Right Division of the Word 8
By Pastor Raphael Adegoke
“15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15).
We give all glory to the God of all creation: the One who deserves it. It is a good thing to know the Lord and serve Him. May we forever remain firmly established in His will in Jesus’ name! Last week, we focused on “ Purpose”, but today we shall be focusing on “Emotion and State of Mind”.
It has previously been established that the Word has a life of its own which is independent of the speaker or listener, but many a times, it is difficult for ministers to be able to separate the word of a speaker from the speaker.
So, it has been discovered that many ministers’ interpretations today are influenced by their emotion and state of mind. For instance, it is easy for a financially poor minister to interpret “Blessed are the poor in spirit” to mean “Blessed are the poor”. In fact, he may begin to rejoice in his poverty and encourage his congregation to do likewise and thereby become complacent, believing that it is a blessing of God to be poor.
Emotion and state of mind influenced interpretations are often noticed in the interpretation of the poetical books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, son of Solomon) as reflected in the application of the same in imprecatory prayers as led by many ministers. State of mind and emotion often make many ministers to ignore basic hermeneutical rules, thereby leading to wrong division of the Word.
It becomes expedient that ministers will be silent where the scripture is silent, and be loud where it is loud, emotional where it does and not emotional where it isn’t. The Word of God does not need our personal emotions to work and be powerful. The Word of God, per time, has got a life of its own that can do far beyond what we can ever think or imagine. The emotion of the original speaker, if replicated is enough to generate the same effect or result it generated through the original speaker.
Right division of the Word will thereby require that we have a vivid picture of the emotion or state of mind of the original speakers. This will help the Word express the weight it expressed through the original speaker.
The personal force or emotion that we put into a Word isn’t what really matters, but the life the Word carries, even in its simplest form.
Pastor Raphael Adegoke is a Pastor in Christ Apostolic Church (Nigeria & Overseas) and a Lecturer in Christ Apostolic Church Theological Seminary.
