MARK THEM WHICH CAUSE DIVISIONS

In his teaching concerning the weak and the strong brother in chapter 14 and the early part of chapter 15, Paul recognized that the strong had no intention of doing harm to the weak but that harm, nevertheless, could be caused through thoughtlessness and a lack of positive, loving care the one towards the other. Hence, he exhorted, ‘Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way’, 14. 13. The ‘occasion to fall’ that the carelessness of a strong believer can unwittingly bring to one who is weak is the Greek word ‘skandalon’ from which our English word ‘scandal’ is derived. It refers to the trigger of a trap on which the bait is placed, and which, when touched by the animal, springs and causes it to close causing entrapment. It could, quite literally, be described as ‘a deathtrap’. The apostle uses the word again in our reading today as he speaks, in verse 17, of ‘offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned’. The outcome is the same for the unwary, innocent believer but the motive and intention are completely different. The setting of a deathtrap before a weaker brother is the result of negligence in chapter 14, but it is a deliberate act on the part of ‘them which cause divisions and offences’ here in chapter 16. It is very solemn for us to realize that through a lack of concern for a weaker brother we can affect him in the same way that a false teacher sets out to accomplish!

Paul does not specify any particular group of false teachers but exhorts the saints, whose unity has been the subject of his rejoicing in the early part of chapter 16, to look out for all such men and to steer well clear of them. They are men who, in spite of their fair-sounding words, refuse to bow to the Lordship of Christ, serving instead their own desires. Paul uses the word ‘belly’ to describe their selfish, base motives and this word, linked with the reference to Satan in verse 20, draws our minds to Genesis 3. The fact that Eve saw ‘the tree was good for food’, combined with the doubt Satan had cast upon the word of God, provided the deathtrap that brought sin into the world. Satan still uses false teachers today. Mark them!