Galatians 5:15 - Homiletics

The evil effects of heresy.

"But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."

I. HERESY GENDERS BITTER DISPUTES . The presence of the Judaists would naturally cause constant strife, whether they succeeded or whether they failed, for the Galatians would take sides, and be thus launched into endless debate. The strifes, of which Church history is so full, are not due to the truth, but to the efforts of errorists to debase it or to destroy it. Believers are bound to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.

II. THE INJURIOUS EFFECT OF DISSENSIONS UPON THE CHURCH .

1 . They put an end to Christian peace. Spiritual life is impoverished and all but killed.

2 . They injure the credit, character, and usefulness of Christian people. "Hatred, envy, reviling, are as the teeth of snakes and lions" (Starke). If Christians appear to bite and devour one another, the world will receive an impression of extreme cruelty in the character of the followers of the gentle Jesus.

III. THEY TEND TO SCATTER AND DESTROY THE CHURCH . "Ye will be consumed one of another." The contest will not end in a victory to either party, but will end in the common extinction of both. The idea is taken from wild beasts which tear their victims to pieces till nothing is left. "Dissolution is the daughter of dissension" (Naziauzen). The Gentiles, seeing Christians quarrelling, would be repelled from Christianity, converts would go back to their old heathenism or their old Judaism, and the Christian community might be entirely broken up.