Warning against Divisive People

¹⁷ Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned.^(A) Avoid them,^{(B) 18} because such people do not serve our Lord Christ^(C) but their own appetites.^[a](D) They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.^(E)

Paul and the False Apostles

11 I wish you would put up with a little foolishness^(A) from me. Yes, do put up with me!^{[a] 2} For I am jealous^(B) for you with a godly jealousy,^(C) because I have promised you in marriage to one husband—to present a pure^(D) virgin to Christ. ³ But I fear that, as the serpent^(E) deceived^(F) Eve^(G) by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a sincere and pure^[b] devotion to Christ.^{(H) 4} For if a person comes and preaches another Jesus,^(I) whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit,^(J) which you had not received, or a different gospel,^(K) which you had not accepted, you put up with it splendidly!

¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son,^(A) growing into maturity with a stature^(B) measured by Christ’s fullness. ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching,^(C) by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.

Light versus Darkness

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath^(A) is coming on the disobedient^[a] because of these things.