The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:15, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." In verse 15, the Greek word that Paul used for "rightly dividing" is orthotomeo which literally means "to cut straight". In the context of this passage, an approved workman is one (1) who cuts a straight path with the truth, (2) who does not wander away from the truth, and (3) who leads people to the truth.

The Romans have a special liking for straight roads. Since ancient times, the Romans built their roads as straight as they could to make their troop movements as efficient as possible. Perhaps this was what Paul—being a Roman citizen himself—had in mind when he said that an approved workman should "cut a straight path" with the word of truth. To cut a straight path with the word of truth is to explain it accurately, and make it plain to others. The word of truth is a straight rule, or the yardstick, that is true and accurate. If handled correctly it will guide the traveller safely to his destination: which is the kingdom of God.

Notice that Paul is clear that there is truth, and not just a truth, but the truth. What is truth? The same question was asked by Pontius Pilate when he tried the Lord Jesus Christ (John 18:38). Today, we ask the same question. But most have answered the question with their own thinking of what they want the truth to be. "As long as I believe it is the truth, it is!" "All truth is God’s truth," they say. What a lie! Let us not deceive ourselves. There is only one truth, and that is God’s truth, period. He has the only truth that we ought to know, and it is powerful enough to set us free forever.

Note that the Christian workman is to handle correctly or divide rightly the word of truth. We do not need to guess what is the truth or search the whole world for the truth: we have it here written down in words. The truth that defines the straight path the teacher should follow is the Bible as we have it today. The Bible that you have in your hands. This is the truth.

From verse 15 of chapter 2, we find that for one to be an approved workman, it is not enough for him just to teach the truth, he must also live the truth. It is written, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed ...." Teaching and lifestyle are intertwined throughout the epistle of 2 Timothy. So we see in verse 21 that the servant of God should sanctify himself so that he can be fit for the Master’s use. And we also see in verse 22 that the approved teacher should flee youthful lusts, such as ambition, self-indulgence, arrogance, sexual temptation, and follow after righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Bad teaching will often show up in bad behaviour, and bad behaviour will lead to greater sins.

That leads us to the second point: an approved workman does not wander from God’s truth.

An approved workman is to cut a straight path with the truth, and he is not to deviate from that path. In verse 18, Paul mentioned two characters, Hymenaeus and Philetus, "who concerning the truth have erred." They were the opposite of the approved workman. Instead of following the straight path marked out by the clear teaching of the Apostles, they made their own diverging path that wandered away from the truth. The problem was that their path did not go to the right place. Their error had overthrown the faith of some as mentioned in verse 18.

The particular error of these two was their denial of the future physical, bodily resurrection of believers. They taught that the resurrection of believers had already taken place in some spiritual sense. In other words they were teaching people, "That’s your lot, there’s nothing to hope for. The life here and now is all that there is to the Christian life." But this is in direct contradiction to what the Bible teaches time and time again about a future day of resurrection and our eternal life with God.

The point is that Christianity is a revealed faith. It comes from God, not from us, and we are not at liberty to change the faith: to add to the faith, to subtract from the faith, or to make it up as we go along. All of these constitute a wandering from the straight path of the word of truth.

There are all sorts of reasons why a Christian in the church might wander from the truth. Often it is a misguided attempt to make Christianity more "relevant" and "inclusive." Sometimes, it is due to laziness or the failure to study the Bible diligently and reverently; it is simply easier to go along with what the world is saying, and much harder to cut the straight path.

It is common these days to deny the preservation of the inspired words of God. Of course no one would ever deny that the Scriptures have been preserved. Many are quick to affirm that the Bible is preserved but claim that there is no perfect Bible today. You have and yet you do not have. That is what they are saying. Do you have it or not? If you do not have it, what then do you have? I am not trying to play with your mind. But that is exactly what they are saying. They like to digress from the main issue. We say we have God’s Perfect Word today and that God has preserved His words in the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek Textus Receptus, which are faithful copies of the original manuscripts.

Having a loose tongue, some say there are scribal errors in the Bible. Do you think scribal errors are so easy to go undetected in God’s Word? Is the verbal and plenary preservation (VPP) of the Scriptures a "theory"? A brother came up with this analogy which I thought makes very good sense, especially for those who still cannot accept VPP. Concerning VPP, what if you believe in VPP and your belief is wrong, let me tell you, you are still right because by simple faith that is how you look at God that He is absolutely capable of preserving His words as He promised, right? Now, what if you do not believe in VPP and you are wrong? Let me tell you, you are finished! How are you going to answer to God? To be on the safe side, VPP is the wise position to take. We do not claim to know everything. But whatever we know from the Scriptures, we must not wander from it. We must believe it. We must obey it. The Bible is so plain and clear when we read, "The Law of the LORD is perfect …" (Ps 19:7). How can we still argue otherwise? "God forbid: yea, let God be true and every man a liar …" (Rom 3:4).

There is only one way; that strait path is the only one that leads to God. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). To teach otherwise is to wander from the strait path, and destroy the faith of some.

We thank God for FEBC which has remained firm and unmoveable in the Word of God. The real test is given. Friendship with the world or faithfulness to God? I believe this is a good test for us. The battle for the Bible makes Paul’s words to Timothy all the more significant for us. Verses 24 and 25 in particular are a challenge to us in our conduct, and they bring out the last characteristic of the approved workman. An approved workman leads people back to the truth. "And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." We are to strive not about words to no profit as verse 14 says, and we are to avoid foolish and unlearned questions, knowing that they do gender strifes as verse 23 says. However, when matters of revealed truth are at stake, we are to gently warn in meekness instructing those that oppose in the hope of leading them back to the truth.

It is extremely easy to get heated up about these matters, but again matters of truth are intertwined with matters of conduct. The approved workman employs righteousness, faith, love, peace, gentleness and hope in the ministry of directing people to the strait path. Let us remember this always.

There is only one road that leads to life: the strait and narrow road. The approved workman must cut a strait and narrow path with the word of truth. He must not wander from it onto the broad way that leads to destruction, and he must do his best to turn every wanderer back to the narrow way.

When we humbly and faithfully follow after the wonderful truth of God’s Word, it is like a garden with flowers bright and fair, and a deep well with hidden jewels rich and rare for every searcher there. God’s Word is what we need today to contend for the faith as well as to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. May God help us. Amen.