"Have you ever been brought up short by Paul saying, 'A divisive man - warn him once or twice, and then reject him'? How could I reject a divisive man without becoming divisive? How can I cut a cancer out of a person's body without ceasing to be a doctor? This makes no sense at all. When you reject a divisive man you are fighting disunity, you are not perpetuating disunity when you reject someone who is cantankerous and belligerent and fights all the time. You are not sinning against unity when you deal with that sort of problem. So a false irenicism tolerates the cunning craftiness of men who lie in wait to deceive, it tolerates the sleight of men. A shepherd who tolerates wolves is a shepherd who hates his own sheep. A shepherd who loves his sheep is one who fights wolves. And the wolves in sheep's clothing don't like this at all, and so they always raise a great cry: 'Unity!'....
"In dealing with this threat, faithful pastors do not declaim from the pulpit about wolves abstractly considered. They name names like Hymenaeus and Alexander [1 Timothy 1:20; 2 Tim 2:17]. And that's why it's treachery to the cause of true unity to refuse to point out obvious departures from the faith. Regardless of the honored position of those departing. As Paul puts it, 'If we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you let him be accursed' [Gal 1:8]. Or God damn that person. God damn the person who tampers with the Gospel."
- Doug Wilson
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