Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Titus · About this commentary
The Factious Man
Titus 3:10-11
10 Avoid a factious man after a first and second warning, · WEB
The man who makes divisions gets two warnings and then is left alone, because by then he has passed his own sentence.
The problem in view is not error but faction — a man whose distinguishing work is division. The procedure is brief and bounded: after a first and second warning, avoid him. Two warnings are given, so the response is not impatience; and a limit exists, so the patience is not endless. The Lord's own procedure for a wrong between brothers escalates through the same kind of stages before it stops Matthew 18:15–17.
Verse 11 supplies the reasoning, and it removes the sting of arrogance from the command. Such a man is perverted and sinful, being self-condemned. The verdict is his own; the church only recognizes what two warnings have made visible. That is why avoiding him is not a judgment passed but a judgment acknowledged — and why the letter that has just required gentleness toward all men Titus 3:2 can order this without contradicting itself. Gentleness governs how the warnings are given, not whether the second one is the last.
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