The Bible speaks about marriage to mankind before the law, to Israel under the law and the kingdom, and to the Body of Christ under grace. Read as one rule to one people, it binds commandments God never gave us. Rightly divided, the Lord's strict word to Israel and Paul's word of grace each fall into place — and grace gives far more than the law.

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, not a base it is rebuilt on. The righteous man under the law kept it; the man under grace has righteousness imputed without works. Paul withstood Peter at Antioch over a walk that put the Body back under Israel's law, and to rebuild that law is to make yourself a transgressor.

Tradition stacks archbishop over bishop and a clergy over the laity. Paul is simpler: two offices, bishop and deacon; bishop, elder, overseer, and pastor are one man and one work; the qualifications are for entering the office, not a standing audit; and ordination is the recognition of a proven man, never a sacrament.

The church is called the body of Christ, never the bride. Ephesians 5 ends not in betrothal but in one body, His own flesh and bones. The bride, the Lamb's wife, is the New Jerusalem, the covenant people of Israel married, put away, and brought home. Rightly divided, the wife is Israel and the Body is nearer than a bride.

Philippians 2:14-15 rightly divided. The command to do all things without murmurings touches the walk, not the standing. You are a son of God and a light already, by grace. Murmuring cannot dim the light; it only gives the world a complaint and muffles the word of life you hold forth.

Right division is not the discarding of Scripture but the right placing of it. Three tiers — present truth, dispensational truth, and universal truth — and two plain questions sort any passage: does it govern or describe, and does it reach every age or belong to a program. Keep all of Scripture; obey only what is addressed to you.

Matthew 10:33 and 2 Timothy 2:12 sound like the same threat to a trembling believer, but rightly divided they stand worlds apart. The Lord's warning belongs to Israel under the kingdom program; Paul's word to the Body touches the reward of faithful service, never his salvation, and never the reign that grace has already made his — all of which rest…

Why would God create man, knowing he would fall — and would it not have been kinder never to create at all? Answered on the only ground where it can be answered, the revelation given to Paul: God made the world to display the exceeding riches of His grace, and grace must have something to redeem. The fall was man's, not God's; the cross is God ente…