ACC ~ Titus 3 v10
CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES! CHRYSOSTOM: He shows that they do not so much err from ignorance as they owe their ignorance to their indolence. Those who are contentious for the sake of money you will never persuade. They are only to be persuaded, so long as you keep paying out, and even so you will never satisfy their desires. ⌠From such then, as being incorrigible, it is right to turn away. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 17.
AVOID THE ROCKS OF UNBELIEF. AMBROSE: This monsterâs cavern [of heresies], your sacred Majesty, is thick laid (as seafaring men do say it is) with hidden lairs, and all the surrounding neighborhood, where the rocks of unbelief echo to the howling of her black dogs, we must pass by with ears stopped up. For it is written: âHedge your ears about with thornsâ and again: âBeware of dogs. Beware of evil workersâ; and yet again: âOne who is a heretic, avoid after the first reproof knowing that such a one is fallen and is in sin, being condemned of his own judgment.â So then, like prudent pilots, let us set the sails of our faith for the course wherein we may pass by most safely and again follow the coasts of the Scriptures. OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 1.6.47.
REPROVE VAIN TEACHINGS. ATHANASIUS: Perhaps even thus being put to shame by the bad odor of their names, they [the heretics] may be enabled to grasp the depth of impiety into which they have fallen. It would be within our rights not to answer them at all, according to the apostolic advice: âOne who is heretical, after a first and a second admonition refuse, knowing that such a one is perverted and sins, being self-condemned.â This is even more the case, in that the prophet says about such men: âThe fool shall utter foolishness, and his heart shall imagine vain things.â But since, like their leader, they too go about like lions seeking whom among the simple they shall devour, we are compelled to write in reply to your piety, that the brethren being once again instructed by your admonition may still further reprove the vain teaching of those men. LETTER TO ADELPHUS 60.2.
COMMUNITY DISCIPLINE. BASIL THE GREAT: If he who has been corrected for his first sins and has been deemed worthy of pardon again falls, he prepares for himself a more wrathful judgment.He who after the first and second admonition remains in his fault should be reported to the superior, that perhaps he may be ashamed when further rebuked. But, if he does not even in this case correct himself, he must be cut off from the rest as a cause of scandal and be looked upon as a heathen and a publican. LETTERS 22.
Tit