It is now almost a week since I made the decision to stop comments here on the blog. In the next few days I will also be deleting all the old ones. I have to say that, so far, I have not missed them. It's not so much that I don't want interaction with my readers—that, in any case, continues in other ways. Rather, I'm glad that the immediacy of that interaction is less, and its constant demands on my time have abated. Having one less demand on my time is so welcome!

Previously I felt constantly under pressure to monitor the stream of comments coming into my inbox to determine which ones should be approved. Part of the nature of these comments was that the majority of them seemed to disagree with the original post. I think this is partly because those who read a post and like it are unlikely to say so in a comment. I know that I myself am more inclined to respond to something that I dislike online. It is this argumentative aspect of comments that has bothered me somewhat. I genuinely believe that, for me at least, removing comments is a way of taking a step away from being quarrelsome.

I came across the following verse this week which made me think that I have done the right thing—at least for me in my situation.

"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will." (1 Timothy 2:22-26)

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If you miss making comments, you can always pop over to one of my reader's blogs who has begun an interesting discussion on Martyn Lloyd-Jones' views of guidance. He said to tell you that he would welcome your opinions! Or, you could go and read Alistair's transcription of what Driscoll really said about God hating sinners and join in the conversation over there.

UPDATE
In response to this post Rick asks, "Are Blog Comments Unscriptural?" whilst Dave Warnock collects the posts from those who think I should not have stopped publishing comments.