Rightly Dividing the Word

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Second Timothy 2:15 says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

     When my Father passed away, my Mother gave me his tool box.  I used a few of the tools in the next few years but there were some tools I had no idea what they were for.  I used to change the spark plugs on the car but now, I can’t even see the spark plugs and don’t know how to get to them. 

     If you have an opportunity to go to a professional in any field, you want them to have the right tools for the job.  As far as I know, Black and Decker don’t make tools used by your local dentist.  You also wouldn’t want your missiles and guns made by K-Mart.  The above passage of scripture speaks about having the right tools to preach or to teach or just to grow in  your Christian faith.  The verse is one of the more popular verses for religious institutions that train people for the ministry.  It was the theme verse for Washington Bible College as well as many other Bible colleges in the nation.  Paul was a tentmaker by trade and the above verse exhorts us to “cut it straight.”  Patterns have to be followed exactly if they are going to be used as intended.  If you cut the fabric crooked, it will not come out right.  Mom used to make some clothes out of old sacks that were used for chicken feed in the forties.  She would pin the pattern to the fabric and then very carefully cut the fabric to match the pattern.  Then all of the pieces would go together as intended.  The studying of the Word of God  is the practice of “cutting it straight.”   When you get done you can say that you rightly divided or cut it straight.  Many people begin with an assumption about something and then try to find a verse to support their assumption.  A paper was once written by a faculty member from a seminary to support deep sea divers in the Bible.  Obviously, it was a  joke that was based on the word “divers” as it appears in the Bible.  There are divers diseases and divers temptations mentioned in the Scripture but the references are not meant to imply the appearance of deep sea divers in the Bible.  The passages in question was not studied nor divided properly.  There are many cults present in today’s culture that do not claim that the Lord Jesus Christ is God.  In fact, that is one of the ways to determine if a person is speaking truth or falsehood.First John 4:2-3 exhorts us, “ Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:   And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”  Praise God we have His Word today.  May we all handle it properly.