T
TriuneUnity
Guest
1 Timothy 4:1-5 biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20tim%204:1-5&version=31
A few months ago a commercial was aired on TV. In each scene a man was opening up gifts from different family members and friends. First a big ugly tie from his children. Then some useless knick-knack from a co-worker. Then a colorful plaid sweater, which was exactly like the one he was wearing. Whenever the man opened the next gift, the look on his face revealed what he was thinking: “Thanks, but I really don’t need this!” or “I really don’t want this!”
How do you react when someone gives you a gift that you really don’t want or need? How different is your reaction when someone gives you the perfect gift? How do you respond when you receive exactly what you need or want?
God is the giver of all good gifts. He gives us exactly what we need, and even more than we can ask or imagine, not because we deserve it, but because God is gracious. So how do we respond to his grace? The apostle Paul reminds us that everything God created is good. And because everything God created is good, we want to receive God’s gifts with thanksgiving.
The apostle Paul wrote this letter to a young man named Timothy. When Timothy was growing up, he had learned the Old Testament promises of the coming Savior from his mom and grandma. Then the apostle Paul met Timothy and taught him more about God’s saving work. He showed Timothy that Jesus is the fulfillment of those Old Testament promises. Paul continued to train Timothy. He took him on his mission trips through Asia Minor and Greece. Then, finally, Paul left Timothy in the city of Ephesus, as his representative.
In this first letter to Timothy, Paul encouraged Timothy. He gave instructions for the worship life of the congregation. He outlined the qualifications required of those who wanted to be leaders and teachers in the congregation. In a number of places Paul also warned about false teachers who were rising up, and the danger that they presented. The section in front of us is one of those places.
We read from 1 Timothy 4:1-5: The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
In the first century, when the New Testament Christian Church was being established, and before all the New Testament Scriptures were written down, the Holy Spirit spoke directly to the church. Exactly how this happened, we don’t know. Perhaps it was through visions or dreams that he gave to the apostles. God never promised that the Spirit would always continue to reveal his will in that way. But he has promised that the Spirit will continue to speak to us through the Word that he has given us through the apostles and prophets.
One of the things the Spirit continues to tell us in this Word is that during this New Testament age, until Christ comes again, “some will abandon the faith.” He’s not speaking about those who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus. He’s talking about those who have trusted in Christ. The Holy Spirit brought them to faith in Jesus as their Savior. He gathered them into the Holy Christian Church. But now some abandon ship for something that seems more attractive to them. They stop listening to and believing the truth of God’s Word. They start listening to and believing the deceitful lies that the devil spreads through false teachers.
Paul describes false teachers as having consciences that “have been seared as with a hot iron.” The little voice that God gave to guide them toward right and steer them away from wrong no longer works. They have desensitized their consciences by ignoring its warnings. So when they sin against God and lie to his people, it no longer bothers them or fazes them. Paul also calls them “hypocritical liars.” Either consciously or unconsciously, they deceive others by pretending to be something they are not. Jesus called them wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). They look harmless on the surface. They might dress the same as we do. They might use the same terms that we use. They might know their Bibles very well. But their false teaching only damages faith and finally threatens to pull people away from Christ.
Paul gave Timothy two examples of the lies that some false teachers were spreading at the time. Some were forbidding people to marry and ordering people not to eat certain foods. These two teachings flowed out of a religious movement which would develop more in the second century. It’s called Gnosticism. The same thoughts of this religious movement are still in our world today. It was a mixture of pagan beliefs and Old Testament Jewish teachings, with a little bit of Christianity thrown in. This movement claimed that faith in Christ is not enough for a right relationship with God, and that Scripture is not enough to truly know God. Therefore, one should strive for a special knowledge or experience of God. Another main belief was that the spiritual world is good, but the physical or material world is evil. Since, according to this teaching, the body also is evil, then one should deny the body of material pleasures, like the pleasures involved in marriage, and the enjoyment of certain foods.
But the apostle Paul disagreed. He explained: “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” Paul takes us back to the first two chapters of the Bible. In six days, out of nothing, by his powerful word, God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. He created Adam in a special way and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. God also created Eve in a special way. When he gave her to Adam he instituted marriage. Then, after his entire work of creation was complete, God declared it to be very good. It was perfect, flawless.
You see, God’s creation isn’t evil. Everything God created is good! The problems started when Adam and Eve disregarded God’s Word. Ever since that first sin, we have abused what God created for our good.
Marriage is one example. God established marriage for our welfare and enjoyment. He has always intended to bless us through this institution. It’s not sinful to get married or to enjoy the blessings of marriage. But the abuse of marriage is! We husbands fail to love our wives and to be considerate of their feelings. We fail to serve them with the loving leadership that God intended. Wives fail to be loving helpers for their husbands and to respect the different roles that God gives in marriage. Even those who aren’t married abuse God’s gift of marriage when they practice premarital sex or promote homosexuality or a host of other immoral behavior. God’s good creation of marriage and the blessings he intends for marriage aren’t evil. But our sinful abuse of God’s gift is.
The same holds true for God’s gift of food. God has given all kinds of food for us to use in line with his will, for our welfare and enjoyment, and for his glory. Again, the problem is not with any particular food. The problem is when use food and drink – or fail to use food and drink - to the point that it harms the bodies God has given us or to the point that we put others in danger. We could cite thousands of other examples. Each of us has to plead guilty. I have failed to use the gifts of God’s good creation properly, and so have you.
Sin always brings some serious consequences with it, and it does in this case too. When we fail to use God’s gifts properly, relationships suffer, marriages fall apart, bodies break down, people get hurt. But the most awful of all consequences of sin is death. Not just physical death, but separation from God’s love forever.
What we deserve, however, and what God offers for every sin-sick soul, are exact opposites. We deserve death, but he offers and gives us new life through his Son Jesus. He forgives all our sins, for Jesus’ sake. He can do that because Jesus lived a sinless life in our place and paid the full price for our sins on the cross. Because of Jesus’ work as our Substitute and Savior, God has declared that he won’t charge our sins of misuse and abuse to our accounts anymore.
So now, how do we respond? By God’s grace, we continue to learn his will and we trust him as our loving Father. We recognize that everything he gives us is for our benefit. And we ask him to bless us through the proper use of the good gifts he provides. This is a reason why we gather together in church for Christian weddings. We want to hear his Word about marriage and to ask his blessings on marriage. This is also why we pray before our meals. We want our heavenly Father’s blessing on the gifts he has provided for our earthly life and physical welfare.
Sometimes we act a lot like the man on that TV commercial. When we receive certain gifts from God, our first thought might be, “I really don’t need this!” But if God gave his Son to be our Savior, and if he gave us his Spirit to adopt us into his holy family, then we can also be certain that whatever he gives us now, he is giving for our good.
Christians, use this week to recognize the good gifts God has showered on you – both the spiritual gifts and the material gifts. Everything God created is good. So receive God’s gifts with thanksgiving, and use them to his glory. Amen.
A few months ago a commercial was aired on TV. In each scene a man was opening up gifts from different family members and friends. First a big ugly tie from his children. Then some useless knick-knack from a co-worker. Then a colorful plaid sweater, which was exactly like the one he was wearing. Whenever the man opened the next gift, the look on his face revealed what he was thinking: “Thanks, but I really don’t need this!” or “I really don’t want this!”
How do you react when someone gives you a gift that you really don’t want or need? How different is your reaction when someone gives you the perfect gift? How do you respond when you receive exactly what you need or want?
God is the giver of all good gifts. He gives us exactly what we need, and even more than we can ask or imagine, not because we deserve it, but because God is gracious. So how do we respond to his grace? The apostle Paul reminds us that everything God created is good. And because everything God created is good, we want to receive God’s gifts with thanksgiving.
The apostle Paul wrote this letter to a young man named Timothy. When Timothy was growing up, he had learned the Old Testament promises of the coming Savior from his mom and grandma. Then the apostle Paul met Timothy and taught him more about God’s saving work. He showed Timothy that Jesus is the fulfillment of those Old Testament promises. Paul continued to train Timothy. He took him on his mission trips through Asia Minor and Greece. Then, finally, Paul left Timothy in the city of Ephesus, as his representative.
In this first letter to Timothy, Paul encouraged Timothy. He gave instructions for the worship life of the congregation. He outlined the qualifications required of those who wanted to be leaders and teachers in the congregation. In a number of places Paul also warned about false teachers who were rising up, and the danger that they presented. The section in front of us is one of those places.
We read from 1 Timothy 4:1-5: The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
In the first century, when the New Testament Christian Church was being established, and before all the New Testament Scriptures were written down, the Holy Spirit spoke directly to the church. Exactly how this happened, we don’t know. Perhaps it was through visions or dreams that he gave to the apostles. God never promised that the Spirit would always continue to reveal his will in that way. But he has promised that the Spirit will continue to speak to us through the Word that he has given us through the apostles and prophets.
One of the things the Spirit continues to tell us in this Word is that during this New Testament age, until Christ comes again, “some will abandon the faith.” He’s not speaking about those who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus. He’s talking about those who have trusted in Christ. The Holy Spirit brought them to faith in Jesus as their Savior. He gathered them into the Holy Christian Church. But now some abandon ship for something that seems more attractive to them. They stop listening to and believing the truth of God’s Word. They start listening to and believing the deceitful lies that the devil spreads through false teachers.
Paul describes false teachers as having consciences that “have been seared as with a hot iron.” The little voice that God gave to guide them toward right and steer them away from wrong no longer works. They have desensitized their consciences by ignoring its warnings. So when they sin against God and lie to his people, it no longer bothers them or fazes them. Paul also calls them “hypocritical liars.” Either consciously or unconsciously, they deceive others by pretending to be something they are not. Jesus called them wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). They look harmless on the surface. They might dress the same as we do. They might use the same terms that we use. They might know their Bibles very well. But their false teaching only damages faith and finally threatens to pull people away from Christ.
Paul gave Timothy two examples of the lies that some false teachers were spreading at the time. Some were forbidding people to marry and ordering people not to eat certain foods. These two teachings flowed out of a religious movement which would develop more in the second century. It’s called Gnosticism. The same thoughts of this religious movement are still in our world today. It was a mixture of pagan beliefs and Old Testament Jewish teachings, with a little bit of Christianity thrown in. This movement claimed that faith in Christ is not enough for a right relationship with God, and that Scripture is not enough to truly know God. Therefore, one should strive for a special knowledge or experience of God. Another main belief was that the spiritual world is good, but the physical or material world is evil. Since, according to this teaching, the body also is evil, then one should deny the body of material pleasures, like the pleasures involved in marriage, and the enjoyment of certain foods.
But the apostle Paul disagreed. He explained: “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” Paul takes us back to the first two chapters of the Bible. In six days, out of nothing, by his powerful word, God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. He created Adam in a special way and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. God also created Eve in a special way. When he gave her to Adam he instituted marriage. Then, after his entire work of creation was complete, God declared it to be very good. It was perfect, flawless.
You see, God’s creation isn’t evil. Everything God created is good! The problems started when Adam and Eve disregarded God’s Word. Ever since that first sin, we have abused what God created for our good.
Marriage is one example. God established marriage for our welfare and enjoyment. He has always intended to bless us through this institution. It’s not sinful to get married or to enjoy the blessings of marriage. But the abuse of marriage is! We husbands fail to love our wives and to be considerate of their feelings. We fail to serve them with the loving leadership that God intended. Wives fail to be loving helpers for their husbands and to respect the different roles that God gives in marriage. Even those who aren’t married abuse God’s gift of marriage when they practice premarital sex or promote homosexuality or a host of other immoral behavior. God’s good creation of marriage and the blessings he intends for marriage aren’t evil. But our sinful abuse of God’s gift is.
The same holds true for God’s gift of food. God has given all kinds of food for us to use in line with his will, for our welfare and enjoyment, and for his glory. Again, the problem is not with any particular food. The problem is when use food and drink – or fail to use food and drink - to the point that it harms the bodies God has given us or to the point that we put others in danger. We could cite thousands of other examples. Each of us has to plead guilty. I have failed to use the gifts of God’s good creation properly, and so have you.
Sin always brings some serious consequences with it, and it does in this case too. When we fail to use God’s gifts properly, relationships suffer, marriages fall apart, bodies break down, people get hurt. But the most awful of all consequences of sin is death. Not just physical death, but separation from God’s love forever.
What we deserve, however, and what God offers for every sin-sick soul, are exact opposites. We deserve death, but he offers and gives us new life through his Son Jesus. He forgives all our sins, for Jesus’ sake. He can do that because Jesus lived a sinless life in our place and paid the full price for our sins on the cross. Because of Jesus’ work as our Substitute and Savior, God has declared that he won’t charge our sins of misuse and abuse to our accounts anymore.
So now, how do we respond? By God’s grace, we continue to learn his will and we trust him as our loving Father. We recognize that everything he gives us is for our benefit. And we ask him to bless us through the proper use of the good gifts he provides. This is a reason why we gather together in church for Christian weddings. We want to hear his Word about marriage and to ask his blessings on marriage. This is also why we pray before our meals. We want our heavenly Father’s blessing on the gifts he has provided for our earthly life and physical welfare.
Sometimes we act a lot like the man on that TV commercial. When we receive certain gifts from God, our first thought might be, “I really don’t need this!” But if God gave his Son to be our Savior, and if he gave us his Spirit to adopt us into his holy family, then we can also be certain that whatever he gives us now, he is giving for our good.
Christians, use this week to recognize the good gifts God has showered on you – both the spiritual gifts and the material gifts. Everything God created is good. So receive God’s gifts with thanksgiving, and use them to his glory. Amen.