But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. 2 Timothy 2:23
A book of famous quotations contains this one: It is humbling to mankind to contemplate men capable of grasping eternal truths, fencing and debating in trivialities, like gladiators fighting with flies. – Jean Marie Napoléon Désiré Nisard. M. Nisard was a famous French author and literary critic of the 1800s. Being a member of a debating society, he knew something of verbal jousting with a learned adversary. And he also knew how ridiculous it looked when debaters became embroiled in arguments over something that made no difference to the overall matter. And that is the type of issues that our text is telling us to avoid.
Someone once used this text to argue that Christians should avoid discussions with non-Christians about such issues as evolution, abortion, and capital murder. It is certainly true that uninformed Christians should avoid these topics. But Christians should not be uninformed on these topics, because the Bible is very clear about them. In addition, there are many good resources for Christians to access, to make them informed. While we should not seek out arguments on these topics, neither should we back away when we can give an informed and wise response when the truth is challenged. No, it is not these issues that we are to avoid. The expression ‘foolish and unlearned questions’ is not hard to understand. There are opponents of God who love to goad Christians into such debates, knowing that at best they can make the Christian look silly, and at worst the Christian will have won a battle not worth the winning. There is a great difference between standing up for the truth and engaging in a useless argument, and for the sake of our testimony, we should know what that difference is.
An even greater harm can come when such contentions occur involving other Christians. I heard about an Assembly that at one time had very lively Bible readings. Some of those participating would deliberately present positions that they knew were opposed by other brethren, and those other brethren would respond in kind. This resulted in efforts to show each other up, and in growing resentments as the discussions became more abrasive. Worthy to note is that the Assembly is very small now, as hurt personal feelings eventually erupted into animosities that caused some to depart the fellowship. How sad! All over foolish and unlearned questions that gendered strifes.
Especially among Christians, we must learn that we can be agreeable about our disagreements, and we can avoid arguments over things that do not matter. -Jim MacIntosh