Rightly dividing???

By letting scripture interpret scripture

 

Thats part of it, comparing scripture with scripture. I would also say that is why He teaches us to meditate on His Word.
Look at how the very teachings of God Himself are divided. Right down the middle. Good/Evil, Sin/Rightiousness, Life/Death, Love/Hate. I'm speaking of His thoughts, not ours or our interpertations. He only has two sides of every issue..it's right...or it's wrong. We, through the centuries have added, or subtracted instead of dividing.
Think of it this way, you & a friend are both hungry. You have an apple, one apple. How to rightly divide it? Right down the middle, through the core. Both recieve equal amounts of the nutrients the apple has to offer. 2 people, 2 pieces. Each of you may eat it differently, even discard part, but it was rightly divided, you started with the exact same pieces. Not sure how good the analogy is but thats what came to me.

 

Dissecting was a good way to look at it.
It is not referring to a single passage of the Bible, but to the entirety of it.
Remember the frogs in bio class?

You look at each part to see how it goes with all the others to make the whole thing function as a unit.

Actually, I should have just let standingfirm's post ride. He said it well.

MR

 

Here are several translations for comparison.

(ASV) Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth.

(BBE) Let it be your care to get the approval of God, as a workman who has no cause for shame, giving the true word in the right way.

(CEV) Do your best to win God's approval as a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed and who teaches only the true message.

MR

 

Albert Barnes:
Rightly dividing the word of truth - The word here rendered “rightly dividing,” occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means, properly, “to cut straight, to divide right;” and the allusion here may be to a steward who makes a proper distribution to each one under his care of such things as his office and their necessities require;

Reminds me of when I was a kid and I divided a candy bar with my sister. When she was real little I could break the candy bar into two pieces of any size and give her the smaller one and she was okay with that. As she got older and noticed that my piece was bigger than hers I would bite off a portion of my piece until they were the same size and she was okay with that. As she got a little older she wanted to be the one who divided it but I wasn't willing to do that. Final outcome was that one would do the dividing and the other would choose which piece to get, exact fairness resulted. I think this verse has to do with making a fair and honest judgement of what the bible says without worrying whether it "fits" a preconcieved notion. Obey what it says and let the chips fall where they may. Context counts, this is just part and parcel of fair judgement.

 

Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

I know how to "wrongly divide" the word......
Thomas Jefferson took out a pair of scissors and cut out the parts he disagreed with.

 

And TJ had MANY disciples, as we find today!

I'll have to remember that. As a layman, I once tore apart an old inexpensive Bible is a message many years ago. Interestingly enough, if you tear out enough sections, in the right places, with the right binding, the remainder will finally just fall out, and you will be left holding just the cover for effect, should one care to try, sometime.
After asking my own church if many were shocked at this (They WERE!! Can you believe that???), I then asked what was the difference?

I used three illustrations.

1.) I tore out sections of one of my own Bibles in a printed copy, and was left holding an empty shell. This I did, openly, for them to see.
2.) We, by our lives and testimony, do the same thing, far too often, in how we live, leaving only a hollow shell for others to see.
3.) Too many so-called self-styled 'scholars' do the same thing with their so-called 'critical scholarship' in our religious colleges and seminaries, leaving that same empty cover for the students to see, and they wind up preaching that empty shell for the church to see.

I suggest that the first does far less to 'hurt the Bible' than do the other two.

BTW, the best rendering of the verse is probably "cutting straight" as was rendered by Albert Barnes and cited above.

In His grace,
Ed

 

Its a powerful illustration, even over the computer. I can well see its effect when you are sitting right there watching.

 

THE FATHER
THE SON
THE HOLY GHOST

"Rightly Divided", explains the OT, the NT, The Rapture, The tribulations, The Mill Reign, The GWT Judgment, and Eternity.

"Rightly dividing" the "WORD" (God) explains "Everything".

Heb 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,

 

"All" scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. If "all" means "all" then dispensationalists, such as I am, should not be feared. Neither should Reformers. Lets let the Bible be the Bible. I think the emphasis in this verse is on the word "rightly" as oppsed to wrongly.

 

I was wondering when a true to heart dispensationalist would give their 2 cents. Seems you missed the point I was trying to make; this verse does not say the word is “rightly divided” as in ready to be chopped up with many cuts and put in the order you like and is certainly not justification for supporting the action; it is talking about how to examine and study the word as in making a straight single cut as if by a single stroke; it actually means the opposite of the implication of repeated blows, (like hacking). My point being the word “dividing” implies to cut into like in a straight clean path to study; it doesn’t have anything to do with dividing it into pieces, that is actually the opposite of what this phrase “rightly dividing” means. I think this verse has been grossly misinterpreted to support various systematic theologies at the roots.

Scripture in context please </font>[/QUOTE]Joh 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

 

"Rightly dividing" can also be applied in the sense of a butcher.

I also have an illustration in which I tear apart a Bible. (I usually get one from the dollar store, which is printed so small you can barely read it any way.)

So many preachers preach every message about salvation. The Church (and the church) is not for the lost; it's for those in the family. If we are to preach and teach on salvation in every message, then we just need to get rid of the rest (I tear out parts of it, until I am just left with one page: Acts 16), and then I tear down the page so that all I have left is verse 30 & 31, and say, "There, that's all we need to preach the message of salvation".

Most people get the point, but some get offended by the message, and many get offended by tearing up a book.

 

Both of these Bible tearing ilustrations sound great...Just a thought though...next time you guys should pick up a NWT or a Liberal paraphrase for the illustration. The crowd won't no the difference and you will rid the world of one more spiritually dangerous document.

Max

 

Everything earthly has a “flip” side. In the beginning, in Genesis 1:1, and then on God shows He is a God of division. We must find what He has divided in His Word, and bring it together. He is a God of division but in the end He brings back together again. There is no guesswork here, for when we correctly divide His Word out, it will fit perfectly when brought together.

We are to take (read and understand) the whole Bible as the Word of God, and it is one
bible. Inside we see that it has “divisions” (could these be His dispensations?), and we progress from one to the other. By the time we finish and close the Bible, it is again one in completion.

When we start at the beginning of the book, then progress to the end without understanding His Word, we leave it in tatters. It is as we picked it up, a closed book and then we read, and then close it. I was a closed book when we picked it up, and it remains a closed book when we close it. Why is it a closed book to so many, with all those contradictions? Some think the gospel has always been the same.

Christian faith, ituttut

 

Hey Benjamin. I find God dispenses help in the time of need. He did this as He revealed to those the dry land as He divided the Red Sea. We can clearly see a dispensation of God as He divides out Paul from all men, separating him from his own people, and the Gentiles, in order to reveal to Him His heavenly gospel. God dispensed His power in dividing the light from the dark, revealing the first day.

But, as example to make prophecy fit, wasn’t it necessary to “divide” prophecy? Jesus says in Matthew 11:13, ” For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” John is revealed to man as God will be giving a gospel he will preach. God has separated John from the others of his people, and this separated one will preach the revealed gospel of “repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, to the nation of God." Now if God had not separated John out of prophecy, and revealed to John his gospel, could prophecy as prophesied of the forerunner of Jesus have been revealed. God separated out John as He gave John his dispensational gospel for the Jew of “repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins”. This is a new gospel now revealed for God has separated prophecy, and this revelation in God’s granting to the Jew His grace with their work, will allow progression to the next step, which of course leads to Jesus Christ. I believe that will hold water.

Peter built on that foundation, as did Paul, but Paul tells us he will not build on top of another man's (Peter') foundation. Both foundations are on the same cornerstone. In the Temple are the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place

It doesn’t strike you odd that John the Baptist never preached the “good news” of the Cross, nor Jesus; Peter or the others. In Acts 2:38 Peter is still preaching the gospel of John the Baptist. This is the gospel the Catholic church believes. They believe they are extension of Peter and the church of James, the church of works. Is that the gospel we are to believe?

You know what the everlasting gospel of God is? I believe we see it in Revelation 14:6-7, ”And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 7. Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” At my young age of salvation, that was what brought me to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for my salvation. I was afraid I would die and go to hell. It is so easy for us to look back, after having the benefit of the knowledge found after Damascus Road. Those then had no idea of the notion of coming through faith. But coming though the blood of Jesus Christ was an impossibility for the likes of Moses and David. They didn’t know by what name they would be saved, and they couldn’t come though Jesus’ blood, which had not been shed.

It is only after we read Paul that we understand our salvation, and how others were saved in the dispensation of God that they lived in, and what He revealed to them at time that they must believe, and do. We are separated from that Jewish Pentecostal church in this dispensation.

As long as we believe His word as He dispenses it to us what you say is true. But King Saul did not have the gospel available to him that I have, so in that dispensation that is separated from ours, he could not be OSAS and sealed by the holy spirit into the Body of Christ. We must believe what God tells while we live for our salvation is Now, and not believe what he tells someone else on the other side of the Cross.

Christian faith, ituttut