It has been said that sound Biblical doctrine is obtained in much the same manner as making a quilt. Many years ago, I can remember my mother and grandmother laboring weeks and months over the design and sewing of a beautiful quilt. Here are some tips for quilt making: “Be precise to ensure points and seams match perfectly. Use tools wisely, especially when rotary cutting. You must cut correctly, sew accurately and press precisely.” One cannot help but recall that Paul was also a tentmaker and must have employed many of the same techniques.
In fact, it may have been from this background that he uses the word “orthotomeo” in 2nd Timothy. The word appears nowhere else in the New Testament and is only used twice in the Greek Septuagint (Old Testament) for the Hebrew “vashar” which means to be right, or straight.
In his second imprisonment in Rome, Paul writes 2nd Timothy to his beloved disciple and protégé, in what is believed to be his last epistle. It is his “last will and testament” written from a dungeon. He is in chains, is being treated as a criminal, and he knows that his end is coming. But remarkably Paul writes this as a letter of encouragement to Timothy to carry on the ministry.
Within this final letter Paul emphasizes in the four chapters the theme of loyalty: loyalty in suffering, loyalty in service, loyalty in apostasy, and the Lord’s loyalty to His servants in persecution. It is last communication to us and it has the overtone of triumph. It is within this context that we find this verse:
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2nd Timothy 2:15 KJV). “Orthotomeo” is Greek for “rightly dividing.” It means to cut in a straight line, and the fact is we cannot cut without dividing. To divide belongs to the very nature of the act of cutting. It would be a word commonly used by a tentmaker. The NIV translates as “correctly handles the word” but this dilutes the original meaning of “orthotomeo.”
Not only is this verse a command of the Lord, but within the context of verses 14-19 it is also a warning. For if you can “rightly divide” the Word then you can also wrongly divide it. If you do not obey this verse, then you can fall into doctrinal error much like Hymanaeus and Philetus did in verses 17 and 18 whereby they departed from the truth. Not to go back and analyze, but their teaching was described as a “canker” or a gangrenous infection in the church that led to the destruction of faith in some. (Read 1st Timothy 1:20). False doctrine is certainly dangerous and it can multiply itself.
To “study” means to be diligent and zealous. To be a “workman” comes the reminder that the Word is a treasure that the Christian steward must guard and invest. It is for this reason that the Berean Church was commended for zealously searching the Scriptures to confirm a teaching. (Acts 17:11)
The Bible is a well organized integral whole and that is why it must be studied in its entirety. You must know your Bible, not just your favorite epistle. We must keep the whole Bible in view to interpret it correctly. According to this passage in 2nd Timothy, we do this before God to whom we will stand or fall. It is not to gain the approval of other people.
Taking a verse out of context, ignoring grammar or the meaning of words, or distorting the meaning of a verse altogether undermines the authority of the Bible.
Dispensations are critical and the Bible is to be taken literally. Dispensation today makes a lot of people unnecessarily nervous but Paul uses the word “dispensation” (Greek “oikonomia”) four times and today we are under the administration of grace or the “age of grace.”
To put this in perspective, Abel and Abraham brought a small lamb to sacrifice unto the Lord. Did you take a small lamb to church this past Sunday? Of course not. We live under a different dispensation today, the dispensation of grace.
As students of the Bible, we learn that the rightly divided Word must fit from Genesis to Revelation. This means that it cannot have any contradictions. We learn that the Word harmonizes and fits together precisely much like the making of a quilt or tent. The Word interprets itself in the verse, in context, and as it has been used before.
We wrap ourselves in an entire blanket or quilt, not a portion of it. And a tent with gaping holes in it will not keep you warm or dry. Likewise, we are to embrace the entire Bible and not discard or discount portions of it as being “allegorical” simply to be ignored.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2nd Timothy 3:16-17)