The Pastoral Task of Refuting Error
faith. To pursue unity by diluting doctrine is to build on sand. It collapses at the first storm.
The "Most Intolerant Book": The Bible is not intolerant because it is harsh, but because it is true. It declares that there is one God, one Mediator between God and men, and one way of salvation. It does not offer multiple paths, multiple truths, or multiple gospels. Galatians 1:8 pronounces a curse on any who preach a contrary gospel, even if it were an angel from heaven.
This is not pettiness. It is protection. A doctor who refuses to tolerate poison in medicine is not unloving. He is faithful. The Church that refuses to tolerate strange doctrine is not narrow-minded. She is loving her people enough to guard their souls.
The Pastoral Task of Refuting Error The responsibility to distinguish sound from strange doctrine does not rest on the congregation alone. God has ordained shepherds—pastors, elders, overseers—who are charged with the protection of the flock. The pastoral task is twofold, as Titus 1:9 makes clear: "He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it."
The first half of the task is positive: instruction in sound doctrine. This is the weekly, patient, expository preaching and teaching of the whole counsel of God. Paul told the Ephesian elders, "I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house" (Acts 20:20). He could say, "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27). Shepherds feed sheep. They do so by opening the Word, explaining its meaning, and applying its truth. A church that is strong in sound doctrine is not produced by conferences or controversies, but by the ordinary, week-in-week-out proclamation of Scripture. This positive instruction is the primary antidote to error. When people are immersed in the true, they learn to recognize the false.
But the second half of the task is negative: rebuking those who contradict sound doctrine. This is where pastoral courage is tested. It is easier to preach positive truth than to name and refute error. It is easier to speak in generalities than to warn specifically against teachers, authors, or systems
that are leading people astray. Yet Paul did not shrink from this. He named Hymenaeus and Alexander, "whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme" (1 Tim 1:20). He named Philetus and Hymenaeus again, "who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some" (2
Tim 2:17-18). John named Diotrephes, "who likes to put himself first" (3 John 1:9). These were not acts of personal vengeance. They were acts of pastoral protection.
Refuting error requires clarity, not vagueness. It requires naming the error and explaining why it contradicts Scripture. It requires warning the congregation specifically, because wolves do not announce themselves.
They come in sheep's clothing. The pastor's job is to unmask them. This must be done with grace and with tears, never with a spirit of superiority or delight in controversy. Paul told the Ephesian elders that for three years he
"did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears" (Acts 20:31).
Refutation is not the opposite of love. It is an expression of love. The surgeon who refuses to cut out cancer does not love the patient. The shepherd who refuses to drive off wolves does not love the sheep.
The goal of refutation is not to win arguments but to win people. Paul tells Titus to rebuke sharply "so that they may be sound in the faith" (Titus 1:13).
He tells Timothy to correct opponents with gentleness, "God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim 2:25).
The aim is restoration, not destruction. But restoration is impossible without confrontation. A church that will not refute error will soon be unable to teach truth, because the two tasks are inseparable. If no doctrine is ever labeled false, then eventually no doctrine is truly held as true.
A Warning to Shepherds: James 3:1 says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." The pastoral task is weighty. Shepherds will give an account for the souls entrusted to them (Heb 13:17). To permit strange doctrine to flourish under your watch is to fail the flock and to dishonor the Chief Shepherd. Hold fast the trustworthy word. Teach it.
Guard it. Refute what contradicts it. The purity of the Church and the health of the saints depend on it.