1 Timothy 4:1-11

Introduction

All of Timothy was expressly spoken by the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter 1:21 “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

2 Timothy 3:16–17 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

It seems reasonable to assume the reason the Paul brings up the Holy Spirit here is three-fold:

The importance of the latter times

A spontaneous moving of the Holy Spirit in redirecting Paul’s thoughts

Previous prophecy

Guthrie: Whenever truth flourishes error will raise its head, and the apostle is concerned that Timothy should deal rightly with this insidious opposition.

Brian Bell: Note this comes right after Paul gave us that beautiful hymn of 6 solid points of Christology! (1 Ti 3:16) Wherever the light of the gospel shines, the shadow of false doctrine lurks closely behind. 

Turning from the Faith

1 Timothy 4:1–5 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”

Acts 20:29–30 “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.”

When

Latter Times

A broad era, not a few years

Paul wrote this as a time frame subsequent to his own. What Paul describes as occuring is something that Timothy is presently dealing with.

John Stott argues based upon Paul going from future to present tense in v.3-6 the latter times have already begun.

Donald Guthrie: “What is predicted of the future is conceived of as already operative in the present, so the words have a specific contemporary significance.”

When did the latter times begin?

1 John 2:18 “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”

1 Peter 1:20 “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,”

Hebrews 1:2 “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;”

Hebrews 9:26 “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

What

Depart from the faith

Apostasy

Depart is where we get our English word Apostasy

Depart - To remove oneself from a position originally occupied to another place.

The Middle Voice refers to a purposeful, deliberate departure from a former position.

Hiebert has an interesting note - An apostate is not one who gives up his profession of being a Christian, but one who forsakes the truth of the Christian life

In a spiritual sense it means to come close to the truth that saves, only to depart.

Judas

Demas

John 6:66 “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

Luke 8:13 “They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.”

1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”

A person who departs is not someone who is struggling with believing but one who wilfully abandons the Biblical faith that he once professed.

Faith - Essential Christian Teachings

The faith (pistis - see note) is not the subjective aspect (believing) but the objective aspect (that which is believed,  the essential teachings of the Christian faith, especially the Gospel) as in 1 Timothy 3:9

Acts 6:7 “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.”

1 Timothy 1:19 “Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:”

Therefore, this doesn’t mean losing the ability to believe, but losing the content of what Christians should believe. It describes the essential teachings of the Christian faith. When some… depart from the faith, they are abandoning the essential teachings of Christianity.

Many movements have curved those departing from the faith by removing or sugar coating the reasons they depart.

A June 1997 article in U.S. News and World Report described a Virginia pastor who “Would rather preach on ‘Bosnia, justice, or world peace’ than on Bible stories or personal salvation.”

Why

Giving Heed - They depart becasue they heeded the wrong voices.

Seducing spirits

This refers to demonic spirits (angelic beings who have rebelled against God), who seek to deceive men and women and to entice them away from the truth.

Deception - They deceive people into believing their doctrine (the doctrine of devils) is true.

Doctrine of devils

This speaks of the specific teachings of these deceiving spirits. Demons are theology majors, and have systems of doctrine.

The cornerstone false teaching of the doctrine of devils is Genesis 3:4–5 “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

We can be gods

The old saying is certainly true today: a lie travels at top speed while the truth goes on foot – and more people within the church are following these doctrines of demons.

Speaking lies in hypocrisy

These are Satan’s and his demonic followers using people as their mouthpiece. Those who depart from the faith will speak lies of hypocrisy.

Some of the lies:

God loves you for who you are

Jesus died an awful and atrocious death because of who we are.

God saved us to conform us to His Son.

All faiths go to Heaven

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Having conscience sealed with hot iron.

Paul here refers to the ancient practice of branding a criminal on the forehead with a distinguishing mark. For these, it was not their forehead that was branded with a hot iron, but their conscience instead.

Their conscience, which at one time would have convicted them of their departure from the truth, now doesn’t reply at all. It is as if the nerve endings of their conscience have been burnt over and are dead to feeling.

Ephesians 4:19 “Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”

My conscience must be well-informed From God's own sacred Word; For conscience may be much deformed When standards pure are spurned.

Forbidden to marry and Commanding to abstain from meats

Paul brings up 2 examples of the doctrine of devils.

Gnosticism that was embraced by Jews and Gentiles

Ultimately, this was an attack on creation.

However, in concert with 1 Timothy 1 the idea centers on the misapplication of God’s law.

The power of these 2 doctrines of devils is legalism. Justification by faith has freed us from the power of legalism. Yet, Satan understands 1 way to remove the Christian’s joy is to chain them back to legalism. There are 2 sides of the same coin of legalism that we must see:

If we live in a sphere where our salvation can be negated then why we serve God shifts from freedom to bondage, and from love to responsibility and burden. I do not serve Christ out of fear of losing something that God had perfected in my life (His grace). Romans 8: God foreknew, predestined, conformed, called, justified, glorified, God is for us, no one can bring charge against God’s elect - becasue it is God who justifies, Christ intercedes and nothing can separate us from the love of God. Timothy Keller: “God guarantees our final perseverance because our salvation is not based upon our will and strength. Rather, God has called us, opened our minds to truth, and now carries us on the final glory.” I was saved by grace, kept in grace, and will be saved by grace.

Often, and rightly so, we view legalism as a doctrine that will move a person from the saved to unsaved realm. However, at the heart of legalism is doing certain activities that bind God to us. In a way that says He owes us. God does not owe us anything. He has freely given us all things. 1 Corinthians 2:12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” Romans 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” The bases us God freely given us all things is not our works but His Son!

In the early centuries of the church, there were monks who went out to desolate desert places to show how spiritual they were by torturing themselves. One never ate cooked food. Another stood all night leaning on a sharp rock so that it was impossible for him to sleep. Another neglected his own body and allowed it to become so dirty that bugs dropped dead from his body. They did this because they thought it would win favor with God and show everyone how spiritual they were.

Calvin - “The controversy is not about flesh or fish, or about black or ashen colours, or about Wednesday or Friday, but about the mad superstitions of men who wish to obtain God’s favour by such trifles and by contriving a carnal worship, invent for themselves an idol in God’s place.” (Calvin)

The answer to legalism: 1 Timothy 4:4–5 “For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”

God’s word sanctifies our actions, not man’s traditions.

Prayer of thanksgiving.

What does a good minister do

1 Timothy 4:6 “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.”

Remind the Brethren of truth

A good minister has a degree of repetitiveness in preaching and teaching.

Repetitiveness

One noted professor remarked how that repetition is the first principle of learning.

A reason we need to be repetitive with truth:

Satan is constantly scanning the Christian community for the weak link to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

Satan and his demonic cohorts are constantly attacking truth. They are patient in eroding truth one step at a time. Eventually, they want to get us to the place where we question what is truth. The only way we can succeed in attacking Satan is truth. Jesus went on the offensive during His temptations by Satan with truth. Paul says, the Christian soldier’s offensive weapon is truth: Ephesians 6:17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”

TODAY IN THE WORD Working in the early 1970s, engineers Irwin Lachman, Ronald Lewis, and Rodney Bagley designed a catalytic converter for automobiles. The ceramic converter, with which almost all cars today are equipped, turns toxic fumes into water vapor, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. In the last 30 years, this device has kept an estimated three billion tons of pollutants out of the atmosphere. Last spring, President Bush awarded each of the men a National Medal of Technology. Fighting environmental pollution is part of our stewardship of creation. Analogously, the Bible fights spiritual pollution in our lives as believers.

Since God's Word is true, anything that deviates from it is false. Through Paul, the Spirit warned the church about false teachers, who “follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (v. 1). Clearly, part of spiritual warfare is discerning truth from error. These false teachers earned a harsh description—“hypocritical liars” with hardened consciences (v. 2). What teachings deserved such strong words? Legalistic prohibitions against marriage and certain foods (v. 3).

Since God's Word is holy, it consecrates not only marriage and food, but also “everything God created” (vv. 4-5). God's purpose is that we enjoy His created blessings, receiving them as blessings with thankful hearts. We believe and know the truth that He is the giver of all good gifts (James 1:17). To reject this is not merely a “lifestyle choice,” but blasphemous opposition to His purposes. This truth is integrally connected to a godly life and must be clearly taught by pastors and elders (vv. 6-8).

Humble and Hungry

Good - Valued, beautiful

Minister

There are two words that Paul frequently used to describe Christians:

Servant - Submission and subjection

Minister - Serviceability and usefulness.

Same word for deacon

Humble

They are more important than you

Serve them the word of God

Nourished up in the words of faith

Nourish - to bring up or educate

Is the passive voice - Meaning that you are not

Good doctrine

Attain - To follow

Present Active

William Tyndale, the 16th century English reformer and Biblical translator, was an example of a man with a burning desire to study and understand God’s word. In prison shortly before he was martyred, he wrote a letter to the governor in chief asking for:

“A warmer cap, a candle, a piece of cloth to patch my leggings…But above all, I beseech and entreat your clemency to be urgent with the Procurer that he may kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may spend time with that in study.”

Warning

1 Timothy 4:7–10 “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.”

Refuse

Refuse - to shun, avoid, stay away from.

2 Timothy 2:23 “But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.”

Profane and Old wives fables

Profane - Wicked. It is to be sacrilegious. It is a dangerous game when we declare something to be true and divine when it is not.

Fables - Fiction

1 Timothy 1:4 “Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.”

Paul views words of men as grandmotherly fables and mumbling.

Exercise

Exercise

In v. 6 Paul said to Timothy that he needed an effective nutritional diet - God’s word - to keep the flock from departing from the faith.

In v.7 he needed exercise in Godliness to have the strength to refuse profane and old wives fables.

The word for “exercise” is where we get our word “gymnasium” from.

Timothy needed to train himself to be godly.

This would require discipline.

Hod does self-discipline contrast with legalism that Paul addressed earlier?

The legalistic heart says: I will do this to gain merit with God.

The disciplined heart says: I will do this becasue I love God and want to please him.

1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

Godliness - Kent Hughes: Godliness occurs 15 times in the NT, 13 are in the brief span of the pastoral epistles, with a whopping 9 in 1 Timothy alone. Since the pastoral epistles were Paul’s last letters, the matter of Godliness is naturally charged with final urgency.

For Paul godliness is not static, stained-glass word. It is active - kinetic obedience that springs from a reverent awe of God. It is an Isaiah like action that has a man, awestruck by God, rise from his face saying, “Here am I, send me.”

Godliness - is rooted in the mystery of Christ - 1 Timothy 3:16 “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

Comparison

Physical exercise - helps with this life

Spiritual exercise - helps with the life to come

Spiritual exercise comes from God’s word.

John Stott: Nothing evokes the worship of God like the word of God!

Bishop Garbett - When an evangelical minister does not study, he will be midlife become sentimentalist in his preaching.

Godliness

Profitable

Promise

This is a faithful saying

labor and suffer - Paul labored and suffered in reverencing and respecting God

Labor - strenuous toil

Describes athletic fatigue.

Philippians 2:16 “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”

Why is it worth training your life reverencing and respecting God?

Trust in the living God

Trust - hope

Perfect Tense

Savior of all men

Specially to those that believe - “Especially” is understood as “in other words.” In this case, Paul is not saying He saves believers more than He saves others; he is simply modifying his general statement that God is the Savior of all men by adding the limitation that you cannot be saved unless you believe.

Command and Teach