrels about the law; it’s the gospel message of God’s goodness and loving kindness appearing in Jesus Christ to save us. Titus must give his full attention there.

Brothers and sisters, the same is true for us. Paul will offer wisdom in verses 10-11 for dealing with a divisive person. But that counsel doesn’t come apart from Paul saying, “You better keep watch on yourself first.” In the Christian life, we will always go wrong if we seek to correct others without keeping a close watch on ourselves. We must keep the gospel central and not become distracted by foolish controversies.

To name a few: declaring current global events as fulfillments of specific prophecies in Scripture; naming the Antichrist in every generation; reading America into the biblical narrative as God’s special nation; counting blood moons; determining an exact chronology of end-time events; Bible Code stuff that speculates about hidden messages; the so-called “Worship Wars;” the Daniel Diet; using 1 Enoch as the lens to interpret the Bible’s narrative…on we could go.

Foolish controversies. And what’s alarming is that in every example people have their Bibles open. Many believe they are being “biblical.” But they don’t understand how the Bible says what it says. It’s possible to know Bible-content but miss how it’s pointing people to faith in Christ. That’s what foolish controversies have in common—they don’t lead to faith in Christ. They distract from Christ who is the center of Scripture; and they lead people to trust in themselves or in their heritage or in their knowledge or in their tradition or in a teacher, instead of trusting in Christ alone.

One way you can protect the good order of this church is by avoiding foolish controversies. This assumes we’re training our minds to think well. Thirty-five years ago, Mark Noll wrote a book called The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. His opening line? “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.”[ii] We need to fix that. Invest in your ability to discern when people are just speculating. Cotton Mather once said, “Ignorance is the mother not of Devotion but of Heresy.”[iii]

Ask questions like:

• Is there Scriptural warrant for the claim being made? Is the claim consistent with what the text means in its context?
• Is the claim rational, logical? Is it consistent with itself and across Scripture? Is it coherent with other doctrines that are more clearly explained in the Scriptures?
• Is there historical precedent in the church? Does it square with orthodoxy? Alerts should sound in your head, if something has been unknown to the whole church or rejected by the church for centuries.
• Also, how will it be lived out? Does the claim being made aim for love and loyalty to Christ? What’s the end goal for ethics and good works?

Equip your mind to discern foolish controversies. Don’t gravitate to those things which are just speculative. Invest in those things that Paul says are “excellent and profitable for people.” Invest in knowing the gospel truly and then connecting those gospel truths to good works in your life—which we discussed a few weeks ago in verse 8. A church in good order devotes itself to gospel doctrine, godliness, and good works; and we need to protect that good order, in part, by avoiding foolish controversies.

Reject Divisive People

But what if someone refuses to live that way? Instead of uniting the church around Christ, what if someone divides the church? What if someone acts like they’re on the team, but they constantly work against the team? What if someone actively works against the church’s good order? That brings us to Paul’s next command: reject divisive people. Verse 10 describes a person “who stirs up division.”

Again, we have to be careful, don’t we? Because we understand that to assert the truth of Christianity will cause a kind of division. Jesus himself said, “I came to bring a sword. I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A person’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matt 10:34-35). When Paul preached the gospel in Acts 14:4, the people were divided, some siding with the Jews and others with the apostles.

This helps us discern that one’s loyalty to Christ may necessitate division in some cases. What’s different here is that we have a group of Christians who have already committed themselves to Christ. They are one in their loyalty to Christ, but the divisive person is seeking to draw loyalty to himself and his own agenda.

We get our word “heretic” from the Greek word behind the phrase in verse 10. We use it to describe those who persist in doctrinal error like Arianism (claiming that Christ is not truly God) or Docetism (claiming that Christ was not truly man) or Marcionism (rejecting the Old Testament as Christian Scripture). But in Paul’s day, a heretic was a division-maker. Now, that divisiveness often included doctrinal error. In Romans 16:17 Paul says, “Watch out for those who cause division and create stumbling blocks contrary to the doctrine you have been taught. Avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve.”

Paul’s letter to Titus is also concerned with doctrine. In 1:10-11 he says, “For many are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.” So, the picture is that of a church united around the gospel as taught by the apostles; and the heretic was the one dividing the church from that core teaching—deceiving the hearts of the naïve.

At the same time, you could have a person who confesses right doctrine, but they act with severity toward anyone who differs with them on non-essential matters. If we used Romans 14 as a backdrop, they’re the sort of person who’s willing to destroy the church over matters of indifference: food, drink, special days. They care less about the church’s unity and more about their personal position on things not clearly spelled out in the Scriptures. This type of person might claim loyalty to Christ, but they have no love for his people and no lowliness of heart—no humility, no patience. Conrad Mbewe characterizes them as those who get satisfaction “when they have destroyed a fly on the friend’s head using a ten-pound hammer.”[iv] What should the church do?

Paul lays out the process: “after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.” This word behind “warning” is sometimes translated “admonish,” “instruct.” Titus must show this divisive person that he/she is on the wrong path, that their conduct is improper, and it will devastate the church if not corrected. A timeline isn’t given—only the steps. It takes wisdom to know how long between each warning; and much of that timeline will be determined by how the warnings are received.

Likely, Jesus’ words in Matthew 18 stand in the background. We looked at that passage not too long ago—but Jesus lays out three steps when a brother or sister continues in unrepentant sin. Here, too, we find three steps—two warnings and a final rejection, if those warnings aren’t taken seriously. The difference is that Paul is specifically addressing Titus who is currently establishing elders in churches. So, Paul’s words are to Titus as leader. And whereas Matthew 18 includes the church’s interaction with the brother/sister in error, here Titus as leader must act to protect the church. The rejection does not allow the divisive person prolonged opportunity to do further damage; and it’s so that Titus himself doesn’t become so bogged down in vain discussions, that he can’t properly care for the churches.

Paul says, “such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” Warped means that he’s “turned aside from what is true or morally proper.”[v] You’ve set before him the truth, but he insists on going astray. The word behind “sinful” is a verb in the present tense: “he has turned aside and is sinning.” It’s not that he did it once or twice and then stopped. This is not a person who’s simply immature and needs further discipleship. This is not a person who’s just curious, or who sees a weakness in the church and wants to address it and bring them closer to Christ. No, this is a person, who, after receiving discipleship, correction—he stubbornly rejects it. It shows he’s “self-condemned.” His own actions prove that he’s not trusting in Christ to save him. He’s cutting himself off from the blessings of forgiveness; and the church simply recognizes it.

Now, how this works out on the ground will vary from church to church and from situation to situation—we’ve done our best to explain how we handle such cases in our Bylaws under Corrective Discipline. But the general point is clear. Just like Ray worked against the team’s good (in Remember the Titans), a divisive person works against the church’s good. It’s our duty—and especially that of the elders—to protect the church’s good order by rejecting a person who stirs up division. We can no longer associate with them. We don’t go to their parties or pretend a friendship exists any longer. We don’t follow their blogs or their podcasts or interact with them on Facebook…unless we see demonstrable signs of humility and repentance.

Many churches have abandoned this practice. Part of that is due to people embracing our culture’s autonomous moral individualism: man defines his own reality; he’s free from anything that might presume authority over him. When that belief system affects the church, suddenly the life of the believer is considered off limits to other Christians. Confronting a brother/sister is now an invasion of privacy.

Another reason churches abandon this process is that they’re concerned with efficiency more than truth. Why put something in place that might reduce our numbers?

Other churches are simply not grounded in sound doctrine. There’s no confessional standard. There can’t be enforced correction because no one is sure what the Bible teaches or how it might affect the way we live. By contrast, that’s why we have a Statement of Faith. Other churches don’t pursue discipline to avoid the burdens it lays on people: hurt feelings, hard conversations, long members meetings.

But none of these reasons change the apostles’ words or removes the responsibility of Christ’s church to obey them. To abandon this process of correction will be to the detriment of the church. Correction like this helps protect the church.

Historically, did you know that discipline like this also served revival? I came across this in my Baptist Heritage class years ago. In his book Democratic Religion, Greg Wills observes that nineteenth century Baptist churches “maintained high rates of discipline at the same time they experienced rapid growth.” “Discipline and revival appeared to go together.” “Purity produces spiritual vigor.” “When churches attended to moral correction, God granted them prosperity. Disciplined churches were shining cities on a hill whose light drew unbelievers to God.”[vi]

But something else, warning and rejecting a divisive person like this—doesn’t it remind us of Jesus’ own ministry? In Matthew 23, it was Jesus’ compassion for the crowd that led him to pronounce his woes on the Pharisees. It was his care and concern for the abused that he exposed the hypocrites. When the wolf attacks your sheep, you don’t mess around as a Shepherd. When other men seek to harm your Bride, you say something. We should be encouraged by these instructions. In them Jesus himself is caring for his church and protecting her from spiritual ruin.

These words also recall how important our unity is. According to 3:3, we used to be the kind of people who “passed our days in malice and envy.” We were “hated by others” and we “hated one another.” You could say we all had a divisive spirit. But through his goodness and loving kindness, God saved us from that way of living. Jesus gave himself to redeem us from that kind of living.

The gospel has separated us from the world’s divisiveness; and it has simultaneously united us to one body, to a people who are eager not to divide but to maintain the unity of the Spirit. Jesus prayed, “[Father,] the glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:22-23). Is that your prayer? Is that your longing? We’re either working to unite the church around Christ or divide her from him.

Finally, these words also recall the central importance of the gospel. What drove Paul to write these words to begin with? He told us in 1:1-2. He labors “for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life.” Paul wants all God’s elect to come to a knowledge of the truth. He labors for people to know eternal life in Christ; and some in these churches are hindering that from happening. People who stir up division in the church not only distort the saving message about Jesus; they distract the church from its primary mission in getting that message into the lives of others.

Outside of people knowing the truth about Jesus, there is no salvation. So, let’s make it our aim to focus on him and telling others about him. A church in good order must work to protect good order. In part, that means we avoid foolish controversies ourselves—they are unprofitable for people and worthless. And, when necessary, it also means we reject divisive persons who work against what Jesus is building—a people loyal to Jesus, loving one another, and lowly in heart.

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[i] BDAG, s.v. eris.

[ii] Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 3.

[iii] As cited in J. P. Moreland, Love Your God with All Your Mind (NavPress, 1997), 22.

[iv] Conrad Mbewe, “Combative or Convictional? (Galatians 2:11-21),” Founders Baptist (January 27, 2024), accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFidghbWCc4&t=3037s.

[v] BDAG, s.v. ekstrephō.

[vi] Gregory Wills, Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South 1785-1900 (New York: Oxford, 1997), 33-36.