1 Timothy 4.1-3-In Fulfillment Of The Spirit's Prophecy, The Demonically Inspired Teaching Of The Judaizers Influenced Some Pastors In Ephesus To Abandon The Faith
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday May 29, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 4:1-3-In Fulfillment Of The Spirit’s Prophecy, The Demonically Inspired Teaching Of The Judaizers Influenced Some Pastors In Ephesus To Abandon The Faith
Lesson # 73
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 4:1.
1 Timothy 4:1 teaches that the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some Christians will depart from the Christian faith by being occupied with deceitful spirits and demonic teachings.
1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. (NASU)
That 1 Timothy 4:1 is a reference to the prophecy recorded in Acts 20:28-30 is indicated by the fact that it is addressed to the pastors in Ephesus and warning them that some of their number will in the future speak perverse things, i.e. false doctrine.
This corresponds to the situation described by Paul in 1 Timothy 1:3-20 where certain pastors in Ephesus were obeying the teaching of the Judaizers, who are the wolves in Acts 20:29, and teaching false doctrine and attempting to be teachers of the Law.
Furthermore, 1 Timothy 4:1-5 is further describing the situation in Ephesus at the time of writing where some Christians are falling away from the Christian faith by being occupied with deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons that are propagated by the Judaizers.
1 Timothy 4:3 reveals that the Judaizers were forbidding marriage and prohibiting certain foods because they still adhered to the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law.
Therefore, we can conclude that 1 Timothy 4:1 is a reference to this prophecy in Acts 20:28-30 because of a comparison of Acts 20:28-30, 1 Timothy 1:3-20 and 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith” indicates that the prophecy communicated by the Spirit and recorded in Acts 20:28-30 refers to an indefinite period in the future from the time that the Spirit issued this prophecy.
It means that these Christians had lost interest in and had ceased from maintaining, practicing or applying the apostolic teaching, i.e. the gospel, which Paul in 1 Timothy 1:10-11 says is synonymous with sound doctrine.
This statement means that these Christians were learning and obeying the Christian faith, Christian doctrine but now had done a 180 and were not learning and not obeying it anymore.
The implication is that they were not protected anymore from the lies of Satan’s cosmic system.
This statement means that they were renouncing, defecting from, departing from, withdrawing from Christian teaching in order to follow after the demonic teaching of the Judaizers.
It refers to active rebellion against God and indicates that the pastors in Ephesus whom Paul describes in chapter one and whose teaching he further describes in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 were actively rebelling against the Lord Jesus Christ by rejecting His teaching that was propagated through His apostles.
It means that they were not deceived or tricked into rebelling against the Lord, they did it knowingly and willingly.
In 1 Timothy 1:19, Paul describes this abandonment of Christian doctrine as the shipwreck of one’s faith.
“Paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” explains how some in the Christian community in Ephesus would abandon the Christian faith, namely “by” being occupied with deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.
1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. (NASU)
“By means of the hypocrisy of liars” is introducing the intermediate agency that the ultimate agency, the kingdom of darkness employed to influence these pastors to abandon the faith.
“Seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron” indicates that the consciences of the Judaizers have been burned, as if pressed with a hot iron, so that they are no longer effective.
It denotes that their conscience is insensitive to the teaching of the truth, i.e. the gospel or in other words, their collective conscience has been desensitized.
They have rejected the gospel so often that they are insensitive to the Spirit’s voice and refuse to listen.
It indicates that they have rejected the standards found in the gospel since “conscience” is used to describe the collective conscience of the Judaizers.
1 Timothy 4:3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. (NASU)
“Men who forbid marriage” refers to the teaching that originated with the Essenes who lived on the shores of the Dead Sea and were very well-known in the first century for their ascetic practices, one of which was abstaining from marriage.
Some expositors argue that this ascetic practice of forbidding marriage that is mentioned by Paul in 1 Timothy 4:3 is not a reference to the teaching of the Essenes but rather the Gnostics.
However, though it is true that there was a branch of Gnosticism that practiced celibacy, this system would not have been known or fully developed in the middle of the first century when Paul wrote 1 Timothy (A.D. 63).
In fact, it was not a major factor in the Roman Empire until the mid to late part of the second century.
The overwhelming evidence in 1 Timothy is that the nature of the heresy was Jewish and should be attributed to the Judaizers.
“And advocate abstaining from foods” refers to the Judaizers’ practice of abstaining from certain foods prohibited in the Mosaic Law, which were called “unclean” (Leviticus 11; 20:15; Deuteronomy 14:3-21; cf. Leviticus 17:10-16; 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:15-25).
They avoided meat if they could not be sure that the meat had been prepared in a “kosher” manner, which refers to that which is right, or fit, or proper, or acceptable according to a Jew.
The term “unclean” is a technical term to describe those foods, which were commonly consumed by Gentile peoples but the Israelites were forbidden by God under the Mosaic Law to partake.
These dietary regulations, like circumcision, were given by God to Israel to distinguish her from the Gentile nations, which she was to dispossess in Canaan.
The ceremonial aspect of the Law contained the list of those land animals, birds, insects and marine life that were designated by God as unclean or unfit for consumption for the Israelites and those which would be clean or fit for consumption.
Christ fulfilled the ceremonial ordinances, the shadows and types of His person and work, by dying on the cross for us and in our place.
Therefore, these dietary regulations in the Mosaic Law do not apply since Christ fulfilled perfectly the Mosaic Law and is Himself the substance of the ritual aspect of the Law (Colossians 2:16-23).
The Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles whose teaching is in the New Testament make clear that the dietary laws of the Mosaic law did not apply to the church (Matthew 15:10-20; Mark 7:14-19; Acts 10:1-15).
Paul taught the churches throughout the Roman empire that all foods were fit for consumption (Romans 14; 1 Corinthians 10:25-26; Titus 1:15).
“Which God has created to be gratefully shared in” expresses the fact that God the Son created animals for the purpose that they would be eaten as food.
It teaches that thanksgiving is to be offered up by the believer in prayer before, during and after partaking of the food that the Creator provided with animals.
“By those who believe” refers to those who have been converted to Christianity by exercising faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
“And know the truth” specifies in detail what group of Christians in Ephesus who are to partake of all types of food with thanksgiving.
It refers to certain Christians who possess an experiential knowledge of the Word of Truth, which is the mind of Christ in the sense of personally encountering through the process of fellowship the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ regarding foods as it is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the pages of Scripture and prayer.
It also means that these Christians were affected by this encounter with this teaching of our Lord.
This encounter results in the gaining of practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Christ.
“And know the truth” refers to the Christian being fully convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that the dietary restrictions and the observance of certain days such as the Sabbath do not apply to them since Christ is the substance of these things.
It refers specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching that a Christian can eat both clean and unclean animals.