A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
Paul is writing to Titus, a younger church leader he has placed in charge of newly forming Christian communities on the island of Crete. Paul has been giving Titus very practical instructions for managing real problems in real communities. Here he addresses a specific type of person: someone who keeps causing division. The instruction is measured but firm — give them two warnings, then stop engaging. This isn't about someone who disagrees or asks hard questions; the Greek word used here suggests someone who promotes factionalism, who makes it their habit to split communities apart. Paul's advice is a form of pastoral triage: some people, if you keep feeding them your energy, will only use it to cause more damage.
Lord, give me wisdom to know the difference between endurance and enabling. Teach me when love means staying and when it means stepping back. Give me the courage to protect what you've built — including my own peace — without hardening my heart. Amen.
We've been taught — rightly — that love is patient, keeps no record of wrongs, bears all things. So a verse like this one lands strangely. "Have nothing to do with him." There's a kind of Christian who wants to soften that into something more palatable. But Paul isn't being cold here — he's being clear-eyed about a real danger. A person committed to division is not someone who's struggling or doubting; they are someone actively unraveling what community costs everyone else to build. The instruction to warn them twice actually shows respect — they get a genuine chance to hear the truth and change. But the double warning also sets a limit. Love doesn't mean making yourself indefinitely available to someone who weaponizes your availability. Think of someone in your life — maybe at work, maybe in your family, maybe even in your church — whose toxicity you keep re-entering out of obligation or guilt. There's a meaningful difference between a difficult person and a divisive one. Difficult people are in pain; they need patience and sometimes tough love. Divisive people have made a habit of tearing things down, and your continued engagement gives them an audience. Paul's advice here isn't unkind — it's honest. You are not required to be someone else's instrument of destruction. Sometimes the most faithful thing is to stop handing them the tool.
What distinguishes a "divisive" person, as Paul seems to mean here, from someone who is simply difficult, hurting, or disagreeable?
Have you ever stayed in an unhealthy dynamic out of a sense of Christian obligation? What kept you there — and what finally changed, or hasn't?
This verse can be misused to justify avoiding anyone who challenges us uncomfortably. How do you discern the difference between someone who is divisive and someone who is just inconveniently honest?
How does protecting a community from a persistently divisive person actually reflect love — both for the community and even for that person?
Is there a relationship in your life where you need to set a clearer limit? What would a faithful, non-vindictive boundary actually look like in practice?
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Matthew 18:17
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
2 Thessalonians 3:6
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2 Timothy 3:5
If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
2 John 1:10
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2 Peter 2:1
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them .
Romans 16:17
Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Matthew 18:15
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Galatians 5:20
After a first and second warning reject a divisive man [who promotes heresy and causes dissension—ban him from your fellowship and have nothing more to do with him],
AMP
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,
ESV
Reject a factious man after a first and second warning,
NASB
Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.
NIV
Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition,
NKJV
If people are causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. After that, have nothing more to do with them.
NLT
Warn a quarrelsome person once or twice, but then be done with him.
MSG