I was not raised in mid-Acts Pauline dispensational right division. Some of you have been.
You know how to “rightly divide” because your parents did. You learned about following Paul as your apostle before you lost your baby teeth. You have seen grace teachers and leaders get promoted to glory.
You are not new to this. You are a second or third generation “right divider”. So, what?
Be careful. When you didn’t have to build the house, you have a lot of learning to do about doing the work (i.e., ministry).
Paul passed his ministry on to younger men like Timothy, the second generation.
You have an advantage of not carrying baggage of wrong doctrine for years. You have a head start. You are on the right track right out of the gate. However…
You did not have to work as hard to learn how to rightly divide. You did not have to search the scriptures and overcoming false thinking.
You may not know what it is like to be deceived. To be stuck in a church thinking it all makes sense, but never needing to challenge your belief to make it your own.
You have not been challenged with the decision of going to no church, a wrong church, or building your own church.
Your challenge will not be in learning the truth (remember, you’ve been there for years). Yours will be continuing in it (2 Tim 3:14). Can you maintain it without compromise, going silent, being distracted, changing it, or watering it down?
Your doctrinal ancestors found fresh water and dug with their fingernails to access it. Your task is to keep it pure.
You might one day think it’s time to find something new to say, not knowing how important and rare what you already have is. Don’t give it up, stand on it to see further.
You might discover something you think is new and improved but is really an old thing that has already been rejected for reasons unknown to you. You need to listen to the past.
You may not understand why some doctrinal differences have caused separation and think growth comes by “agreeing to disagree”. This can preserve church size but at the expense of spiritual growth and integrity. Stay true.
You might start to be ashamed of some of the “hard stands” taken by those before you and think the better approach is softer, gentler, more agreeable, less doctrinal. You might justify this unoriginal approach as “loving” and “gracious” and start to be silent about true things that others will not like. The truth is much easier to lose than to maintain. Do the work.
You might see an opportunity to follow friends and grow relationships, but it would mean settling with other doctrines. Don’t do it. Minister to those who will listen.
Timothy faced the same challenge as you. Paul exhorted him to “not be ashamed”, “fight the good fight of faith”, “teach no other doctrine”, and “continue” as a soldier.
The number one killer of grace ministries is when the second generation is ashamed of its own house and tries to hide it, make it something new, or let it collapse.
Lay your brick in the wall just as straight as the foundation so that the next generation has a pattern to follow. Don’t be ashamed.
If the foundation you are on is not straight enough, make it straighter. Fix it. Do it right.
Don’t waste your advantage of having “grown up in it”. Use it to be unashamedly strong in grace (2 Tim 2:1). This is how you make more learn Christ according to the mystery for the first time.
Hopeful,
Justin “not born in it” Johnson