I am fearful that my peers and I are too often focused on the wrong thing.
There is phrase that occasionally gets tossed about in conversations with my peers: we take very seriously the responsibility to “rightly divide the Word of truth.”
We toss that slogan about like a doctrinal badge of honor, or as pronouncement of judgment on those who fall short of our standards.
But is this type of division the ONLY one we should be talking about?
Don’t get me wrong. I fully believe that it’s important to teach the truth accurately. That’s how most translations of the Bible interpret the phrase in 2 Timothy 2:15 from which this slogan derives. (The “rightly divided” turn of phrase come from the King James).
This passage (along with chapter 3) teaches that God’s Word (Scripture) is of the utmost importance: to mishandle it is a travesty of the worst kind.
There is nothing more tragic than a theological pirate who commandeers the Word of God for selfish purposes. That’s essentially who Paul speaks out against throughout the book of 2 Timothy.
Rightly handling the word defends against false teachers who needlessly argue (2:14), babble incoherently (2:16), undermine the faith of others (2:17), and deny the truth about Christ (2:18). Paul’s picture of such persons doesn’t get much better in chapter 3.
But I fear that Christian leaders and thinkers can talk about “rightly dividing the Word” in a way that leads us down a dangerous path.
We talk about “rightly dividing the Word” and assign a scary amount of authority to our own handling of Scripture. Our theological precision becomes a sword, either for our personal defense or for attack on our opponents.
Who's the pirate now?
Please hear me correctly, I am not denying the necessity of guarding sound doctrine and rightly dividing the Word - refer to the above paragraphs on 2 Timothy for review.
But I am saying that it’s easy to get out of balance.
That’s because we are not meant only to divide the Word of God, the Word of God is meant to rightly divide us.
Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
If we focus on rightly interpreting the Bible without standing under its authority to judge us, we've grown dangerously out of balance. God's Word, meant as a sword to subject our own hearts, becomes a weapon of destruction in our hands.
How do I know this happens? I've done it myself.
But I hope you'll join me in falling on your sword.
Let's allow Scripture to divide our own hearts as a vital component of what it means to divide the Word rightly.
-BJ
