RD 101 - Why Rightly Divide?

By Jack Eberle

Do you remember when you were a youngster, and some friendly church person gave you a red-letter Bible? When did you begin to think how you should estimate your Bible? Did you think that certainly the words of Christ were more important than the rest of The Bible? On the other hand, maybe you puzzled over the fact that the entire Bible was God’s Holy Word. Then, how could you judge the relative importance’s of various portions of the Scriptures? When did you learn that all the Scriptures were written for you, but they were not all written to you? When you learned this important fact, you began to have the key to truly learning The Word – rightly divided. What a breakthrough!

You may have learned early that the Hebrew Scriptures were not as important to you as The Greek Scriptures. Folks call them Old Testament and New Testament books of The Bible. Then you heard of “Law” and “Grace”. At this point you probably felt that you had “the” secret of “Right Division”. With the right attitude, you could have been on your way to understanding The Word. Did you, or are you, puzzling over “Acts”? Many serious Bible scholars are still in the dark about the book of Acts. It is a record of God, The Father’s answer to God, The Son’s prayer on the cross: “Father, forgive them…”The prayer was answered, and 40 more years were given to His people to repent.

Jesus Christ ministered to His own people, Israel while on earth. (Romans 15:8-9) His work was culminated on the Cross: death, burial, and resurrection for “all” men. God, the Father continued to let the door open for repentance until the times of restoration should come. Read Acts 2 and the book of James. But time ran out, and finally, His own people were set aside by their Lord. Read seriously and prayerfully the chapter of Acts 28. Some call this “The Great Divide”, for indeed it is. The Jews were set aside. The salvation of God was sent to the Gentiles. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. He led the message to them.

Paul wrote his seven epistles to the church which is His body. It had been a mystery, revealed first to him. This is TRUTH FOR TODAY. Read carefully Ephesians 3:9. This was not a subject of prophecy. The church who is His body does not give the Jews precedence. Jews and Gentiles are on the same level in Christ, The Head. See Colossians 1:18 and Ephesians 1:20-21. Even though Paul had the commission to reveal “The Mystery”, it is still a mystery to many today. The student who “rightly divides” His Word will please Him and will understand “the mystery”. II Timothy 2:15.

Next Lesson, 28. “Ordinances” and “Gospels”.