1 Timothy 4.1-The Spirit Explicitly Says That In Later Times Some Will Depart From The Faith By Being Occupied With Deceitful Spirits And Demonic Teachings
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday May 31, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 4:1-The Spirit Explicitly Says That In Later Times Some Will Depart From The Faith By Being Occupied With Deceitful Spirits And Demonic Teachings
Lesson # 74
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.
The Judaizers originated with the Pharisees and those who adhered to their teaching and were composed of both saved and unsaved Jews who taught strict adherence to the 613 mandates found in the Law as well as the oral traditions of the Rabbis, which are now, documented in the Mishna and the Talmud.
Many of the Judaizers were believers since Acts 6:7, 15:5 and 21:20 state that many of the priests and Pharisees who were teachers of the Mosaic Law believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation but after salvation they still adhered to the Law rather than the mystery doctrine for the church age that Paul was teaching.
They are referred to in the following NT passages: (1) Acts 13:45 (2) Acts 15:5 (3) Acts 17:5 (4) Acts 21:20 (5) Galatians 1:6-7 (6) Philippians 1:12-18 (7) Philippians 3:1-3.
The Judaizers taught that one had to observe and practice the Mosaic Law in order to get saved whereas Paul taught salvation by grace through faith in Christ and not through the works of the Mosaic Law (Eph. 2:8-9; Gal. 2:16).
Paul denounces their teaching in the book of Galatians since they taught a “different gospel” according to Gal. 1:6 and “distorted the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:7), thus Paul describes them as “enemies of the cross” in Philippians 3:17-19.
“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith” is composed of the conjunction de (δέ) (theh), “but” and the articular nominative neuter singular form of the noun pneuma (πνεῦμα) (peh-nev-mah), “the Spirit” and the adverb rhetos (ῥητῶς) (ore-dee-toce), “explicitly” and third person singular present active indicative form of the verb lego (λέγω) (leh-go), “says” which is followed by the conjunction hoti (ὅτι) (owe-tee), “that” and the preposition en (ἕν), “in” followed by the dative masculine plural form of the adjective husteros (ὕστερος) (ee-stah-roce), “later” and the dative masculine plural form of the noun kairos (καιρός) (keer-doce), “times” and the third person plural future middle indicative form of the verb aphistemi (ἀφίστημι) (ah-fee-steh-me), “will fall away from” and the nominative masculine plural form of the indefinite pronoun tis (τις) (teece), “some” and the articular genitive feminine singular form of the noun pistis (πίστις) (pee-steece), “faith.”
The conjunction de is introducing a mild contrast between those Christians who obey the mystery of godliness, i.e. the gospel and those who fall away from the Christian faith because they obey deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.
Rhetos implies verbal plainness and distinctness in that there is no need for inference and no room for difficulty in understanding the Spirit’s teaching that some Christians will fall away from the Christian faith by occupying themselves with deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.
The noun kairos 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.
The implication is that of a particular state of affairs in the church, which is described in 1 Timothy 4:1 as that of certain individuals in the Christian community falling away from the Christian faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.
The adjective husteros is used in a superlative sense and means “later” describing the time of the prophecy in Acts 20:28-30 as taking place “in later days” or “in later times.”
Important to understand is that Paul and Timothy considered themselves as already living in the final days.
The final days were inaugurated by the First Advent of Christ and specifically at the ascension and session of Christ and the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost.
It will be consummated for the church at the rapture and for the nation of Israel at the Second Advent of Christ.
The indefinite pronoun tis refers to certain unidentified Christians in Ephesus.
The verb aphistemi means “to abandon” in the sense 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.
Aphistemi 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.
The future tense of the verb aphistemi is a predictive future indicating that this abandonment of Christian doctrine, i.e. the gospel will take place or come to pass from the perspective of when the Spirit predicted this several years before as recorded in Acts 20:28-30.
The middle voice is a permissive middle meaning that some Christians in Ephesus “allowed” themselves to abandon the Christian faith and were prompted by deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons propagated by the Judaizers.
It indicates that these Christians in Ephesus would “tolerate, consent” or “permit” themselves to abandon the Christian faith because they were prompted to by the demonic teaching of the Judaizers.
The noun pistis is used with the verb aphistemi and in an objective sense for the Christian faith and refers to the gospel from the perspective of a body of doctrine or that which is believed by the church.
“Paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” is composed of the nominative masculine plural present active participle form of the verb prosecho (προσέχω) (prose-eh-koe), “paying attention to” and the dative neuter plural form of the noun pneuma (πνεῦμα) (peh-nev-mah), “spirits” and the dative neuter plural form of the adjective planos (πλάνος) (plah-noce), “deceitful” and the conjunction kai (καί) (keh), “and” which is followed by the dative feminine plural form of the noun didaskalia (διδασκαλία) (thee-thask-ah-lee-ah), “doctrines” and the genitive neuter plural form of the noun daimonion (δαιμόνιον) (theh-mone-eahn), “of demons.”
The verb prosecho means “to occupy one’s mind with something,” and what certain Christians were occupying their minds with is identified by the expression, “deceitful spirits and demonic teachings.”
The word implies obedience to these demonic teachings of the Judaizers.
Therefore, Paul is saying that the Spirit predicted years before that in the Christian community in Ephesus some will abandon the Christian faith by “occupying their minds” with deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.
The word functions as a participle of means indicating that the word 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.
The noun pneuma refers to non-material, supernatural, evil beings that follow or are led by Satan and the adjective planos is modifying pneuma and means “deceitful.”
The idea with the word is that the kingdom of darkness is leading astray from the Christian faith some in the Christian community in Ephesus and thus leading them away from God.
It characterizes these non-elect angels or spirits as “deceitful.”
The conjunction kai is epexegetical meaning that it is introducing an expression that “explains” or “specifies in detail” what these Christians in Ephesus were occupied with.
The noun didaskalia is in the plural and means “teachings, doctrines” and is modified by the noun daimonion, “demons” indicating that this teaching originates and is inspired by the kingdom of darkness led by Satan.
This demonically inspired teaching or doctrine is described in 1 Timothy 4:3 as forbidding marriage and the abstaining of certain foods.
This demonically inspired teaching is described by Paul in 1 Timothy 1:3-4.
