Thought for Monday 12 February 2024

 Titus 3:10-11

If anyone is causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. 

After that, have nothing more to do with that person.  For people like that have turned away from the truth.  They are sinning and they condemn themselves.

There is much division in the world today.  We just need to think of what is currently going on in the part of the world where over two thousand years ago, Jesus opened up the scriptures to ordinary men and women, preached the message of loving God and one another and healed those who came to him.  Politicians provide conflicting opinions on what needs to happen in that small but significant part of the world to achieve something resembling a lasting peace.  Meanwhile, all sorts of atrocities have been carried out by both sides and the very young and very old seem to be suffering most.  Man’s inhumanity to man!

I have attended quite a few Burns Suppers recently and its became apparent to me for the first time that the works of our national bard can be interpreted in different ways whereby the person delivering the talk can present selected works of Robert Burns in a manner that suits their own political leanings.  Quite a few have spoken to me about this and, for the first time, I have noticed how much disharmony it can create within a group.

Gossip can cause division in families and in relationships.  It only takes a careless word or the sharing of a rumour or a misinterpretation of something that has taken place and much pain, division and anxiety can be the result.

In today’s passage, Paul is clearly telling us that anyone who sets out to cause division is committing a sin and that they will be condemned due to their works of this nature.  This is a sin that can be initiated by men and women at all levels of society from the acquaintance that you come across in your day-to-day activities right up to the senior politicians that run countries.  Paul describes them as people that have turned away from the truth.  Maybe sin falls into the categories of accidental or occasional sinning and deliberate and repetitive sinning.  We are all sinners but we need to realise when we are doing something that we know would displease God and just stop doing it followed by a prayer to God thanking him for the forgiveness that he offers and just saying sorry to our creator.

There is another quote from Burns that I would like to share and it reads as follows: ‘O thou great unknown power!  Thou almighty God, who hast lighted up reason in my breast and blest me with immortality!  I have frequently wandered from that order and regularity necessary for the perfection of thy works, yet thou hast never left me nor forsaken me.’

Prayer - Heavenly Father, we thank You for the wise instruction of Paul about division within society including the church, division caused by the behaviour of others and the need to address those that are divisive and confess that we have sometimes wasted valuable time, trying to placate them.  Help us be aware of those who try to convince us to follow paths that we recognise as nonbiblical.  Give us the wisdom to address any division within our lives, speedily, wisely, and biblically, so that others may not be misled. This we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.