2Timothy 2:15 And Right Division
A Written compostion by The Heavenly Calling Network Study Group

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Pay Close Attention to exhibit yourself to God, toiling blamelessly, correctly cutting between parts of the word of truth.

The Word of truth is where we all, that belong to Jesus Christ, have a great need to be firmly grounded in. For His word is a lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path.

And 2Timothy shows us how we are to read and understand His word. In fact, unless the Word is correctly cut no one would get understanding to what He meant to give us. Therefore we must understand the truth so that we may exhibit ourselves correctly to our Father. To do that, we must correctly cut between parts of the word of truth.

Right Division, or Correctly cutting between parts, is the Greek word orthotomounta. This word appears only once in the New Testament. And because of this we can not search it out from that point of view.  We can however search it out in other sources. Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, is one  which shows that the meaning of the word is to cut in a straight line, which is a simple definition. We can get even a truer meaning of the word by looking more closely.  orthotomounta is a combination of two Greek words, that being tomeô, which means to cut between parts, separating , cut at the end, or cutting up. And the other Greek word being ortho, which means correctly, truly, rightly, or straightly. Others sources that can be used for searching the divided word is the  Homeric Dictionary, George Autenrieth and  William J. Slater, Lexicon to Pindar

Another source that can be used is the Septuagint itself, which is a Greek translation of the original Hebrew. The Septuagint uses another inflected form of the word, which has the same basic meaning. The inflected forms are orthotomei and orthotome.
 
The Latin Vulgate dropped the idea of cutting and took up the meaning to make straight and smooth, or to be more specific, to handle aright. Or to teach the truth correctly and directly. But in truth, that takes the word outside its contextured verse and drops off the word tomeô, which we already know and understand to mean to cut between parts, separating , cut at the end, or cutting up. And only leaving the word ortho, which was translated to recte tracto, to handle aright, teaching the truth correctly and directly. And many other bibles along the way have fallen suit. And there is nothing wrong with that at face value. It is a wonderful idea to teach the truth correctly and directly. Everyone who speaks of the Word of God should always keep that in mind. But the verse, in its context, and the Greek word orthotomounta shows something else more distinct.

The verse is clearly showing how we should be before God. It is good to be this way before man, but that is not the point of the verse. This verse clearly has nothing to do with teaching, even though we should keep that in mind when we teach. It is about toiling directly separating correctly the word of God. It means to delve into it ourselves separating His words Correctly. And not to listen, as the next verse points out, to shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

We must stay absolutely in the scriptures usage and meaning. It is our guide to do things the correct way so that we may understand what He wants us to learn and not what man once us to learn. Just as the verse teaches our one responsibility is to seek God's approval, and not man's. We are to pay very close attention in pursuing this as we delve into scriptures. We should undertake it blamelessly, working blamelessly.  And to do this correctly we must correctly cut between parts of the word of truth.

This is a great requirement to our understanding is His Word. The true word.  Correctly cutting between parts of the word of truth, what does that possibly mean? It is the traditional belief that all parts of scripture is to be taken to be for the Church of God and to every person at every step of history. The fact is that the word of God IS written for all persons, at every step of history, but it is even more true that not every instance of spoken word is marked with a destination to each and ever individual at every step of mans history.  


 Our Father shows us that all the words that are written are words written for our learning. Yet all the words written are not marked with our destination. In 1 Corinthians 10:32 our Father shows us that there are three distinct destinations whom the written word is written specifically for. It is written so that we may read and understand and learn.  But to its subject matter it is written with the principles, whom are involved, in mind. The three major destinations are the Jews, The Gentiles, and The Church of God.  

 Our Father wants us to understand that everything that goes to make up the Word of God is not only about one of these three, meaning all the words that are written are for me and whatever may be said about the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church of God are written from me as well. Understanding the word that way makes men blind with false wisdom. 

Many in Christiandom and those whom are Jews want to stay in this false wisdom because if they don't then it is thier understanding that the scriptures are being stolen from them. It is not seen with clear truth that nothing is being stolen but only being added to them in thier understanding. The whole written word, from Genesis 1:1 to the end of the Book of the Revelation is for all people to learn from. There is not one period or number or thought that can be excluded without great destruction to our necessary understanding. The fact is there is not any scripture that has been written that should be tossed out from our view.


Keeping that in mind, we must also understand we must cut correctly the word of truth so that the word of truth does not get robbed of its meaning and reason. It is not good for the Churches of God to take what is written for the Jews, or the Gentiles, and make it our own. What is written and marked with a destination for the Jews is only proper and appropriate if it is understood that it is written for the Jews. What is written and marked with a destination for the Gentiles is only proper and appropriate if it is understood that it is written for the Gentiles. And what is written and marked with a destination for the Church of God is only proper and appropriate if it is understood that it is written for the Church of God. 

The Jews, Gentiles, and the Church of God can profit a great deal from His word inwhich He breath for doctrine, instruction, reproof, and correction .  For as Romans 15:4 teaches us,  Whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning. But we must not steel and interpret everything that is written to be directly to us. If we do this we find our world ever changing and our feet will be floating around continually as we hear every wind of doctrine. Our feet will never be planted.