Rightly Divided (Daily Devotional)

Greetings! and thank you for the opportunity to come your way and spend a few moments in God's word and prayer. This week, we are addressing the issue of strange doctrines in the church, and I use the word church, I'm talking about the body of Christ at large, in general and like we mentioned from Hebrews chapter 13, verses 7 through 9, the writer of Hebrews tells us that diverse and strange doctrines are like eating bad food for your heart, it can destroy you. And he points us to people who have taught the word, whose faith you must follow, looking at the outcome of their lives, what was the end result of their lives, we follow people like that, and he points us to Jesus saying, look, Jesus isn't changing, follow Him. And so, we're establishing criteria on which to evaluate the preaching and the teaching of the word of God and the second criteria, very importantly, is to make sure that the preaching and the teaching of the word is rightly divided, that it is unadulterated, and it is not being used for money making. That means it is handled rightly, understood correctly, and interpreted correctly. The apostle Paul writes in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15, he tells Timothy, Timothy, present yourself, approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, handling it correctly, it's like cutting a straight line and not being devious in our interpretations, in order to get some gain or momentum somewhere else. In what ways could it go wrong? In second Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 17, the apostle Paul says there are people who peddle the word of God that means they kind of mix it up, they adulterate, they sugarcoat it, and they peddle the word of God. But he says we speak with sincerity in the sight of God. In Titus chapter 1 and verse 11, he talks about people who teach things, but they shouldn't be teaching for the sake of dishonest gain. Sometimes people use the word of God, their intent is dishonest gain, I have got to make some money, I got to get something out of this and they're actually peddling the word of God. So, this is the second important criteria, when you are listening to the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God, ask yourself this question, is the word rightly divided? Is the person sincere? Is it being adulterated? Is it being mixed up with something that's not really in the word? And is it being used for some other purpose, whether it is money or some other agenda? They could be using the word to pursue that. Avoid strange doctrines because they can destroy you. Let's pray, Father, we ask that you help us be discerning in our hearing of the word. Give us the ability to see when the word is rightly divided and to receive that, in Jesus’s name, Amen.

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