Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Patrick Miller.

What's the greatest threat to your faith, to Christianity, to the church in general?

I think that's an interesting question, and I'm not sure

that there's a definitive answer, but there's one possible answer that gets repeated throughout the

Bible, division and disunity. That might surprise you. Maybe you'd say it's sexual immorality or

addiction or spiritual abuse, but if you read the Bible, division and

disunity are one of the most common things that the apostles in Jesus point at when they're

talking about what threatens your faith in the church in general. The apostle Paul warned the churches

in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, and Philippi about division. He told his protege, Titus,

that if a divisive person was found in the church, that that person was so dangerous,

they should be warned once and then removed from the church altogether. That's how seriously he

took it. To the Romans, he wrote this, I urge you brothers and sisters to

watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the

teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. It's a bold statement, isn't it? That division is

contrary to the teachings of Jesus, and that anyone who's causing division should

be avoided? When he writes to the Galatians, he warns of sexual immorality twice, but he warns of

the sins of division five times. Listen to this passage in Galatians 5. Now, the works of the flesh

are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,

rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom

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