Romans 16:18

For they that are such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly ["Belly" is meant to express all the appetites of the carnal life. The heretics here referred to, being mediocre and insufficient teachers in the true faith, resorted to the artifice of stirring up factions for the purpose of obtaining therefrom physical and pecuniary support. (Comp. Philippians 3:19) Their breed is not extinct. There are many who shine as heretics who would pass their lives in obscurity if they were orthodox, and there are also many who amass fortunes preaching lies who would live at a poor, starving rate if they preached the truth. But nothing better can be expected of the devotees of the belly]; and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent. [They succeeded, not by the inherent power of what they taught, but by the insidious manner in which they taught it. "Truth," says Trapp, "persuadeth by teaching, it doth not teach by persuading." It has always been a characteristic of truth that it comes to us in plain and simple garb, rugged, unadorned (Matthew 11:20; Acts 4:13; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; 2 Corinthians 3:12-13; 2 Corinthians 10:10; 2 Corinthians 11:6; James 3:17), and its rival, error, sits in the seat of the mighty, speaks with all subtilty and charms with rhetoric and oratorical display-- Acts 8:9; Acts 13:10; Acts 12:21-23; 1 Corinthians 8:1-2; 1 Timothy 6:3-5; 2 Timothy 3:7-8]