RIGHTLY DIVIDING

‘Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.’ 2 Tim 2:15; ESV.

Paul is writing to one of his apostolic assistants who would lead the church after he departed the scene. In essence Timothy was a first generation pastor of a local church. Paul offered many principles for the fledgling pastor to follow. None are as forceful or important as the one given in our text. Above all else, Timothy must be a student of the Holy Scriptures and one who properly interprets them. This is no light task. Anyone who has ever taught the Bible knows how difficult biblical interpretation is. The pastor must ‘do his best’ to study and understand the word of God. This is his chief commission. To fail at this is to fail in the pastoral ministry no matter what other things are done well. But rightly dividing the Bible is a task with many nuances. One of the things the teacher of the Bible must discern is the different types of literature found in it. It would behoove lay people to know this aspect of Bible interpretation as well. The Bereans were called “noble” because they searched the Scriptures to see whether or not Paul was rightly dividing the word. Evidently these inquisitive Christians had learned something about Bible literature. Christians today must learn this as well. While there are many different types of literature in the Bible (called literary genres) the way a reader should look at any biblical text regardless of the type of literature should be governed by asking one of three questions: is this text a precept a pattern, or a picture?

Precept is a statement or a command that is always true or binding. We have a statement for example in Ephesians chapter one which says, “We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.” This is a fact that will never be altered. It is a transcendent truth. Another example is when Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd.” He is the Good Shepherd regardless of the time period, the circumstance or the personal opinion of the reader. Such statements yield not to debate. A precept can also be a command. It too is binding forever and for all time. For example Christ tells His hearers to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ (Matthew 22:37). This command is not subject to a popular vote. Every man at all times is to love his God. Period. In the same way Paul says, ‘“Receive one who is weak in the faith” (Romans 14:1). Paul does not give the Roman Christians the option of whether or not to believe it. It is a command to be obeyed. Precepts are statements or commands that are always true. To rightly divide the word a reader must be able to identify these passages.

Some biblical passages come to us as patterns. These are different from precepts in that they highlight what is most usually true as observed in life. This type of biblical passage identifies life patterns that are wise to heed and obey. They occur most often in wisdom literature. Today wisdom literature comes to us in the form of axioms, aphorisms, or maxims. It is also found in opinion columns or blogs (such as this one). We say, for example, ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ or ‘the pen is mightier than the sword.’ In both cases we know what the writer means. He identifies a general, underlying truth. A blogger might wax eloquent on why or why not to wear facial coverings. His argumentation may be sound but no matter how compelling it is, his opinion is nevertheless based on a limited perspective. Wisdom literature establishes principles rooted in patterns of life. They therefore become handy guardrails on how one should conduct his life. Unlike precepts, however, they do not bear universal weight or a compelling adherence. In the Bible such wise sayings are called Proverbs. For example Proverbs 11:14 says, “In the multitude of counselors there is safety.” Like all wisdom literature the author is identifying a pattern that is most generally true. But it is not universally true as with the statement we discussed earlier that all men must love their God. Here we may rightly ask, “Do many counselors always give you good advice?” Certainly the men who authorized Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg got it wrong. Is Proverbs 11:14 generally true? Yes. Always true? No. Jesus too spoke in proverbs. For example He said, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.” That is a proverb. The principle is well established yet sometimes those who are last in the world are also last in God’s kingdom. Jesus’ best known proverbs are the Beatitudes. They highlight the general nature of the kingdom of God. One goes like this, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.” Yes, peacemakers are generally good people and many find favor with God. But who hasn’t heard of the hippies of the 1960’ and 70’s? They advanced the cause of peace but they certainly were not children of God. British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, negotiated with Hitler and announced ‘peace in our time.’ He was a peacemaker of sorts but his “peace” only led to further bloodshed. So we see that proverbial literature identifies patterns, not eternal verities. Pattern literature is different from precept literature. It is important for anyone who wishes to understand the Bible to note the difference.

The third kind of literature is picture. Here have truth being communicated to our minds through visual history. History in the Bible is unique. It is often called redemptive history. It is redemptive history because it pictures some element of God’s overall salvation narrative. In many different places it chronicles man’s sinfulness and how God will heal that spiritual disease by a great and glorious redemption. Jesus, the very object of this plan, believed that Old Testament history was indeed a picture of this redemption. When commenting on the book of Jonah he said, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Jesus saw that Jonah’s descent into the belly of a fish was a picture of His own death, burial and resurrection. Another example is found in John chapter six where Jesus notes that the manna in the wilderness was a picture of the Messiah being the true bread from heaven that sustains mankind. When one reads Old Testament history one slowly but surely begins to see how its history is an outline of the high peaks of redemption. Jesus conducted Bible studies with this conviction. When revealing Himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus He opened up the Scriptures and ‘beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scripture the things concerning Himself’ (Luke 24:27). Old Testament history teaches pictorially. Anyone who wishes to understand the Bible rightly must recognize this.

So you desire to rightly divide the word of truth? Then a good place to start would be to understand these three biblical modes of communicating truth; through precept, pattern, and picture. All of them communicate truth a little differently but they all house the inspired and inerrant words of God. Knowing how to read different kinds of literature is one of the keys to becoming an approved Bible interpreter. This is not an easy task. But the result of that labor will yield much fruit. For he who divides the fruit rightly will rightly partake of the fruit. Hmmm. Now was that a precept or a proverb?