I have a friend who refers to it as “Chad.” As in, “Let me ask Chad about that.” And he asks Chad about a lot. All the time, it seems. Chad is ChatGPT.

I don’t have a ChatGPT account yet, but my friend — as well as some other friends who are also on a first name basis with Chad — has certainly opened me up to the possibilities Chad brings and I’ve been increasingly asking Chad questions and having Chad do a few things (mostly book summaries) over recent months. This morning marks the first time Chad has been consulted during my morning meal.

What did I want Chad’s “insight” on? The difference between division and polarization.

As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

(Titus 3:10-11 ESV)

A person who stirs up division . . . That’s what I’m chewing on this morning. Especially in light of a culture that is commonly referred to today as “polarizing.”

As I hover over this exhortation I think to myself, “Self, because we now use the language of polarization, have we failed to recognize the sin of division?” “Well,” I say back to myself, “we have if being polarizing is the same as being divisive.” At that point, I think to myself, “Let me ask Chad about that.”

Division? “A state of disagreement or separation between people or groups, which may or may not be extreme.” Polarization? “The process by which opinions or positions become more extreme and move toward opposite ends of a spectrum.” The analogy Chad offers is that if division is like a crack forming in a surface which pushes people apart, polarization is like a magnet pulling people to opposite poles. My takeaway? They are the same thing, differentiated only by a matter of degree and intensity.

So, would it be fair to replace “stirs up division” with “is polarizing” in Paul’s exhortation to Titus as an appropriate application? I’m thinkin’ . . .

Being polarizing is sin. Engaging in polarization is sin. It’s warped, twisted, subversive. As the people of God, we should have nothing to do with it.

While we may not be surprised that the world about us has embraced it, we should be alarmed if this more extreme and intense form of separation is finding its incorporation within the church.

Sure, the specific context for the plea to Titus is about avoiding “foolish discussions about spiritual pedigrees or in quarrels and fights about obedience to Jewish laws” (Titus 3:9 NLT), but is it any less foolish to get sucked into factious debates about worldly identities and ideology which so often serve only to dampen and even war against the eagerness we are to have “to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3)? Thinkin’ it’s very much the same thing.

Stirring up division. We should have nothing to do with it.

Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing.

(2Corinthians 6:17 ESV)

Be separate from them . . .

If there’s ever an area where, though we are in the world, we are not to be of the world, stirring up division is it. And that just might be healthy polarization. Amen?

By His grace. For His glory.