What is the definition of heresy?
Most people today use "heresy" to mean serious false teaching, but the writers of the New Testament used the word with a different weight. Understanding what Scripture actually means by it changes both who we would call a heretic and how we are told to treat one.
The Root of the Word
The Greek word behind "heresy" is built on the idea of choosing, and the same word is often translated "sect" — used of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and even used by outsiders of the Christians themselves. One reference work traces the line from that root to its usual outcome:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe root of the Greek word being 'to choose' shows that a heresy is something peculiar. The doctrine held and enforced may be true in itself but may be exaggerated or put out of its connection. The common result is: a party or sect is formed... God having given in His word all things needed for the church, there is no room for man's choice or man's will: he must be a humble receiver.
Self-Will, Not Simply Wrong Belief
Because the word points to choosing, several commentators insist that heresy in Scripture is a matter of the will before it is a matter of the creed. A man may be perfectly orthodox and still be a heretic:
William KellyHeresy does not mean bad doctrine, although this might go along with it. It means that people might get too hot in their zeal, and, being reproved for their party spirit, they refuse to stand it any longer, and they get away. They break loose from fellowship and form some new thing which has not the sanction of the word of God. That is what, in Scripture, is called heresy. The doctrine might be sound enough in a general way... but there is the heart entirely wrong and seeking its own things instead of the things of Jesus Christ.
Where It Begins
If heresy is the will at work, it starts long before a group walks out. It starts in how a person handles the Bible:
G. V. WigramThe first thing I would observe is that heresy is said to be a work of the flesh (Gal. 5:20)... If anyone, instead of looking for the Holy Spirit's guidance, dabbles with his own mind in Scripture, he will see either something in the book which is not there, or the contents of the book out of their proper order and relative importance, and here heresy begins. He has, perhaps without realising it, dishonoured the Holy Spirit and honoured himself.
The Graver Sense
Commentators differ on how much doctrinal error the word itself carries. Some hold it never means false teaching as such; others point out that in one passage the heresies described are deadly:
Frederick W. GrantIn 2 Peter 2:1, the "damnable heresies" of the King James translation has hidden the true meaning. The phrase is literally "heresies of destruction" — heresies that destroy men. These are doctrines brought in by false teachers — doctrines that even deny the Lord who bought them. Here, the teaching obviously is fundamental error, but this does not prove that all heresy is fundamental error. The term is a much wider one than this.
Where that graver sense is in view, one mark of it is that it rarely announces itself:
J. N. DarbyIt is the character of heresy always to conceal itself, to cover the plain statement of the doctrine which forms its basis, or to misdirect the attention, so that the evil really introduced by the heresy may not be apparent. Heresy is not merely error; it is the power of error in seducing men's minds from the plain truth of the Spirit of God, so as to rest in, and be guided by, something besides the gospel.
The Soil It Grows In
Paul was not surprised to hear of parties at Corinth, because he already knew the state of the people there:
F. B. HoleDivision is nowhere in Scripture presented as an evidence of spirituality but always of carnality... If carnality prevails, divisions are sure to raise their ugly head... That God knows how to overrule even heresies and make them serve towards the making manifest of those who are approved of Himself — those not infected with the spirit of division — is no excuse for the heresies or divisions.
How Such a Person Is Treated
Scripture does not tell us to argue endlessly, nor to strike at once. It sets a limit — two warnings — and explains why the sentence is really passed by the man on himself:
J. N. DarbyWhen a man tried to set up his own opinions, and by that means to form parties in the assembly, after having admonished him once and a second time, he was to be rejected... He is not satisfied with the assembly of God, with the truth of God: he wants to make a truth of his own. Why is he a Christian, if Christianity, as God has given it, does not suffice him? By making a party for his own opinions he condemns himself.
Summary
- Choice. The word means "to choose" — heresy begins when a person picks his own view instead of humbly receiving what God has given in His word.
- Flesh. That choice is a work of the flesh: handling Scripture by one's own mind rather than the Spirit's guidance, and so honouring self.
- Party. The chosen opinion hardens into a following. A sect forms, and the man who leads or joins it is the heretic of Scripture — even if his teaching is sound.
- Destruction. In its worst form the chosen doctrine denies the Lord Himself, and it works by concealment, never by plain statement.
- Refusal. Two admonitions, then have done with him — not because others condemn him, but because in preferring his own truth to God's he has condemned himself.