Does the Bible teach one to be open minded?

Question

Don’t associate with non-Christians. Don’t receive them into your house or even exchange greeting with them. 2 John 1:10

Shun those who disagree with your religious views. Romans 16:17

Paul, knowing that their faith would crumble if subjected to free and critical inquiry, tells his followers to avoid philosophy. Colossians 2:8

I know I am taking the verses out of context. The Bible would never teach something like this.

How can I be way off I'm just quoting God's word.

Answer 1

The bible is a pill to prevent thinking.

Answer 2

2 John 1:10: He is talking about the false prophets. He is saying do not welcome them into your homes to teach this blaspemy against God. If you read the whole paragraph ahead of it you would see his whole conversation about these false prophets is about not accepting there teaching because it is not the Word of God.

Romans 16:17: Again he is not talking about non-Christians. He is talking about these religious people leading the people in the wrong direction by not teaching the Word of God. These are the false prophets he is speaking of again. It is crucial to understand in this time how many people will come and appear to be religious and lead people away from God's Word.

Paul is telling the people the truth. He knew that in these days men would come up with theories brought upon by the wisdom of there minds, not from the wisdom of God. The whole point is to give a warning to the people of God that times were coming like this. It funny that he is right because look at our times now. Full of false prophets teaching from there own minds and not the Bible. The pope putting himself in the place of Jesus. And science molding peoples minds to think that there was a big bang and everything came together perfectly or that people evolved from bacteria. Sun in position perfectly to the Earth and all and humans perfectly evolving into this perfect form from bacteria. Yes! Science is so great!

Answer 3

You really are interpreting each of those texts in a way out fashion.
2 John 1:10 refers to people who claim to be believers who come and try to undermine your faith. He is definitely talking of people within the church. Like in 1 Corinthians 5, on moral questions ("I don't say to separate yourselves from those of the world who commit these things, but those who claim to be your brothers in Christ")
In Romans 16:17 he is talking aobut people within the church who are trying to cause divisions. Too many politicians of the wrong stripe get into the church. These are rabble rousers.
Colossians 2:8 is taliking about phony intellectualism. Some people are carried about by "every wind of doctrine". Somebody comes up with a new philososophy, and off I go!
He is encouraging the believers to be people who think for themselves, and not people who follow self-styled philosophic gurus.
Not every "philosophy" is healthy. Hitler's philosophy, for instance, was something to beware of.
The early Christian leaders often discussed with both pagan and Jewish teachers. They didn't keep to themselves.
EDIT:
Sometimes we can make a "cult" of being open-minded, in the sense that it is anti-intellectual to believe anything, or to come to any conclusion: you have to be open to believe anything if somebody comes along with convincing arguments. And if they don't, it "still might be true".
As in "Well, who am I to say 2 plus 2 can't equal 3? After all, I could be wrong". That's not open-mindedness, that's weak-mindedness.

Answer 4

You totally misquoted the 2 John verse, and didn't even bother to look a few verses up to see the context.

Again, completely misquoted and in error - it says that those who cause divisions and strife among the church members should be shunned. Makes sense

Again, you totally missed the point Paul was making.

Thanks for playing but you've missed the boat.

Answer 5

The bible might, BUT does the preist or church leader ? (most of the time they do not).

it is not the book that opens the mind, nor the words in it, it is the reader's willingness to open there mind and Question Everything they wish too.

Answer 6

You really need to read it all so you can see the context. Paul also said not to divorce our unbeleiving spouses because they are sanctified through the believer 1 Cor 7:14 and when youre in the home of an unbeliever, recieve their food with thanks and dont ask if it was sacrificed to idols.

Answer 7

The bible teaches you to know the truth!

There is an old saying, if an egale hangs with turkeys, he may get rosted!

Answer 8

In a round about way, yes. "Love thy neighbor" To love you must first have tolerance. To have tolerance, you must have acceptance. To be able to have acceptance of other people and their views, you must be at least a little open minded.

Answer 9

your way off again

Answer 10

yes because jesus is open-minded and gay