Don't be ashamed

2 Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 

What is rightly dividing and why would I be ashamed of it? 

First, rightly dividing is recognizing that Scripture is laid out in a way that shows us the different administrations of God’s plan.  God had the task of writing a book that would give humans an accurate picture of who He is and how we can come to Him.  With Adam and Eve God showed us His care for humans and His desire for fellowship with them.  We also saw how seriously God takes sin as this first division ended and God threw Adam and Eve from the garden.  Can you see that God dealt with Adam and Eve differently than He dealt with Noah?  This is because before sin God could fellowship with man face to face, sin put a barrier up and deserved punishment so God showed another side of Himself.

When after humans were left to their own governing and became so wicked God could not look at it any longer, He showed His justice, judgment of wickedness and holy wrath as He sent a flood to wipe out all humanity.  After the flood, God made a promise (covenant) with mankind that He has not yet broken (Genesis 9).  God showed Himself to be a covenant making God. This is another division of Scripture.

Next, God made a promise to Abraham and set His descendents aside as a special people unto Himself.  Through Abraham God showed that He values Faith and obedience and those things would be counted as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).  This is another division of Scripture.

God then made a law for these descendents of Abraham (the nation of Israel) through His servant Moses.  God established Himself as holy and that man had to worship Him in a certain way.  Many people still attempt to follow these laws to the best of their ability.  Jesus when He came to earth was still under the Jewish laws that were established with Moses (Matthew 5:17). 

However, this time of the law ended as God ushered in His plan of the mystery through the apostle Paul.  Paul taught us many mysteries:  The mystery of the cross, the mystery of the church, the mystery of Jew and Gentile in one body, the mystery of Christ in us the hope of glory.  The list could go on (do a word study on the word mystery in Paul’s epistles and make a list of all that you learn).  This is the division or administration we currently find ourselves. 

So why would anyone feel shame over this teaching?  The biggest area of criticism over this teaching is that Christ was under the law in the gospels.  People like to apply the words of Christ, it is understandable, He is our leader, God, and lover of our souls.  However, when He took on flesh He humbled Himself to the restrictions of His body.  His body was Jewish and He followed the rules that other Jewish teachers followed.  Matthew is a book that shows Christ following the Mosaic law, so often when Jesus is speaking we have to keep His audience and the time period His was living under in mind.  According to John 1:11 who did Jesus come to? 

Another criticism of rightly divided teaching is that others say the church started at Christ’s birth, His baptism, His resurrection or at Pentecost.  I believe the correct division is later in Acts, check out Acts 9 when God calls Paul as an apostle to the Gentles, or Acts 13 where Paul sets aside the nation of Israel and turns to the Gentiles.  I believe this transition period between Acts 9 and 13 is where the correct division of Scripture takes place.  The implication of this is that the gospel’s often cannot be taken literally because the mystery was not yet revealed.  Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles who explains this division we currently live under. 

So are you ashamed to stand up for a rightly divided Scripture?  Next time we will talk about the ministry of correct division, if you understand this, you have a duty to share.