2 Timothy 2:15

2 Timothy 2:15. Study, Strictly, ‘ be eager, be zealous.'

Approved, i.e. tried and standing the trial.

Rightly dividing. The literal meaning, ‘ cutting straight, ' admits obviously of many figurative applications, and the word has been referred accordingly to the work of the sculptor, the road-maker, the carpenter, the ploughman, the carver at table, the sacrificing priest. Of these, that of the ploughman seems to give the best meaning; but I am disposed to think that we may perhaps class this among the medical words with which these Epistles abound, and see in it a reference to the work of the surgeon, in which any deflection from the true line of incision might be perilous or even fatal. The reference in 2 Timothy 2:17 to the gangrene or cancer seems to carry on the train of thought.