Exits
2
Timothy 2:15 reads:
Be
diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Though
I have had this scripture memorized for over 30 years and could easily have
quoted it in its entirety, my thoughts would have flowed more like: work hard
at knowing the accurate truths of the Bible. But I missed the main point: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to
God…” God is the audience. We have all likely heard,
“for an audience of One.” Here it is plainly. God is our audience of One. We
are to present ourselves as approved to God. In the end it is God who we will all stand before.
Let’s
look at 2 Timothy 2:15 with some of the Greek definitions added. 2 Timothy 2:15
is the imperative mood denoting a command. We are commanded to:
Make hast and
exert yourself as one who is tried as genuine and therefore unashamed when you stand beside God as His worker. You, who will receive your pay, because you cut straight
ways as you teach the Logos directly and correctly; that is, what is objectively
true in things appertaining to God.
As
I considered this before God, I saw a picture of a freeway. The freeway
represented the objective Truth: Logos. Logos stands eternally as the Word of
God, forever fixed in Heaven. Not our own truth or own interpretation, but
God’s eternal Word. Along the freeway were many exits, seemingly an exit at
every scripture. Exits represent diversions from the Truth of God. They can be
unintended misunderstandings or intended deceptions. Exits will never reach
where the freeway leads. Error in doctrine is an exit off the Logos: the Word
of God. It will lead on a trajectory of error.
People
who teach and lead others must know the Bible as God intended it to be know: in
truth. The goals is not to make people come to our meetings, because we sound
so eloquent having every word fitly placed. That is worldly wisdom. How
absolutely boring and empty is such teaching! Teaching, as God intends, is not
only biblical truth, but it is anointed. Teaching should produce hunger in the
hearer to know the things of God. It is not informational in nature: it
produces and deposits something of value in the hearers.
Just
because we believe something does not make it true. There are basic rules to interpretation.
Decades ago my husband said that if you think you have new revelation from the
Bible that you have never heard before, you’d better think twice about what you
are thinking. Read some commentaries and talk to others who know the Bible well,
because “new revelation” is how heresies are formed. Context is the first rule of interpretation.
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