Winning Wisdom: Rightly Divide

Topic: Rightly Divide [Thursday, 21st September, 2017]

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

Another thing that brings about wrong doctrines in the church the word of truth is being discerned individually. This is very important, as however you interpret and understand the scriptures is how you’ll walk the walk of faith. In our anchor passage, Paul writes to Timothy to rightly divide the word of truth, as any wrong dividing would be fatal to the flock. We see a lot of such fatality in the Church today because of wrong interpretation of the word of truth. Now, we are not talking about things that cannot be found in scripture. It’s things that seem to be found in scripture because the scriptures is being wrongly interpreted.

Here are three tips to help you understand the Word of Truth:

First is interpretation by the Holy Spirit. We established yesterday that the Holy Spirit is the One Who inspired all scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16), and that it is only by Him we can get the right interpretation of what He inspired (John 14:26, John 16:13). Any source other than Him will basically be faulty. Second is to get a Hebrew and Greek concordance. This is because the original Bible texts were not written in English or any other language, but in Greek and Hebrew. Now during translation some words in the Greek did not fit into any English words, so the nearest to them were used. Now, with the concordance, you can know the original word used, and it’s actual meaning and explanation. This would help you overcome the limitations of the English language in interpretation of the scriptures. It’ll also give you a clearer and broader picture of what scripture teaches.

The third is to read scriptures in context. By this, you read the whole text, and not just lift out one verse, or one line of verse, without understanding properly what the writer was really trying to teach. This will save you a lot of issues, as reading the whole passage would give you a fuller picture, and not a crooked half distorted picture, helping you better understand the message. When reading a verse, read the verse before it, and the one after it, to better bring it into context. The word is the most vital part of our Christian living, and requires utmost care and skill in its interpretation otherwise a lot of things will go haywire.

Keep winning daily.

Wise Action:

When studying, make sure your mind is open and unbiased to the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Get a concordance for better explanation, and read texts in the context of what the writer is teaching for better understanding of the message.

By Esun Tekeme