||
                 ||||||||
                    ||                       How beautiful on the mountains
                    ||                       are the feet of those ... who
                    ||                       proclaim salvation, who say to
                                             Zion, "Your God reigns!"
          Pastor RALPH & GENE ANN WOOD                  --Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
          E-mail:  randg.wood@encode.com
          FRESH MANNA, 27/02/1998 ........................ 2 TIMOTHY 2:15e1
             Be diligent to present yourself to God, "approved":-- a worker
          who has no need to be ashamed, CUTTING STRAIGHT the word of truth.
                                                     --2 TIMOTHY 2:15 (RLW)
             In our city, there is a surgeon who is noted for making neat,
          "straight" incisions.  Here, Paul exhorts Timothy-- indeed, every
          Christian responsible for any type of teaching-- to be noted for
          "cutting straight" the word of truth.  Paul writes this in the
          present imperative- a command we are always to keep on obeying.
          The word used for this work, "ORTHOTOMOUNTA", describes cutting
          a straight route for a road; hence, interpreting and analyzing
          the Scriptures in a straightforward, clear, simple, accurate way.
          Calvin sees in Paul's choice of this word, even more:--
            "But Paul assigns to teachers the duty of dividing or cutting,
            as if a father, in giving food to his children, were dividing
            the bread, by cutting it into small pieces ... an allotment of
            the word which is judicious, and which is well suited to the
            profit of the hearers ... the manner of explaining which is
            adapted to edification; for that is the rule by which we must
            try all interpretation of Scripture."
             Did Paul have this image in mind when he wrote EPHESIANS 3:18
          (KJV)-- "[I pray that you] May be able to comprehend with all
          saints what [is] the breadth, and length, and depth, and height"?
          Whether or not, cutting straight the word of truth, interpreting
          Scripture, understanding the Bible in order to teach God's truth
          to others, evokes four such dimensions.  Try these four steps:--
             (1) To research any passage of Scripture-- first, view it in
          context.  What are God's topics/themes in the paragraph, chapter,
          and book it occurs in?  Which covenant(s) do these relate to?
          (2) Consider the vertical dimension.  What did God say, in the
          original language?  How does a lexicon or Bible dictionary define
          the words?  How do several scholars translate, commentary writers
          interpret, the passage?  (3) Now look at the east-west dimension.
          For any one original Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic word:-- where else does
          it occur in the Bible?  In these other places, how does -this-
          version of the Bible translate it?  (4) And last, the north-south
          dimension.  For any English word in this version of the Bible:--
          which Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic words does it translate, in -other-
          passages?  What does this same English word signify there?  --RLW
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