As you can see from the context of 'rightly handling' it has to do first with the wrangling over words that is an unproductive way of studying. The verse has nothing to do with D'ism, for or against. 2nd, it has to do with 'godless chatter.' (I with there were some examples of what he meant). But on the whole it sounds like the passage from Corinthians where some people spend their time building with clay, stone and wood instead of find metal.
Must be true. I mean, you assert it.
Fact is, you are reading your erroneous 70AD based notions into Paul's words there.
I'll lay this out or those with ears to hear.
There, in 2 Timothy 2, in his word of encouragement to him, Paul communicates the following to him:
1. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
3. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
5. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
6. The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.
To that he adds:
7. Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
8. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:
9. Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
He is basing his words of encouragement, and is desirous that Timothy focus himself during his trying time, on the assurance of that aspect of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that Paul had preached - thus his words "according to my gospel."
That is the issue of, on the one hand, how that the resurrection of Jesus Christ, from the dead proved Him to be David's rightful heir, over the Earth.
This is what Romans 1:1-3 asserts had been prophesied about that aspect of His resurrection - that He was that Jesus: the Christ.
On the other hand, Paul's words there in 2 Tim. 2: 8 are also the issue of how that Jesus Christ was also raised from the dead "according to" what Paul alone had referred to as "my gospel."
He goes into some aspects of that in the next passages:
10. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
11. It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
12. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
13. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
How that he, Paul, is out there, not only enduring all things as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, but in hope of being an example to the elect; the saved, that their salvation might not end there, but that their salvation, work together with their enduring, to produce in them what they were saved unto to - to begin with - that those two together work its intended eternal glory in them, in the here and now.
If you know Scripture as well as you claim [despite your barely ever quoting it, or even citing its passages] then you know I am basing all that on many other passages in Romans through Philemon wherein Paul ties in sufferings with a working in and a display of eternal glory in the Believer in the here and now, not just in that coming day before the Lord, Romans 8; 2 Corinthians 4, for example.
From there he moves on to the critical need for Timothy to keep the fact of that hope ever in the remembrance of his hearers.
Not only for its capacity to work that eternal weight of glory in the Believer in the here and now, but in the face of the opposition their persecutions with Paul for the Mystery of the Gospel that Paul preached, was causing some to come up with some other doctrine as their explanation for the current events they were undergoing.
He then mentions two of those who had done just that - allowed their persecutions to cause them to conclude the fool notion "that the resurrection" Paul is talking about as their compass, as well as that eternal glory it could work in them during their trying times, was "past already."
That is the babbling and foolish questions he is speaking against, Mr. Bible Answer Man.
And he communicates all that to Timothy through his use of contrasts, distinctions, and or divisions between the two.
14. Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive
not about words
to no profit,
but to the subverting of the hearers.
15.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16.
But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
17. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
18.
Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
19.
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
20.
But in a great house there are
not only vessels of gold and of silver,
but also of wood and of earth;
and some to honour,
and some to dishonour.
It is in all that, that what he is talking about in verse 15, is made manifest.
He is not directly talking about rightly handling the word of truth. Rather, about the need for Timothy to steer a straight course, in his reminding of his hearers of the truth that Paul has just reminded Timothy himself of.
This, in contrast to, for example, the error of Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who
concerning the truth have erred, saying...
The issue here is "saying" - is expounding that "word of truth" that Paul had referred to as "my gospel."
This is why the "rightly
dividing."
It is the Early Modern English of the King James.
Translation does not always go by a word's definition that one looks up in a dictionary. Rather, it just as often is translated in accordance with how it is being used where it is found.
At least in the King James, a superior translation once more, in this respect.
In this, one key to the KJV is to look for a word's English equivalent, not its Greek - those men had this that together!
Here is what they had understood when they used their Early Modern English word "dividing" - 1 Corinthians 13:
11. But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit,
dividing to every man severally as he will.
Different Greek words, same Early Modern English word because they translated based on how a word was used where it was found.
Hebrews 4:
12. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
2 Timothy 2:
14.
Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
15. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
16.
But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
The sense is that of divide out the word of truth to your hearers. As when one divides a whole pie out to several people. Each piece, its whole, and yet, a part of the whole.
And towards that, one has to lay it all out, divide it asunder as to all that contributes to its whole; that is its whole - identify its various parts and how they all work together, as to who, what, when, where, and why.
So that one does not end up "having erred concerning the truth; saying that the resurrection" Paul has in mind here, as a yet future event - "is past already," as some assert even now.
All subjects and issues are... a rightly dividing the word of truth... issue...
I'm done for, now, gainsay it away, Interplanner.
