Dichotomy: Division into two opposing, mutually exclusive parts.  I have before me a number Scriptural references in which the Almighty plainly states that, in this life there is a dichotomy relative to man’s preparation for eternity.  There are two diametrically opposed paths from which man must choose.  As is plainly stated in God’s Holy Bible, man’s choices are as black is to white, as living is to dead, as right is to wrong.  There is no middle ground with the Lord.  One is His child or is not His child.  One pleases Him or displeases Him.  One has been spiritually born of Him (converted) or is controlled by Satan.  One has either entered God’s strait gate and is walking His narrow path toward eternal life, or one has entered Satan’s wide gate and is walking his path toward eternal death.  Of the few who are aware of these Truths, only a few believe them, and of those who believe them, only a few apply them to their lives.  Yet they all “know” that they are one with the Biblical God, that they are part of His church, and that what He has written in the Bible applies to them.  Nothing could be further from Scriptural Truth.

There are two sides to any dichotomy, including the dichotomy that the Lord applies to those who seek Him.  One side leads to eternal life, the other to eternal death as Jesus made clear in Matthew 7:13,14 and elsewhere.  We will now examine several Biblical references, all written under the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:14-16) and designed to prove the Truth relative to the Lord’s dichotomy.  Let us begin.

Genesis 3:3– There were two trees in the midst of the Garden of Eden.  The fruits of those trees brought either life or death respectively.  Genesis 4:7–Man does either right and is rewarded, or wrong and is punished.  First Kings 18:21–Elijah told the people they obeyed either God or Baal.  Isaiah 1:19,20–God told Israel that they would either obey Him and prosper, or disobey Him and be devoured.  Isaiah 5:1,2–We are either cultured grapes or wild grapes.  Isaiah 66:2–We either tremble at God’s Word or we do not.  Matthew 6:24– We either love and serve God or we love and serve Satan.  Matthew 12:33-37– Our words are either good or evil and reflect the good or evil that fills our hearts (minds).  Luke 10:16– We either love God’s Word and therefore love Him and His Son, or we despise His Word and therefore despise Him and His Son.  Acts 17:10,11– We either search the Scriptures for Truth, or accept someone else’s version of it.  Romans 1:12– There is only one (“the”) faith which comes from “the” Word of God (Rom. 10:19).  Romans 2:13; 3:24,25– The only way to receive and retain justification is to obey God’s Law with faith in Christ’s shed blood.  Romans 6:1,2– We are either dead to sin or are living in sin.  Romans 6:13,16,18,19,20,22– We either yield to God or Satan.  We are either clean or unclean.  We either serve God or Satan, righteousness or unrighteousness and produce either holy fruit or unholy fruit.  Romans 8:1,13,14– We either walk after the Spirit and live, or walk after the flesh and die.  Only those who are led by God’s Spirit are His children.  First Corinthians 12:2– (We are spiritual Israelites or spiritual Gentiles)  Spiritual Gentiles have been led away from God by Satan.  Second Corinthians 6:14-18– We have concord (are in agreement) with either God or Satan.  Ephesians 5:26– We are either cleansed and sanctified by studying, believing and obeying God’s Word, or we are not.  Philippians 2:12– We determine if we are on the road to salvation either by studying God’s Word or by having someone else tell us that we are.  First Thessalonians 4:7– God calls us to holiness, not uncleanness.  Second Timothy 2:14,15– We either attain the glory of Jesus Christ by holding fast to what we have been taught by God’s apostles, or we do not.  Hebrews 4:12– We either allow the Word of God to expose to us who and what we are, or we do not.  James 2:22– We are either doers or the Word, or merely hearers of the Word.  First John 1:6,7– We either walk in light and have fellowship with God, or we walk in darkness have no fellowship with Him.  First John 2:3-5–  We either keep God’s commandments and know Him, or we do not keep His Law and do not know Him.  First John 3:3-7– We either purify ourselves by obeying God’s Law and thereby know Him, or we are impure from disobeying His Law and do not know Him.  We either do righteousness, making us righteous even as He is righteousness, or we do not do righteousness and are not righteous as He is righteous.  First John 3:7– We either obey God and thereby have Him as our Father, or we obey Satan and have him as our father.  Revelation 3:14-17–  We are either hot or cold in God’s eyes.  Religious man is both hot and cold (sinners saved by grace) in his own eyes.  Revelation 3:21– We will either overcome Satan’s pull toward sin and sit with Jesus on His throne in the Kingdom of God, or we give in to Satan, sin and give up our seat on Christ’s throne.

There is no “and” when it comes to what salvation seekers think, say and do.  We either obey God and belong to Him, or obey Satan and belong to him.  We are either the temple of God’s Holy Spirit, or we are the temple of the devil’s antichrist spirit.  We either walk in holiness or walk in sin.  In 2 Timothy 2:15 we are commanded to “rightly divide” (dichotomize) right from wrong.  The Greek expression for “rightly dividing” is “to make a clean cut.”  The Lord makes a clean, dichotomizing cut (division) between right and wrong, holiness and sin, walking with Him or walking away from Him.  In order to join Him in His future kingdom we must also “make a clean cut” relative to holiness and sin.  We can obey this command only by studying, believing and obeying His “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17), which is also “sharper than any (other) two-edged sword” (Heb. 4:12).  Only that sword/Word can “make a clean cut.”  L.J.