Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness, is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling …
While reading through Paul’s letters I have been struck again at how holiness - or righteous living - has mostly to do with treating people well. More specifically, I have noticed two trends: 1) The lists of virtues and vices that are scattered through the Pauline corpus are nearly always social in nature, and 2) language use is a key battleground in the struggle toward righteousness.
For Paul, the harmony and the unity of the Church is of utmost importance, and we threaten those things primarily though the ways we speak (or fail to).
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