2 Timothy 2:15
Divide It Right
Woodlawn Baptist Church
July 24, 2004
Introduction
Today I want to take a short break from our series in the book of Esther and speak to you about a subject that is going to become more and more of an issue as the day of Christ draws near, and that is the mishandling of God’s Word. It is something that is today and always has been an issue faced by the Lord’s churches, and something that should not be tolerated in any form. Scripture teaches us that God’s Word can and should be handled correctly, and that we will give an account one day for the way we teach and preach it to others.
How important is it to understand the Bible? Is it possible for you to really understand it? Let me answer both of those questions briefly. First – it is of utmost importance that you and I understand the Bible. If it is God’s Word, revealing God’s will, then there is no more important thing in your life than to understand what it says: nothing. Secondly – if the Bible was given to reveal the truth and not to hide it, God must intend that we understand it. If we do not, then the fault must lie with us, not with Him. That leads us to the verse of Scripture that we’re going to consider today as we deal with the subject: Divide it Right. Writing to Timothy, who was at the time pastoring the church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul said,
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
There were some problems that had already begun cropping up in the church at Ephesus, problems which Paul knew of and addressed to Timothy, but problems which Timothy was going to have to address to the people himself. If you look at chapter one with me, you will see in 2 Timothy 1:7 that Paul was encouraging Timothy not to be afraid of his opposition, but to be willing to endure afflictions for the sake of the gospel. He tells him in verse 13 to “hold fast the form of sound words.” In chapter 2, he uses some analogies to get the idea across: to be strong, to endure hardness like a good soldier; to follow the rules just like an athlete has to do in order not to be disqualified, and to work like a farmer does, enjoying the fruits of his labor.
These were no small orders from this seasoned missionary. Timothy was filled with apprehension and fear, but attending to his duties would help to take his mind off the fears and would at the same time strengthen him. So in 2 Timothy 2:14, Paul tells him to remind the people of God’s truths, because they were getting into wordy battles that weren’t profiting anyone. While the church was being persecuted from the outside, the people were subverting the unity of the church with their trivial, unimportant issues. They needed to concentrate on matters of life and death, time and eternity, judgment and reward – the “things” about which Paul had just been writing – instead of striving over words. Of course, these were not the only problems at Ephesus. Paul spoke about members who were blasphemers, others who were teaching false doctrines, and as our text implies, some were misapplying the Scriptures either knowingly or unknowingly.
In this message, I want to share with you in brief some reasons you must be a lifelong student of the Scriptures, and some of the basic principles for understanding what the Bible says and teaches. First let’s take a closer look at what 2 Timothy 2:15 says.
“Study to show thyself approved unto God…” If Timothy was going to address the issues of his day, then he was going to have to apply himself to more diligent, systematic and thorough in his Bible study. The word “study” means to be diligent. It conveys the idea of hurrying to do something and of exerting oneself. When it gets right down to it, it means that you must be willing to put in some hard work. You’ve got to give it some effort if you are going to learn what it teaches. You can’t study the Scriptures and obey this command with a casual glance or by listening to a sermon. Some of the most dangerous people I know are those who have heard a sermon or two, or have read something somewhere and then decide they are experts on some Bible passage or subject. It takes time and effort to get it right.
And what is the goal of our study? Is it to impress you or someone else? Is it to get a degree or a diploma? No! We study so that we might be presented to God in such a way that He approves of our efforts. The next time you sit down to study the Scriptures and are tempted to quit or move on, ask yourself a simple little question: Would God approve of my efforts? Have I given to Him my best?
You see, the verse says, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed…” The word “workman” is a word that is used for laborer. I want you to close your eyes for just a moment and imagine with me a vast open field that is ready to be worked. Thousands of acres lie before you, and you stand alone at the edge. Where do you start? How long will it take? That’s the idea here. “Bible study, properly done, entails a great deal of hard labor because the field is vast, the issues are profound, and the disagreements are many and varied.”
You could study the nature, attributes, character and names of God, or perhaps you’d rather study the deity, preexistence, attributes, incarnation, life, teachings, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, or the second coming of Christ. You could study the person and work of the Holy Spirit and the relationships He sustains with lost and saved people. There is the study of the Bible – its divine and human authorship, its inspiration, its inerrancy, its infallibility, its authority, its composition and its preservation. What about studying angels, or the end times? You might study ethics, morality, biology, government, and on and on the list could go! No wonder Paul tells Timothy to be a workman.
Let me tell you something that may come as a surprise to you. Every one of you is going to give an account one day for how you handled God’s Word. Certainly those of us who preach and teach it will be held to a higher standard, but all of you will be held responsible, and many believers, some of you included, will be ashamed when you do.
Let us read the last part of our verse now. “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” There are many ideas about what it means to rightly divide the word of truth. I was taught in seminary that it meant to diagram it so that I could see its various parts. Some say that it means to cut it straight, giving to everyone the portions they need, but the best sense of what it means seems to be that we must handle God’s truth honestly, fully, and straightforwardly. We must plow a straight row in exploring and expounding the Scriptures. It means that we must be consistent, that we must allow the Scriptures to harmonize with themselves, and that we must not deviate from it to suit anyone’s beliefs, even our own.
To not rightly divide the word is to open ourselves up to certain dangers. Let me share with you three such dangers to which each of you is susceptible:
Taking Scripture out of context to teach personal beliefs
Let me give you a classic example of how we do this. Over the course of the last few years, I have been asked on more than one occasion about interracial relationships, specifically white people dating or marrying black people. One lady asked me, “Brother Kevin, where is that verse in the Bible that says blacks and whites shouldn’t mix?” Some people have very strong beliefs about this being wrong, and there is nothing wrong with a person believing such a thing, but the Bible doesn’t teach it unless verses are taken out of context to do so. My message this morning is not about this issue, so that’s all I’ll say about it. If you want to know more, then study. There are many issues just like this one where people take Scripture out of context to teach their personal beliefs, but it is a great danger, because once you do such a thing, you have imposed your belief system upon the perfect Word of God, and in so doing, you have made the Bible subject to your beliefs. It must be changed to fit your beliefs instead of you changing your beliefs to fit the Bible.
Worship is a good example of what I am talking about. What constitutes Scriptural worship? Are praise choruses right or wrong? Are guitars and drums right or wrong? Is a piano and organ right or wrong? Is clapping right or wrong? Most of you have an opinion about every one of those questions, but many people go beyond an opinion and use Scripture to back up their opinion, and more often than not, those Scriptures are mishandled and abused in order to support a personal belief when it originally had nothing to do with what is being defended.
Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men
What I mean here is that there is a very real danger of teaching traditions as though they were Bible doctrines. Jesus faced this sort of thing. The Pharisees were bound in their traditionalism, and when Jesus and the disciples didn’t conform to it, the Pharisees were offended. Jesus said to them on once occasion, “You worship me in vain, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Again, let me give you some examples. Does the Bible teach us not to drink beverages in the sanctuary? Our traditions can very easily begin to sound like Bible doctrines.
It is a tradition in Baptist churches to meet for worship on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights, but does the Bible teach it? We were told at camp that it does. You see how a tradition can quickly be presented as a Bible doctrine? Does the Bible teach us when to meet? Why don’t you study it to find out what it really says? It is only through rightly dividing the Bible that you can learn the answers, because again, the danger here is allowing our traditions to become the authority in our lives as we make the Scriptures teach what our traditions say, rather than changing our traditions.
Falling prey to false teachings that sound like the truth
Perhaps one of the greatest dangers you face if you do not consistently and thoroughly study your Bible is this danger of falling prey to false teachings that sound like the truth. So many believers just accept what so-called Bible scholars say without checking it out for themselves. There is nothing wrong with using the preaching or writing of gifted, godly men, so long as you listen to them and read them with great caution. That goes for me too – because as sincere as I try to be in my study of the Scriptures, I am prone to make mistakes.
You have a personal responsibility to study and understand the Bible. Love or admiration for any Bible teacher or preacher can easily lead to an abandonment of personal responsibility. I love and admire several men of God, some of whom are very well known. Charles Stanley, John McArthur, Tony Evans, John Piper and Billy Graham are just a few of them, but they all teach a universal church. Famous or not – theirs is a false doctrine, and many of our own people believe it simply because they said it.
It offends me for someone to hear something I teach or preach, then come to me and say, “Preacher, I know you said this, but so and so said something else.” Now, them saying it doesn’t offend me – they can believe what they want. What offends me is that because they are on TV or the radio you believe them first when you haven’t and aren’t going to take the time to study it for yourself. That offends me – a believer who blindly accepts the teachings of someone without giving attention to personal study.
Those are just a few of the dangers that await you who are not being students of the Word of God. Trusting that you have a desire to become a better student of the Bible (and all of you who claim to be saved will have such a desire), what are some of the most important principles to remember? What are the essentials that are necessary?
Regeneration
You must be saved if you are to understand the things of the Spirit. It is absolutely essential. 1 Corinthians 2:11-14 says,
“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
You must be born again if you are going to study the Bible and grasp some understanding of it. It will not make sense otherwise.
Commitment
Salvation is essential, but it alone will not qualify you to understand the truth of God. You’ve got to have confidence in the Bible, put your faith in it, which means that you are going to yield your life to it. It is one thing to say you believe the Bible, but something altogether different to yield your life to it. It takes solid commitment to spend time in God’s Word. It takes commitment to turn off the television, to roll out of bed a little earlier, to spend money on the right resources and to put in the effort to really study the Scriptures. It is only when you are truly committed to obey God that you will “study to show yourself approved unto God, a hard worker who has no need to be ashamed of his workmanship.”
Prayer
Did you know that prayer is one of the greatest evidences of your faith? When you go to the Lord in prayer you are expressing to Him an absolute dependence on Him to meet your needs. God takes great delight in your asking Him for help to understand His Word. David prayed for understanding when he said,
“I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.”
And James told us that if we lack wisdom, we are to ask of God in faith. Don’t ever forget that although God’s Word is perfect, you are not. You are prone to making mistakes and coming up with wrong interpretations of Scriptures. It is for that very reason you ought to go to the Author of the Bible and ask Him for help in understanding it.
Humility
Humility is appropriate since we are dealing with the Word of God. It is also appropriate because of our nature. We are finite and are subject to error. We are fallen and see reality only through the eyes of sin. It stands to reason therefore that an attitude of humility before the Word of God is essential if you and I are to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Conclusion
Have you been the student of God’s Word that you ought to be? If you were to stand before the Lord today, at this very moment, would you stand before Him ashamed of how you have treated His Word or could you stand before Him with a clear conscience, knowing that you have done all you could do to learn and know Him and His Word? Have you been guilty of mishandling the Bible? Have you made your personal beliefs or our Baptist traditions the authority in your life? Or is the Word of God the sole authority for your life?
Perhaps today you realize that you’ve been unable to understand the Scriptures because you don’t really know Christ as your Savior. You’re tired of not knowing, tired of the searching, tired of the thirst, and today you know that He is leading you to accept Him as the answer to your greatest and deepest need. Would you repent of your sin of unbelief and call on Him to save you?
