It is found only here in scripture but in extra-biblical literature it meant to cut a path in a straight direction. This is what we want to do with scripture. We want to treat the word of God with the utmost respect. There must be a way for others to check out what you are saying. When you come up with some strange doctrine there needs to be a way for me to check it out.
Every false teaching uses scripture to support itself.
Without some type of guidelines to go by, people can create whatever teachings that they want to. They were forcing their limbs to go in directions that they were unnatural, that they were not designed to go in. These individuals were using Paul s own words, but in a way contrary to that which he intended. We do not want to twist God s words to make them mean what we want them to, but instead we must be careful listeners and allow the text to speak to us. We should never start with what we believe and then look for scriptures to support it.