L
ladylynn
Guest
Different administrations - running of a household or government - are clearly seen in scripture. When Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 in Luke 4:18-20 - He quit reading at "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" because the second half of the verse "and the day of vengeance of our God" is yet to be revealed. God classifies people into three groups - Jew, Gentile and church of God and scripture is applied to Jew, Gentile and the church of God. Divisions happen when we try to apply to the church what is not applicable to the church - or what is written for our learning (Rom. 15:4)
Rightly dividing the word of God is a "right-cutting" or "straight cutting". Trying to put the church "under the law" causes division for the church is the administration (dispensation) of God's grace. God even classifies this age as the "dispensation of His grace". Why specify that if it isn't different?
Rightly dividing the Word would cause unity - there would be no Law vs. Grace threads for we would all agree that we are in the administration of God's grace . . . there would be no argument concerning eternal security for we would all agree that we are BORN of the Spirit - that we are NOW children of God, what "adoption" meant in the Roman culture and that we are his until the day of redemption. I agree that it shouldn't be that we have to wait until Christ returns for us to gain unity - but until people keep what is written to the Jews and Gentiles to the Jews and Gentiles and what is written to the church, the body of Christ, to the church - there will not be unity.
Excellent post. If more believers would take time to look into this, much confusion and division would be avoided. Amen