I believe that God’s greatest disappointment in the Christian Church is our lack of solid unity. Know one knows who originated the phrase, ‘Divide and conquer,’ but they were spot on!
Oh what we could have accomplished for The Kingdom had it not been for a divided church!
How did this division come about? Basically, it all boils down to personal opinion! At some point in time, there was a scribe, a monk, a vicar, a priest or what ever, who read a text and decided for himself that: this is what God’s Word says… but this is what God actually means. We may called that event ‘interpretation,’ but the truth of the matter is: interpretation really means ‘This is what I assume and therefore believe that this text is actually saying.’ And so the spiral toward division began!
Fast forward two thousand years. Now what are we to do? God gives us the answer to this dilemma in 2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
I see several interesting word usages in this passage. Study tells me that I’m not simply to read scripture, but to ponder over it, to delve deeply into it to and to discern exactly what it is telling us. Approved tells me that I am gaining the approval of God by making a diligent effort to understand exactly what He is telling me through His written Word. Ashamed speaks to me of failure, and recognition of that unacceptable, wrongful, and even hurtful act of failure. Finally, dividing speaks to me of separation, removing error and casting it aside, and understanding and embracing only truth!
We are blessed to be thought of as the ‘Children of God.’ But in truth, although we may be adult in age, we are still children in spirit. And as ‘childish’ children, we continue childish and immature thinking long into adulthood. As children, we are easily led astray. Our very carnal world of today is filled with ‘Pied Pipers’ at every turn, attempting to lead us not to — but away from God. And these modern Pipers use every trick in the book. And the oldest trick of all is making the ‘bad’ to appear as ‘good’ and leading us away from God’s will while causing us to believe we are heading into His will.
This is why more than ever we must all study to show ourselves approved unto God, rightly dividing the word of truth, workmen that need not to be ashamed!
The second chapter of 2nd Timothy goes on to say in verse 23:
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
The question is, ‘What is a foolish question? And, who determines if it is or is it not, foolish? The verse above certainly implies that we should know the difference!
God always reveals the truth! We often think that he’s slow in doing it, yet He always works within His own time frame-work… and that always proves to be right, best, and the best for us all. Our knowledge of truth is usually a process! Our responsibility is to ‘allow’ God to work His way and His will with patience. We have a strong ally to make our ‘burden’ of patience lighter, and that is prayer.
We must remember: It is God who does the ‘real’ work, we are but His ‘helpers.’ His truth SHALL reign!
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Pen In Hand 