Rightly Dividing The Word of Truth (Sis Edwina Roberts)

Women's Bible Study
Tuesday July 31,2007
Rightly Dividing The Word of Truth

2 Tim 2:15 “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

What is truth? According to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, truth is conformity to fact, faithfulness to an original or standard. In the Old and the New Testament truth is a moral and personal quality of God.

In Psalm 119:142 the Psalmist declared, "Your law is truth", in Psalm 119:151 "All your commandments are truth" and in Psalm 119:160 “The entirety of your word is truth.”

Because of His perfect nature and will, God has to speak and act in truth; He cannot lie. 1Samuel 15:29, Hebrews 6:18, James 1:17-18

Jesus is the Word of God who became flesh, "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) God is truth, the Spirit is truth, and Jesus is truth.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."(John 14:6) Jesus and the revelation which the Spirit of truth gave through His apostles are the final-ultimate definition of truth about God and man.

"The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." John 1:17

Now that we understand that "truth" is everything that is written in the Bible, we come to the "rightly" dividing of that truth. “Rightly Dividing-Correctly handling the Word of God in both analysis and presentation”, “Analysis-Separation of a whole into its component parts”, and “Presentation-Something offered or given”.

We now know that every scripture is truth and there is a reason and purpose for it.

So in "rightly" dividing, let us go to 1 Cor 14:34-35 "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. 35 And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."

We have already established that if it is in the Bible it is truth. So obviously that scripture means exactly what it says.

The question is why don't we preach it and obey what it says? It is Bible and therefore it is truth.

This is where "rightly" dividing the Word of Truth comes in. In 1 Cor. 14:34-35 the apostle Paul was talking to the Corinthian Church about something that was happening in the Church in that day. So what was happening? It was a question of authority and submission. Women were usurping the authority of the men in their churches by speaking out when it was not appropriate. They were not being respectful or obedient to their "head" their husband. Therefore Paul was telling them to wait and ask their question at home.

How do we know that Paul did not intend for that scripture to be interpreted to mean that women should never speak in Church, although that is what it said, and although it is Bible and although it is truth, because it would have contradicted the following Word of Truth.

Acts 21:8-9 “And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him. 9 And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.”

Notice; in order to prophesy we have to speak!

Luke 2:36-38 "And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; 37 And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
38 And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem."

Some of the finest leaders in Israel were women, in spite of the fact that the culture was male-dominated. God revealed His Word through Prophetesses.

In Acts 18:26 God used Priscilla, a woman and her husband Aquila to explain the way of God more perfectly to Apollos the preacher.

Why would Paul mean that women should never speak in church when clearly according to the Word, according to truth, God Himself used women to help reveal His Word.

Paul was asking the women in the Corinthian Church to be submissive to their husbands in order to preserve order within the Church and to be a witness to outsiders.

This should be a case in point as to what it means to "rightly" divide the truth. If there is a "rightly" then there most also be a "wrongly."

If we had wrongly divided the truth of 1Cor. 14:34-35 look what we would have missed---the anointed ministry of Thetus Tenney, Vesta Mangun, Nona Freeman, Joy Haney, to name a few.

Another case in point; Matthew 28:19: Jesus said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:"

At first glance it appears that Jesus is saying what is to be said over the individual in baptism. After all it is Bible, it is the Word, and it is truth.

But in "rightly" dividing the truth we find that Jesus is the name of the Father, Jesus is the name of the Son and Jesus is the name of the Holy Ghost.

We also see that in the book of Acts everyone was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. This scriptural truth is validated in the 8th chapter of Acts, 10th chapter of Acts and the 19th chapter of Acts.

The prophet Hosea said, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:" Hos 4:6

We need to be very careful that we "rightly" divide the Word of Truth.

Respectfully,

Edwina Roberts