But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron, forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.
If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which you have followed. But refuse profane and old wives’ fables. Exercise yourself toward godliness.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1 Now the Spirit plainly saith He had industriously…
1 Now the Spirit plainly saith He had industriously admonished Timothy about many things; and now he shews the necessity, because it is proper to provide against the danger which the Holy Spirit forewarns to be fast approaching, namely, that false teachers will come, who shall hold out trifles as the doctrine of faith, and who, placing all holiness in outward exercises, shall throw into the shade the spiritual worship of God, which alone is lawful. And, indeed, the servants of God have always had to contend against such persons as Paul here describes. Men being by nature inclined to hypocrisy, Satan easily persuades them that God is worshipped aright by ceremonies and outward discipline; and, indeed, without a teacher, almost all have this conviction deeply rooted in their hearts. Next is added the craftiness of Satan to confirm the error: the consequence is, that, in all ages, there have been impostors, who recommended false worship, by which true godliness was buried. Again, this plague produces another, namely, that, in matters indifferent, men are laid under restraint; for the world easily permits itself to be hindered from doing that which God had declared to be lawful, in order that they may have it in their power to transgress with impunity the laws of God.
Here Paul, therefore, in the person of Timothy, forewarns not only the Ephesians, but all the churches throughout the world, about hypocritical teachers, who, by setting up false worship, and by ensnaring consciences with new laws, adulterate the true worship of God, and corrupt the pure doctrine of faith. This is the real object of the passage, which it is especially necessary to remark.
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Besides, in order that all may hear with more earnest attention what he is going to say, he opens with a preface, that this is an undoubted and very clear prophecy of the Holy Spirit. There is, indeed, no reason to doubt that he drew all the rest from the same Spirit; but, although we ought always to listen to him as communicating the will of Christ, yet in a matter of vast importance he wished especially to testify that he said nothing but by the Spirit of prophecy. By a solemn announcement, therefore, he recommends to us this prophecy; and, not satisfied with doing this, he adds that it is plain, and free from all ambiguity.
In the latter times At that time certainly it could not have been expected that, amidst so clear light of the gospel, any would have revolted. But this is what Peter says, that, as false teachers formerly gave annoyance to the people of Israel, so they will never cease to disturb the Christian Church. (2 Peter 3:3.) The meaning is the same as if he had said, “The doctrine of the gospel is now in a flourishing state, but Satan will not long refrain from laboring to choke the pure seed by tares.” (Matthew 13:20, 38.)
This warning was advantageous in the age of the Apostle Paul, that both pastors and others might give earnest attention to pure doctrine, and not suffer themselves to be deceived. To us in the present day it is not less useful, when we perceive that nothing has happened which was not foretold by an express prophecy of the Spirit. Besides, we may here remark; how great care God exercises about his Church, when he gives so early warning of dangers. Satan has, indeed, manifold arts for leading us into error, and attacks us by astonishing stratagems; but, on the other hand, fortifies us sufficiently, if we did not of our own accord choose to be deceived. There is therefore no reason to complain that darkness is more powerful than light, or that truth is vanquished by falsehood; but, on the contrary, we suffer the punishment of our carelessness and indolence, when we are led aside from the right way of salvation.
But they who flatter themselves in their errors object, that it is hardly possible to distinguish whom or what kind of persons Paul describes. As if it were for nothing that the Spirit uttered this prophecy, and published it so long before; for, if there were no certain mark, the whole of the present warning would be superfluous, and consequently absurd. But far be it from us to think that the Spirit of God gives us unnecessary alarm, or does not accompany the threatening of danger by shewing how we should guard against it! And that slander is sufficiently refuted by the words of Paul; for he points out, as with the finger, that evil which he warns us to avoid. He does not speak, in general terms, about false prophets, but plainly describes the kind of false doctrine; namely, that which, by linking godliness with outward elements, perverts and profanes, as I have already said, the spiritual worship of God.
Some will revolt from the faith It is uncertain whether he speaks of teachers or of hearers; but I am more disposed to refer it to the latter; for he afterwards calls teachers spirits that are impostors. And this is (ἐμφατικώτερον) more emphatic, that not only will there be those who sow wicked doctrines, and corrupt the purity of faith, but that they can never want disciples whom they call draw into their sect; and when a lie thus gains prevalence, there arises from it greater trouble.
Besides, it is no slight vice which he describes, but a very heinous crime — apostasy from the faith; although, at first sight, in the doctrine which he briefly notices there does not appear to be so much evil. What is the case? Is faith completely overturned on account of the prohibition of marriage, or of certain kinds of food? But we must take into view a higher reason, that men pervert and invent at their pleasure the worship of God, that they assume dominion over the consciences, and that they dare to forbid that use of good things which the Lord has permitted. As soon as the purity of the worship of God is impaired, there no longer remains anything perfect or sound, and faith itself is utterly ruined.
Accordingly, although Papists laugh at us, when we censure their tyrannical laws about outward observances, yet we know that we are pleading a cause of the greatest weight and importance; because the doctrine of faith is destroyed, as soon as the worship of God is infected by such corruptions. The controversy is not about flesh or fish, or about a black or ashy color, or about Friday or Wednesday, but about the mad superstitions of men, who wish to appease God by such trifles, and, by contriving a carnal worship of him, contrive for themselves an idol instead of God. Who will deny that this is revolting from the faith?
To deceiving spirits He means prophets or teachers, to whom he gives this designation, because they boast of the Spirit, and, under this title, insinuate themselves into the favor of the people. This, indeed, is true at all times, that men, whatever they are, speak under the excitement of the spirit. But it is not the same spirit that excites them all; for sometimes Satan is a lying spirit in the mouth of the false prophets, in order to deceive unbelievers, who deserve to be deceived. (1 Kings 22:21-23.) On the other hand, every one that renders due honor to Christ speaks by the Spirit of God, as Paul testifies. (1 Corinthians 12:3.)
Now that mode of expression, of which we are now speaking, originated at first from this circumstance, that the servants of God professed to have from the revelation of the Spirit, everything that they uttered in public. This was actually true; and hence they received the name of the Spirit, whose organs they were. But the ministers of Satan, by a false emulation, like apes, began afterwards to make the same boast, and likewise falsely assumed the name. On the same grounds John says,
“Try the spirits, whether they are of God.” (1 John 4:1.)
Moreover, Paul explains his meaning by adding, to doctrines of devils; which is as if he had said, “Attending to false prophets, and to their devilish doctrines.” Again observe, that it is not an error of small importance, or one that ought to be concealed, when consciences are bound by the contrivances of men, and at the same time the worship of God is corrupted.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–7 From the true doctrine of God.
From the true doctrine of God.
He setteth against that true doctrine, false opinions, which he foretelleth that certain which shall fall away from God and his religion, shall bring in by the suggestion of Satan, and so that a great number shall give ear to them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the…
1 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;
Ver. 1. Speaketh expressly] Verbis non disertis solum, sed et exertis. Abroad and aloud, that it may be heard all the Church over, ρητως.
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Some shall depart from the faith] As did the ancient heretics the Papists (in whom all the old heretics seem to have fled and hid themselves), and the present prodigious sectaries with their opinionum portenta, our modern Antitrinitarians, Ariaus, Anti-scripturists, Anabaptists, &c.
Doctrine of devils] Vented by Satan’s emissaries and instruments. About the time of Pope Hildebrand, letters were dispersed up and down, that were said to be sent from hell; wherein the devil gives great thanks to the Popish clergy for the great multitudes of souls that by their seductions came thronging to hell more than ever in any age before. (Mat. Paris, Hist. A. D. 1072.) Nicolas Orum, an Oxford doctor, is said to have written those letters. He preached also at Rome, before the pope and his cardinals; discovering and condemning their errors, and foretelling their destruction.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–7 It was usual with the prophets, when they declared…
It was usual with the prophets, when they declared the oracles of God, to assert in the beginning of their revelations, that the Lord hath spoken, Isa 1:2; Jer 1:2; Joe 1:1. The apostle in the same manner, in the beginning of his prediction of things future, declares
the Spirit speaketh expressly, that is, either clearly revealed it to me, as Act 10:19, and Act 13:2, thus expressly is opposed to obscurely; for sometimes the revelations given to the prophets were under shadows and figures in divers manners, but the Spirit discovered in a most intelligible manner what seducers should come in the church, &c.
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Now the Spirit speaketh expressly; either hath inwardly revealed it to my Spirit, as Act 10:19; 13:2, or, (which is more probable), because the verb is in the present tense, λεγει, it saith it in the written word, which must be in the Old Testament, for the New was not at this time written: but then the question is, where the Holy Ghost hath expressly in the Old Testament spoken of the apostacy of the latter times. Our famous Mede answers, in Dan 11:1-45, where from Dan 11:30 is a plain prophecy of the Roman empire, and Dan 11:35-39, of antichrist, where it is said: Some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, & c.; and he speaks of a king, that shall do according to his will, and shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods.—Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god, but magnify himself above all. Where that learned man thinks is an excellent description of the Roman empire, their various victories, successes, declinations, and mutations, and amongst other things, Dan 11:36, that they should cast off their old pagan idolatry, and after that make a defection from the Christian faith, and not regard marriage, (called there the desire of women), nor indeed truly regard any god. This the apostle saith should be in the latter times. The last times (saith the afore-mentioned famous author) are the times of Christ’s kingdom, which began in the time of the Roman empire; during which time this Epistle was written, where the apostle speaking of time yet to come, the
latter times by him mentioned must needs be the latter part of the last times, which he saith began in the ruin of the Roman empire, upon which followed the revealing of antichrist, that wicked one, mentioned 2Th 2:7. Concerning these times, the Spirit said expressly,
that some should in them depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits; by which some understand the devils themselves; others, false teachers, or false doctrines, which are afterwards mentioned, called doctrines of devils, by which some understand doctrines suggested by devils, or published by the cunning and art of devils. But others think that by doctrines of devils here are not to be understood doctrines so published, but doctrines concerning devils; and that the meaning is, that in the last times the pagan doctrine concerning demons should be restored. The pagan demons were an inferior sort of gods, a kind of middle beings between their highest gods and men, whose office was to be advocates and mediators between men and the highest gods, because they judged it was not lawful for men to come to the highest gods immediately; these they worshipped by images, even as the papists at this day make use of and worship angels and saints. See more fully what Mr. Mede saith upon this argument in his own book, and in Mr. Pool’s Latin Synopsis upon this text; and what he saith seems very probably the sense of this text, especially considering the two doctrines mentioned 1Ti 4:3.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6 As if our apostle had said, "Although the mystery…
As if our apostle had said, "Although the mystery of godliness, the doctrine of Christianity, be so clearly revealed, and fully confirmed, yet the spirit of prophecy has very plainly told us, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith once embraced by them, either in whole or in part; turning apostates, by giving heed to impostures and doctrines of men, teaching erors suggested by devils, who cover their lies with hypocritical pretences, and are men of hardened hearts, seared consciences, profligate lives, forbidding some, whom they have seduced, to marry, and commanding them to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving by them which do believe and know the truth."
Observe here, 1. That the apostasy and defection of a considerable part of the Christian church in the latter times was foreseen and foretold very long before it came to pass: by Daniel, say some, Dan 11:28; Dan 11:38 &c. by St. Paul, say others, in his second epistle to the Thessalonians; and in his first epistle to Timothy, the Spirit speaketh expressly, that some shall depart from the faith, that is, from the doctrine of the faith received; which we know the church of Rome has most notoriously done.
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Observe, 2. The cause of this apostasy and defection from Christianity, Giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.
Quest. But what is here meant by doctrines of devils?
Ans. These (says our reverend archbishop Tillotson) can be no other doctrines than those tending to idolatry, which the scripture every where doth in a particular manner ascribe to the devil, as the inventor and promoter of; therefore he tells us, that, in some ancient copies, the words run thus: In the latter times some shall apostatize from the faith; for they shall worship the dead, having regard to doctrines of devils:-- so that the particular kind of idolatry into which some part of the Christian church should apostatize, is here pointed out, namely, that they should worship souls departed, or the spirits of dead men, which was part of the heathen idolatry, into which the people of Israel did frequently relapse; these departed souls were called Daemons, and were esteemed a middle sort of divine powers, between the supreme gods and mortal men, whose office it was to be agents and mediators between the gods above and men below; thus is the holy city trodden down by the Gentiles, that is, overwhelmed with the Gentiles’ idolatry.
Observe, 3. The persons revolting, who they are foretold to be; not all, but, but some only: In the latter days, some shall depart from the faith; not the whole visible church, but a very great and considerable part of it.
Learn thence, That the true church of Christ was never wholly extinguished, nor the light of the gospel ever quite put out , no, not in the greatest darkness, that ever was, to overwhelm it; some (only) and not all, that shall depart from the faith.
Observe, 4. The persons described who should be the occasion of this apostasy and revolt: namely, such as speak lies in hypocrisy, and have seared consciences, that is, such stupid consciences as have lost the sense of good and evil, and no longer do their office. These lies, which the apostate church of Rome is guilty of, the profound Mr. Mede styles, "Lying miracles, fabulous legends of the acts of saints and sufferings of martyrs, counterfeit writings under the name of the first and best antiquity."
Lord! who could have coined or believed such monstrous stuff as the popish legends are fraught with, but such as are cauterized, past all feeling and tenderness both of conscience and sense itself.
Observe, 5. The doctrines discovered which these apostates would teach, namely, the forbidding marriage to some, and enjoining abstinence from some meats as unlawful and unclean to others, both which are called doctrines of devils, that is, wicked and devilish doctrines.
Learn thence, That the Popish doctrine forbidding marriage, not absolutely to all, but with restrictions and limitation to some, to wit, their clergy, and all such as shall enter into holy orders, is a devilish and wicked doctrine: for it forbids that which the word alloweth, nay, in some cases commandeth, Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled; Heb 13:4 if honourable in all, then surely lawful for all; under the Old Testament, the prophets, priests, and Levites, did marry; under the New, the ministers of God have a power to marry; Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife? 1Co 9:5 And that they made use of their power is evident from the following words, as well as other apostles and Cephas.
The other wicked doctrine concerning meats is also found in the church of Rome, who by a law to oblige some orders of men, as monks, to abstain from certain meats reducing them thereby from Christian liberty to a conformity to the legal rites, which may well by reckoned as an apostasy from the Christian faith; for although St. Paul, Romans 14 doth allow the forbearance of some sorts of meats to avoid scandal, yet he doth no where condemn the eating of them as unclean: the doctrine therefore of the church of Rome, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, is wicked and devilish.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 We have here a prophecy of the apostasy of…
We have here a prophecy of the apostasy of the latter times, which he had spoken of as a thing expected and taken for granted among Christians, 2 Th. 2.
I. In the close of the foregoing chapter, we had the mystery of godliness summed up; and therefore very fitly, in the beginning of this chapter, we have the mystery of iniquity summed up: The Spirit speaks expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith; whether he means the Spirit in the Old Testament, or the Spirit in the prophets of the New Testament, or both. The prophecies concerning antichrist, as well as the prophecies concerning Christ, came from the Spirit. The Spirit in both spoke expressly of a general apostasy from the faith of Christ and the pure worship of God. This should come in the latter times, during the Christian dispensation, for these are called the latter days; in the following ages of the church, for the mystery of iniquity now began to work. Some shall depart from the faith, or there shall be an apostasy from the faith. Some, not all; for in the worst of times God will have a remnant, according to the election of grace. They shall depart from the faith, the faith delivered to the saints (Jde 1:3), which was delivered at once, the sound doctrine of the gospel. Giving heed to seducing spirits, men who pretended to the Spirit, but were not really guided by the Spirit, Jo1 4:1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, every one who pretends to the Spirit. Now here observe,
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1. One of the great instances of the apostasy, namely, giving heed to doctrines of demons, or concerning demons; that is, those doctrines which teach the worship of saints and angels, as a middle sort of deities, between the immortal God and mortal men, such as the heathen called demons, and worshipped under that notion. Now this plainly agrees to the church of Rome, and it was one of the first steps towards that great apostasy, the enshrining of the relics of martyrs, paying divine honours to them, erecting altars, burning incense, consecrating images and temples, and making prayers and praises to the honour of saints departed. This demon-worship is paganism revived, the image of the first beast.
2. The instruments of promoting and propagating this apostasy and delusion. (1.) It will be done by hypocrisy of those that speak lies, the agents and emissaries of Satan, who promote these delusions by lies and forgeries and pretended miracles, Ti1 4:2. It is done by their hypocrisy, professing honour to Christ, and yet at the same time fighting against all his anointed offices, and corrupting or profaning all his ordinances. This respects also the hypocrisy of those who have their consciences seared with a red-hot iron, who are perfectly lost to the very first principles of virtue and moral honesty. If men had not their consciences seared as with a hot iron, they could never maintain a power to dispense with oaths for the good of the catholic cause, could never maintain that no faith is to be kept with heretics, could never divest themselves of all remains of humanity and compassion, and clothe themselves with the most barbarous cruelty, under pretence of promoting the interest of the church. (2.) Another part of their character is that they forbid to marry, forbid their clergy to marry, and speak very reproachfully of marriage, though an ordinance of God; and that they command to abstain from meats, and place religion in such abstinence at certain times and seasons, only to exercise a tyranny over the consciences of men.
3. On the whole observe, (1.) The apostasy of the latter times should not surprise us, because it was expressly foretold by the Spirit. (2.) The Spirit is God, otherwise he could not certainly foresee such distant events, which as to us are uncertain and contingent, depending on the tempers, humours, and lusts of men. (3.) The difference between the predictions of the Spirit and the oracles of the heathen is remarkable; the Spirit speaks expressly, but the oracles of the heathen were always doubtful and uncertain. (4.) It is comfortable to think that in such general apostasies all are not carried away, but only some. (5.) It is common for seducers and deceivers to pretend to the Spirit, which is a strong presumption that all are convinced that this is the most likely to work in us an approbation of what pretends to come from the Spirit. (6.) Men must be hardened, and their consciences seared, before they can depart from the faith, and draw in others to side with them. (7.) It is a sign that men have departed from the faith when they will command what God has forbidden, such as saint and angel or demon-worship; and forbid what God has allowed or commanded, such as marriage and meats.
II. Having mentioned their hypocritical fastings, the apostle takes occasion to lay down the doctrine of the Christian liberty, which we enjoy under the gospel, of using God's good creatures, - that, whereas under the law there was a distinction of meats between clean and unclean (such sorts of flesh they might eat, and such they might not eat), all this is now taken away; and we are to call nothing common or unclean, Act 10:15. Here observe, 1. We are to look upon our food as that which God has created; we have it from him, and therefore must use it for him. 2. God, in making those things, had a special regard to those who believe and know the truth, to good Christians, who have a covenant right to the creatures, whereas others have only a common right. 3. What God has created is to be received with thanksgiving. We must not refuse the gifts of God's bounty, nor be scrupulous in making differences where God has made none; but receive them, and be thankful, acknowledging the power of God the Maker of them, and the bounty of God the giver of them: Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, Ti1 4:4. This plainly sets us at liberty from all the distinctions of meats appointed by the ceremonial law, as particularly that of swine's flesh, which the Jews were forbidden to eat, but which is allowed to us Christians, by this rule, Every creature of God is good, etc. Observe, God's good creatures are then good, and doubly sweet to us, when they are received with thanksgiving. - For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer, Ti1 4:5. It is a desirable thing to have a sanctified use of our creature-comforts. Now they are sanctified to us, (1.) By the word of God; not only his permission, allowing us the liberty of the use of these things, but his promise to feed us with food convenient for us. This gives us a sanctified use of our creature-comforts. (2.) By prayer, which blesses our meat to us. The word of God and prayer must be brought to our common actions and affairs, and then we do all in faith. Here observe, [1.] Every creature is God's, for he made all. Every beast in the forest is mine (says God), and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are mine, Psa 50:10, Psa 50:11. [2.] Every creature of God is good: when the blessed God took a survey of all his works, God saw all that was made, and, behold, it was very good, Gen 1:31. [3.] The blessing of God makes every creature nourishing to us; man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4), and therefore nothing ought to be refused. [4.] We ought therefore to ask his blessing by prayer, and so to sanctify the creatures we receive by prayer.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly,.... The prophecy hereafter mentioned…
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly,.... The prophecy hereafter mentioned was not an human conjecture, but, as all true prophecy, it came from the Spirit of God, who spoke or delivered it; either in the prophets of the Old Testament, who, as they spoke of the Gospel dispensation, so of the defection that should be in it; and particularly of antichrist, and of the apostasy through him, which is what is here intended, especially in Daniel's prophecies, under the names of the little horn, and vile person, Dan 7:1 and Dan 11:1, or in the Lord Jesus Christ, who foretold that false prophets would arise and deceive many; or in some of the prophets in the Christian church, such as Agabus, and others, who might in so many words foretell this thing; or rather in the apostle himself, at this time, since this prophecy was delivered not in dark sayings, in an enigmatical way, in an obscure manner, as prophecies generally were, but in plain language, and easy to be understood, and wanted no interpreter to unriddle it; and seeing that it is nowhere to be found in so many express words elsewhere: and moreover, the apostle does not say the Spirit "hath spoken", but the Spirit "speaketh"; then, at the time of the writing of these words, in and by him. The prediction follows,
that in the latter times some should depart from the faith; that is, from the doctrine of faith, notwithstanding it is indisputably the great mystery of godliness, as it is called in the latter part of the preceding chapter; for from the true grace of faith there can be no final and total apostasy, such as is here designed; for that can never be lost. It is of an incorruptible nature, and therefore more precious than gold that perishes; Christ is the author and finisher of it; his prevalent mediation is concerned for it; it is a gift of special grace, and is without repentance; it springs from electing grace, and is secured by it; and between that and salvation there is an inseparable connection; it may indeed decline, be very low, and lie dormant, as to its acts and exercise, but not be lost: there is a temporary faith, and a persuasion of truth, or a mere assent to it, which may be departed from, but not that faith which works by love: here it intends a profession of faith, which being made, should be dropped by some; or rather the doctrine of faith, which some would embrace, and then err concerning, or entirely quit, and wholly apostatize from. And they are said to be some, and these many, as they are elsewhere represented, though not all; for the elect cannot be finally and totally deceived; the foundation of election stands sure amidst the greatest apostasy; and there are always a few names that are not defiled with corrupt principles and practices; Christ always had some witnesses for the truth in the darkest times: and now this defection was to be "in the latter times"; either of the apostolic age, which John, the last of the apostles, lived to see; and therefore he calls it the last time, or hour, in which were many antichrists, Jo1 2:18. And indeed in the Apostle Paul's time the mystery of iniquity began to work, which brought on this general defection; though here it has regard to some later times under the Gospel dispensation; to the time when the man of sin, and the son of perdition, was revealed, and when all the world wondered after the beast: and indeed, such will be the degeneracy in the last days of all, that when the son of man comes, as the grace, so the doctrine of faith will be scarcely to be found in the world: the means by which this apostasy will obtain and prevail will be through men's
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giving heed to seducing spirits; either to doctrines which are of a deceiving nature; or to men who profess to have the Spirit of God, and have not, but are evil men and seducers, deceiving, and being deceived; that lie in wait to deceive, and handle the word of God deceitfully; and by attending on the ministry of such persons, through hearing them, and conversing with them, the defection was to begin and spread; and therefore such should be carefully avoided, and their ministry shunned; nor should they be received, nor bid God speed.
And doctrines of devils; such as are devised by devils, as all damnable doctrines be; and all lying ones, for the devil is the father of them; and as are all the false doctrines introduced by antichrist, for his coming was after the working of Satan; and particularly those doctrines of his concerning worshipping of angels, and saints departed, may be called the doctrines of devils, or of "demons"; being much the same with the demon worship among the Heathens, of which the devil was the inventor: unless by doctrines of devils should be meant the doctrines of men, who for their cunning and sophistry, for their lies and hypocrisy, for their malice, and murdering of the souls of men, are comparable to devils.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7 But the Spirit saith - By St. Paul himself…
But the Spirit saith - By St. Paul himself to the Thessalonians, and probably by other contemporary prophets. Expressly - As concerning a thing of great moment, and soon to be fulfilled. That in the latter times - These extend from our Lord's ascension till his coming to judgment. Some - Yea, many, and by degrees the far greater part. Will depart from the faith - The doctrine once delivered to the saints. Giving heed to seducing spirits - Who inspire false prophets.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Apostasy from the true faith predicted, and in what…
CHAPTER IV.
Apostasy from the true faith predicted, and in what that
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apostasy should consist, 1-5.
Exhortations to Timothy to teach the truth, 6.
To avoid old wives' fables; to exercise himself to godliness,
7, 8.
To labour, command, and teach, 9, 10, 11.
To act so that none might despise his youth, 12.
To give attendance to reading and preaching, 13, 14.
To give up himself wholly to the Divine work, 15.
And so doing he should both save himself and them that heard
him, 16.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV.
Verse 1. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly] Ῥητως· Manifestly, openly. It is very likely that the apostle refers here to a prophecy then furnished by the Holy Ghost, and probably immediately after he had written the words in the preceding verses; and as this prophecy contains things nowhere else spoken of in the sacred writings, and of the utmost moment to the Christian Church, we cannot hear or read them with too much reverence or respect.
In the latter times] This does not necessarily imply the last ages of the world, but any times consequent to those in which the Church then lived.
Depart from the faith] Αποστησονται - της πιστεως· They will apostatize from the faith, i.e. from Christianity; renouncing the whole system in effect, by bringing in doctrines which render its essential truths null and void, or denying and renouncing such doctrines as are essential to Christianity as a system of salvation. A man may hold all the truths of Christianity, and yet render them of none effect by holding other doctrines which counteract their influence; or he may apostatize by denying some essential doctrine, though he bring in nothing heterodox.
Giving heed to seducing spirits] Πνευμασι πλανοις· Many MSS. and the chief of the fathers have πνευμασι πλανης· spirits of deceit; which is much more emphatic than the common reading. Deception has her spirits, emissaries of every kind, which she employs to darken the hearts and destroy the souls of men. Pretenders to inspiration, and false teachers of every kind, belong to this class.
And doctrines of devils] Δαιμονιων· Demons; either meaning fallen spirits, or dead men, spectres, &c., or doctrines inspired by Satan relative to these, by which he secures his own interest, and provides for his own worship.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6 1Ti 4:1. Now the Spirit — By calling the…
1Ti 4:1. Now the Spirit — By calling the Christian Church, in the end of the preceding chapter, the pillar and support of the truth, the apostle taught, that one of the important purposes for which that great spiritual building was reared, was to preserve the knowledge and practice of true religion in the world. Nevertheless, knowing that in after times great corruptions, both in doctrine and practice, would at length take place in the church itself, and that the general reception of these corruptions by professed Christians would be urged as a proof of their being the truths and precepts of God, on pretence that the church is the pillar, &c., of the truth, the apostle, to strip these corruptions of any credit which they might derive from their being received by the multitude, and maintained by persons of the greatest note in the church, judged it necessary in this chapter to foretel the introduction of these corruptions, under the appellation of an apostacy from the faith, and to stigmatize the authors thereof as hypocrites and deceivers. And to give his prediction the greater authority, he informed Timothy that it was revealed to him in a peculiar and express manner. The Spirit, says he, speaketh expressly — As concerning a thing of great moment, and soon to be fulfilled. Some have thought the meaning of the apostle to be, that the Holy Spirit had revealed what follows by Daniel, and some of the other prophets; but, says Macknight, “the things here mentioned are not in Daniel, nor anywhere else in Scripture, not even in the prophecy which the apostle himself formerly delivered concerning the man of sin. I therefore think these words were, for the greater solemnity and certainty, pronounced by the Spirit in the apostle’s hearing, after he had finished the preceding passage.” But the apostle might mean, that the Holy Spirit had revealed this, not only to him, but also to other contemporary prophets.
That in the latter, or after times — As the phrase εν υστεροις καιροις may be translated, because it denotes future times, without marking whether they are near or remote. Or if, as Mede thinks, Daniel’s four monarchies are referred to, as it was under the Roman that the God of heaven set up the kingdom of his Son, the latter, or after times here intended, may be the last part of the duration of the Roman empire. Some shall depart — Or rather, shall apostatize, from the faith — The apostle had predicted the same thing before, 2Th 2:3, where see the notes. There the character of the teachers who were to introduce the apostacy is described; but in this epistle the erroneous opinions and corrupt practices which constituted the apostacy are foretold. And as the apostle hath introduced this prophecy immediately after his account of the mystery of godliness, is it not probable that his design in so doing was to give the faithful an opportunity of comparing this mystery of iniquity with the mystery of godliness, that they might be more sensible of the pernicious nature of it? It may be proper to observe, that it is not every error or heresy that is an apostacy from the faith. It is a revolt in the principal and essential articles, as when we worship God by an image or representation, or when we worship other beings besides God, and pray unto other mediators besides the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. It is the very essence of Christian worship, to worship the one true God through the one true Christ; and to worship any other God or any other Mediator, is apostacy and rebellion against God and Christ. It is, as St. Paul says, (Col 2:19,) not holding the head, but depending upon other heads; it is, as St. Peter expresses it, denying the Lord that bought us, and serving other lords; and the denial of such an essential part may as properly be called apostacy, as if we were to renounce the whole Christian faith and worship. It is renouncing them in effect, and not regarding God as God, or Christ as Christ. Such is the nature of apostacy from the faith, and it is implied that this apostacy should be general, and infect great numbers. For though it be said only some shall apostatize, yet by some in this place many are understood, which is the case also in many other passages of the Scriptures, as Bishop Newton has fully proved. Giving heed to seducing spirits — Who inspire false teachers; or to men that persuade others to believe them by the pretence of some inspiration or revelation of the Holy Spirit, and thereby cause people to err from the true faith of the gospel. The apostle means those gross frauds by which the corrupt teachers, in the dark ages, would enforce their erroneous doctrines and superstitious practices on the ignorant multitudes, under the notion of revelations from God, or from angels, or departed saints. In the same sense St. John is to be understood, when he says, (1Jn 4:1,) Believe not every spirit, every pretender to inspiration, but try the spirits whether they be of God. And to doctrines of devils — Or rather, doctrines concerning demons. The word διαμονια, translated demons, was used by the Greeks to denote a kind of beings of a middle nature between God and man. They gave the same name also to the souls of some departed men, who they thought were exalted to the state and honour of demons for their virtue. The former sort they called superior demons, and supposed them to have the nature and office which we ascribe to angels. The latter they termed inferior demons. These were of the same character with the Romish saints. And both sorts were worshipped as mediators. When therefore the Spirit of God foretold, that in after times many would give heed to deceiving spirits, and to doctrines concerning demons, he foretold that, on the authority of feigned revelations, many in the church would receive the doctrine concerning the worship of angels and saints, and the praying souls out of purgatory; and called it the doctrine of demons, because it was in reality the same with the ancient heathenish worship of demons, as mediators between the gods and men. Thus the sin for which many are represented as being punished, (Rev 9:20,) is said to be their worshipping, τα δαιμονια, demons, that is, angels and saints; not devils, as our translators have rendered the word, for in no period of the church have devils been worshipped by Christians.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Now the Spirit - Evidently the Holy Spirit; the…
Now the Spirit - Evidently the Holy Spirit; the Spirit of inspiration. It is not quite certain, from this passage, whether the apostle means to say that this was a revelation “then” made to him, or whether it was a well-understood thing as taught by the Holy Spirit. He himself elsewhere refers to this same prophecy, and John also more than once mentions it; compare 2 Thes. 2; 1Jo 2:18; Rev 20:1-15. From 2Th 2:5, it would seem that this was a truth which had before been communicated to the apostle Paul, and that he had dwelt on it when he preached the gospel in Thessalonica. There is no improbability, however, in the supposition that so important a subject was communicated directly by the Holy Spirit to others of the apostles.
Speaketh expressly - In express words, ῥητῶς rētōs. It was not by mere hints, and symbols, and shadowy images of the future; it was in an open and plain manner - in so many words. The object of this statement seems to be to call the attention of Timothy to it in an emphatic manner, and to show the importance of attending to it.
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That in the latter times - Under the last dispensation, during which the affairs of the world would close; see the notes on Heb 1:2. It does not mean that this would occur “just before” the end of the world, but that it would take place during “that last dispensation,” and that the end of the world would not happen until this should take place; see the notes on 2Th 2:3.
Some shall depart from the faith - The Greek word here - ἀποστήσονται apostēsontai - is that from which we have derived the word “apostatize,” and would be properly so rendered here. The meaning is, that they would “apostatize” from the belief of the truths of the gospel. It does not mean that, as individuals, they would have been true Christians; but that there would be a departure from the great doctrines which constitute the Christian faith. The ways in which they would do this are immediately specified, showing what the apostle meant here by departing from the faith. They would give heed to seducing spirits, to the doctrines of devils, etc. The use of the word “some,” here τινες tines - does not imply that the number would be small. The meaning is, that “certain persons” would thus depart, or that “there would be” an apostasy of the kind here mentioned, in the last days. From the parallel passage in 2Th 2:3, it would seem that this was to be an extensive apostasy.
Giving heed to seducing spirits - Rather than to the Spirit of God. It would be a part of their system to yield to those spirits that led astray. The spirits here referred to are any that cause to err, and the most obvious and natural construction is to refer it to the agency of fallen spirits. Though it “may” apply to false teachers, yet, if so, it is rather to them as under the influence of evil spirits. This may be applied, so far as the phraseology is concerned, to “any” false teaching; but it is evident that the apostle had a specific apostasy in view - some great “system” that would greatly corrupt the Christian faith; and the words here should be interpreted with reference to that. It is true that people in all ages are prone to give heed to seducing spirits; but the thing referred to here is some grand apostasy, in which the characteristics would be manifested, and the doctrines held, which the apostle proceeds immediately to specify; compare 1Jo 4:1.
And doctrines of devils - Greek, “Teachings of demons - διδασκαλίαις δαιμωνίων didaskaliais daimōniōn. This may either mean teachings “respecting” demons, or teachings “by” demons. The particular sense must be determined by the connection. Ambiguity of this kind in the construction of words, where one is in the genitive case, is not uncommon; compare Joh 15:9-10; Joh 21:15. Instances of the construction where the genitive denotes the “object,” and should be translated “concerning,” occur in Mat 9:25; “The gospel of the kingdom,” i. e., concerning the kingdom; Mat 10:1; “Power of unclean spirits,” i. e., over or concerning unclean spirits; so, also, Act 4:9; Rom 16:15; 2Co 1:5; Eph 3:1; Rev 2:13. Instances of construction where the genitive denotes the “agent,” occur in the following places: Luk 1:69, “A horn of salvation,” i. e., a horn which produces or causes salvation; Joh 6:28; Rom 3:22; 2Co 4:10; Eph 4:18; Col 2:11. Whether the phrase here means that, in the apostasy, they would give heed to doctrines “respecting” demons, or to doctrines which demons “taught,” cannot, it seems to me, be determined with certainty. If the previous phrase, however, means that they would embrace doctrines taught by evil spirits, it can hardly be supposed that the apostle would immediately repeat the same idea in another form; and then the sense would be, that one characteristic of the time referred to would be the prevalent teaching “respecting” demons. They would “give heed to,” or embrace, some special views respecting demons. The word here rendered “devils” is δαιμονία daimonia - “demons.” This word, among the Greeks, denoted the following things:
(1) A god or goddess, spoken of the pagan gods; compare in New Testament, Act 17:18.
(2) A divine being, where no particular one was specified, the agent or author of good or evil fortune; of death, fate, etc. In this sense it is often used in Homer.
(3) The souls of people of the golden age, which dwelt unobserved upon the earth to regard the actions of men, and to defend them - tutelary divinities, or geniuses - like that which Socrates regarded as his constant attendant. Xen. Mem. 4. 8. 1. 5; Apol. Soc. 4. See “Passow.”
(4) To this may be added the common use in the New Testament, where the word denotes a demon in the Jewish sense - a bad spirit, subject to Satan, and under his control; one of the host of fallen angels - commonly, but not very properly rendered “devil” or “devils.” These spirits were supposed to wander in desolate places, Mat 12:43; compare Isa 13:21; Isa 34:14; or they dwell in the air, Eph 2:2. They were regarded as hostile to mankind, Joh 8:44; as able to utter pagan oracles, Act 16:17; as lurking in the idols of the pagan, 1Co 10:20; Rev 9:20. They are spoken of as the authors of evil, Jam 2:19; compare Eph 6:12, and as having the power of taking “possession” of a person, of producing diseases, or of causing mania, as in the case of the demoniacs, Luk 4:33; Luk 8:27; Mat 17:18; Mar 7:29-30; and often elsewhere. The doctrine, therefore, which the apostle predicted would prevail, might, “so far as the word used is concerned,” be either of the following:
(1) Accordance with the prevalent notions of the pagan respecting false gods; or a falling into idolatry similar to that taught in the Grecian mythology. It can hardly be supposed, however, that he designed to say that the common notions of the pagan would prevail in the Christian church, or that the worship of the pagan gods “as such” would be set up there.
(2) An accordance with the Jewish views respecting demoniacal possessions and the power of exorcising them. If this view should extensively prevail in the Christian church, it would be in accordance with the language of the prediction.
(3) Accordance with the prevalent pagan notions respecting the departed spirits of the good and the great, who were exalted to the rank of demi-gods, and who, though invisible, were supposed still to exert an important influence in favor of mankind. To these beings, the pagan rendered extraordinary homage. They regarded them as demi-gods. They supposed that they took a deep interest in human affairs. They invoked their aid. They set apart days in honor of them. They offered sacrifices, and performed rites and ceremonies to propitiate their favor. They were regarded as a sort of mediators or intercessors between man and the superior divinities. If these things are found anywhere in the Christian church, they may be regarded as a fulfillment of this prediction, for they were not of a nature to be foreseen by any human sagacity. Now it so happens, that they are in fact found in the Papal communion, and in a way that corresponds fairly to the meaning of the phrase, as it would have been understood in the time of the apostle.
There is, “first,” the worship of the virgin and of the saints, or the extraordinary honors rendered to them - corresponding almost entirely with the reverence paid by the pagan to the spirits of heroes or to demi-gods. The saints are supposed to have extraordinary power with God, and their aid is implored as intercessors. The virgin Mary is invoked as “the mother of God,” and as having power still to command her Son. The Papists do not, indeed, offer the same homage to the saints which they do to God, but they ask their aid; they offer prayer to them. The following extracts from the catechism of Dr. James Butler, approved and recommended by Dr. Kenrick, “Bishop of Philadelphia,” expresses the general views of Roman Catholics on this subject. “Question: How do Catholics distinguish between the honor they give to God, and the honor they give to the saints, when they pray to God and the saints?
Answer: Of God alone they beg grace and mercy; and of the saints they only ask the assistance of their prayers? Question Is it lawful to recommend ourselves to the saints, and ask their prayers. Answer: Yes; as it is lawful and a very pious practice to ask the prayers of our fellow-creatures on earth, and to pray for them.” In the “Prayer to be said before mass,” the following language occurs: “In union with the holy church and its minister, and invoking the blessed virgin Mary, Mother of God, and all the angels and saints, we now offer the adorable sacrifice of the mass,” etc. In the General Confession, it is said - “I confess to Almighty God, to the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, to blessed Michael the archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and to all the saints, that I have sinned exceedingly.” So also, the council of Trent declared, Sess. 25, “Concerning the invocation of the saints,” “that it is good and useful to supplicate them, and to fly to their prayers, power, and aid; but that they who deny that the saints are to be invoked, or who assert that they do not pray for people, or that their invocation of them is idolatry, hold an impious opinion. See also Peter Den’s Moral Theology, translated by the Rev. John F. Berg, pp. 342-356. “Secondly,” in the Papal communion the doctrine of “exorcism” is still held - implying a belief that evil spirits or demons have power over the human frame - a doctrine which comes fairly under the meaning of the phrase here - “the doctrine respecting demons.”
Thus, in Dr. Butler’s Catechism: “Question: What do you mean by exorcism? Answer: The rites and prayers instituted by the church for the casting out devils, or restraining them from hurting persons, disquieting places, or abusing any of God’s creatures to our harm. Question: Has Christ given his church any such power over devils? Anser: Yes, he has; see Mat 10:1; Mar 3:15; Luk 9:1. And that this power was not to die with the apostles, nor to cease after the apostolic age, we learn from the perpetual practice of the church, and the experience of all ages.” The characteristic here referred to by the apostle, therefore, is one that applies precisely to the Roman Catholic communion, and cannot be applied with the same fitness to any other association calling itself Christian on earth. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the Holy Spirit designed to designate that apostate church.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7 In the last times. Literally, last days; i.e. hereafter,…
In the last times. Literally, last days; i.e. hereafter, or in days to come. --- To spirits of error and doctrines of devils; or, to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, as in the Protestant translation. The sense must be, that men shall teach false doctrine by the suggestion of the devil. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 1 Timothy Chapter 4
1 Timothy Chapter 4
But there would be some who departed from the faith, from this knowledge of the one Creator and Saviour-God-Him who was manifested in the flesh. They would attack precisely these points which we have named. It might be that they would pretend to carry the idea of Christian privileges farther than all others had done, as well as that of profound knowledge of God; but they would sin against first principles, against the faith which connected the Saviour God revealed in Christianity with the one only Creator-God. According to Christianity, the eternal God had not only created the world but had revealed Himself in Christ. These apostates, bringing in doctrines of demons, would seek to deny that it was this one and only God of nature who had manifested Himself in grace. Seduced by demons, and their conscience being seared,they forbade that which God had established in creation, that which He had given to man in full right after the flood: as though the superior holiness which they preached, and relationship with a more exalted God, were not consistent with such customs. Forsaking the real and practical holiness of communion with God, and of His commandments by Christ, they created a false sanctity for themselves, which denied that which God had ordained from the beginning and thus exalted themselves against the authority of Him who had ordained it, as though He was an imperfect or perhaps evil being.
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Thus the restraint of the fear of God was lost, and the door opened to license and dissoluteness. The Spirit of God warned the assembly of this, and the faithful apostle communicates it to Timothy and through him puts the faithful on their guard. He does not therefore speak of privilege. Faithful to the glory of God, he returns to the first principles of His glory, and maintains the incontestable rights of the one and only God; faithful to God, not making boast of his knowledge, but seeking in love to guard the assembly from all departure from God.
We must not confound the few here who forsake the faith with the general apostacy of 2 Thessalonians. Here a few depart from the truth, seduced by demons; and the assembly still subsists to be guarded from the invasion of these hurtful principles. Quite another thing is the general apostacy, and the manifestation of the man of sin, which is not mentioned here at all. Here we have the faithfulness which repels error by truth, reminding the brethren of the latter, in order that they may not be seduced. There it is the manifestation of the one who sits in the temple of God, and who is destroyed by the brightness of the Lord’s presence. Here all that had to be done was to recall in simplicity the goodness of the Creator, and that His gifts, received with thanksgiving, were always good, and not to be refused: assuredly not that they were to use them for the gratification of their lusts, but as sanctified by the word of God, which brought them to us as God’s gifts, and by prayer, which connects us with God in using them. They were to be received as from Him, as the gift of His hand; and they were sanctified, as is the case with everything that comes from Him and bears the stamp of His will and His goodness. Man had forfeited everything in forsaking God: what he had he had not now with God, would eat merely as an animal, and worse as having left God. The word of God replaced the relationship in grace, and prayer used it on this footing. Here (although in other circumstances it has gone much farther) the monastic principle, in the heart and in form, is fully judged; however sincere any individual may be who seeks to follow it in order to honour God. God does not withdraw the gifts on which man, so to speak, has seized by his will; but his use of them, instead of being the gratification of his will and lusts, is now as received from God by His will in thankfulness, and owning Him.
This in fact the apostle shews in that which follows. By teaching thus Timothy would be a good servant of Jesus Christ, nourished in the truth: bodily exercise profited little, but godliness much-both here below and for eternity; warning him again against the idle and profitless speculation of the human mind, to the danger of which he continually recurs. It is for this doctrine of God-true and worthy of all acceptation-that the apostle laboured and suffered reproach; because he had faith in the living God, who, by His providence and by His supreme power, [8] governed, preserved, and took care of all men, and especially of those that believed. It was this same only God, Creator and Saviour, in whom he trusted while laboring for the Lord. Timothy was to teach this and enforce it with authority.
Afterwards, in connection with this authoritative instruction, the apostle speaks of the person and position of Timothy himself. He was young, but he was to maintain his place, and gain by his conductthat weight which years did not yet give him. He was to be an example to the believers, and occupy himself, till Paul came, with reading, exhortation, and instruction. Moreover, in his case God had given a special preparation for his work; he was not to forget or neglect it. A gift had been imparted to him: God had pointed him out to this end by prophecy; and this immediate testimony from God, to which the operation of His power was united, had been accompanied by the seal of testimony from man, that is, that of the elders among the Christians. (Compare Act 13:1-3.)
Thus all things concurred to strengthen Timothy in his service, and in the authority that he exercised at that moment in place of the apostle. He should always present the weight of an irreproachable conduct, which would have its influence over hearts and consciences; but he was inwardly strengthened by the consciousness of having been formally set apart by God for the work; the gift of God had been imparted to him, and the sanction of all that had weight in the assembly had been laid, as a seal, upon him. Thus strengthened, he was to devote himself to the things of the Lord in such a manner, that his progress should be evident to all men-a demonstration of his communion with the Lord. At the same time he was to take heed to himself and to the doctrine, and that continually, which should be the means of salvation both to himself and to those who heard him.
Footnotes for 1 Timothy Chapter 4
8: Compare Mat 10:29
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 Warning against errorists, and exhortation to bear himself against…
IX
Warning against errorists, and exhortation to bear himself against them as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.—Description and in part confutation of the errorists
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1Ti_4:1-5
1Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; [,] 2Speaking lies in1 hypocrisy; [,] having their [own] conscience seared with a hot iron; [,] 3Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received [for participation] with thanksgiving of them [in or upon the part of them] which believe and know [acknowledge] the truth. 4For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 5For it is sanctified by the word of God, and prayer.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Ti_4:1. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly. The Spirit of prophecy is denoted, which under the new covenant also continues to speak and to work. The question whether this means a revelation of the Spirit in the mind of Paul, or an announcement received by him from others—in other words, whether a direct or an indirect prophecy should here be understood—can only be left to conjecture. From Act_16:6; Act_20:23, it appears that the one as well as the other existed in the first age of Christianity; besides, the writings of the Old Testament, as well as many words of our Lord Himself, gave sufficient ground to the Apostle to predict, in the tone of firm conviction, a coming apostasy. To the inquiry why he clothes this warning in the form of a prophetic oracle, Calvin gives the correct answer: “Quo majore attentione excipiant omnes, quod dicturns est, præfatur certum esse at minime obscurum oraculum Spiritus Sancti. Non est quidem dubium, quia reliqua ex eodem Spiritu hauserit, verum utcumque semper audiendus sit tanquam Christi organum, tamen in causa magni ponderis, voluit hoc testatum, nihil se proferre, nisi ex spiritu prophetiæ. Solemni itaque præconio nobis hanc prophetiam commendat, nec eo contentus, addit, esse claram nec ullo ænigmate implicitam.”—In the latter times. Altogether undetermined; ἐν ὑστέροις καιροῖς; not, ἐν ἐσχάτοις καιρ. (2Ti_3:1). Not the period which immediately precedes the advent of the Lord, but the advent in general, is here denoted, whose first development the Apostle already discerned in the circle around him.—Some. The heretics themselves are not designated (Matthies, Heinrichs), but members of the church who might be misled by the heretics, as appears from the following.—Depart from the faith (comp. Luk_8:13; 2Ti_2:18). “Vera negando, falsa addendo;” Bengel.—Giving heed to seducing spirits. Here, as frequently, the cause of the phenomenon is indicated by a participial connective. The whole discussion in the beginning of this chapter forms, too, a formal antithesis to 1Ti_3:15-16, as is shown in 1Ti_4:1 of this chapter by the diminutive δέ.—Seducing spirits, πνεύμασι πλάνοις, are not the heretics themselves, but the evil spirits or powers which inspire them, and which are counted tools of the devil himself (comp. Eph_2:2; Eph_6:12). This is evident, too, from what immediately follows: and doctrines of devils. This latter expresses still more exactly the conception generally denoted by the preceding πνεύματι. These heresies have sprung from such demons—were inspired and spread by them. From 1Co_10:20 it appears that the Apostle considered these demons as personal powers ruling in heathendom, and hostile to Christ.
1Ti_4:2. In hypocrisy, ἐν ὑποκρίσει. This verse has been connected with the preceding in various ways (see De Wette on this passage). It seems best to refer the words directly back to προσέχοντες (Wiesinger, Huther). Just as this προσέχειν was the cause of the apostasy, so the ὑποκρίσις was the cause of the προσέχειν; here, therefore, the error of the understanding had a psychological ground in the state of the corrupt heart. “The hypocrisy of the heretics lay in this, that, giving allegiance to such a spiritualism (1Ti_4:3), they had the appearance of a real spiritual life” (Huther).—Speaking lies, ψευδολόγοι (ἁπ. λεγόμ.), ψευδοπροφήτης (2Pe_2:1), and thus still more severe than the ματαιολόγοι (1Ti_1:6).—Having their conscience seared, κεκαυτηριασμένων τὴν ἰδίαν συνείδησιν; that is, those who, like criminals branded for crime, bore in their own consciousness the mark of their guilt. Others with less probability explain it thus; their conduct has been such, that their consciences have by degrees become seared against all moral and holy influences. Καυτηρίαζειν (cauteris notare) was done not only to slaves, but to criminals, who were known to be such by the brand on the forehead. It was thus with the heretics, qui sauciam scelerum conscientia habent mentem (Wahl). This insensibility was, without doubt, a natural consequence; yet this is not exactly the meaning of the Apostle. While they profess to lead others to a true holiness, they bear in their own conscience (ἰδίαν) the brand of guilt and shame.
1Ti_4:3. Forbidding to marry. As the Essenes and Therapeutæ had before done (comp. Joseph., A. J., 14, 2, and Philo, De vita contemplativa). According to later Gnostic principles, also, marriage and begetting children were wrong, because the condition of marriage was looked upon as an institution of the Demiurge; and because, in this way, souls pure and innocent in a former state were imprisoned in impure bodies, and, by union with corrupt matter, became sinful and wretched. The germs of this tendency existed already in the day of Paul, as is clear from the Epistle to the Colossians. The Apostle continued even to the end of his life in conflict with this error.—And [commanding] to abstain from meats. See other examples of an ellipse, such as occurs here, in 1Co_14:34; 1Ti_2:12. How strongly the earliest Gnosticism insisted on this, is plain from Col_2:16. Later, Manichæus held that wine sprang from the blood and gall of the devil. Perhaps the food here designated is only meat (comp. Rom_14:2; Rom_14:21). The command probably arose from the Gnostic fancy, that the materials which nourished the body were not the work of the Most High God, but of the Demiurgus, and thus from the evil principle, the ὕλη of Satan. The absurdity of this notion Paul clearly shows in what follows.
[Much light is yet to be thrown by Oriental researches on the heresies alluded to in the Epistles of the New Testament. Yet, so far as these Pastoral Epistles are concerned, there is nothing to sustain the view of Baur, who would disprove their Pauline origin by referring these passages to the later Gnostics; but it seems clear that they describe the earlier Jewish errorists of the church. A collation of passages will prove this. 1Ti_1:7, they are teachers of the law. Tit_1:10, deceivers of the circumcision. Id. 1Ti_4:14, Jewish fables. Id.1Ti_3:9, genealogies are classed with strivings about the law. If, again, we study the errors themselves, we shall find them connected with notions of the Jewish schools. Our author has cited from Josephus and Philo the peculiar tenets of the Essenes. We must, however, correct one of his references. The book of Philo, Omnis probus liber, gives a sketch of the practical Essenes, who are nearer to the type than the Therapeutæ of the “Vita contemplativa.” Abstinence from marriage and meats formed the distinctive marks of this and kindred ascetic sects; 1Ti_4:1-3. The genealogies, 1Ti_1:4; Tit_3:10, are as fully explained by the Jewish fables of angelic hierarchies, as by the Æons of the later Gnostics.—See Nicolas, Doctr. relig. d. Juifs, c. 2, p. 88; 100:3, p. 234. The translation of the Avesta by Spiegel has cast fresh light on the Persian origin of the Jewish angelology. Einleitung, c. 2. Lastly, the doctrine ascribed to Hymeneus, 2Ti_2:18, has its root in the Essenian idea of the resurrection of the soul from carnal ignorance to the life of the spiritual man. Nicolas, c. 2, p. 88. See also, for an admirable summary of the whole argument, Schaff, “Apost. Church,” B. 5, c. 3, and the account of Gnosticism in general, in his “Church History,” vol. i. p. 221. It is true, as was said by older scholars like Prideaux, long before Baur and Reuss, that no direct trace of the Essene school is visible in the age of the New Testament. Yet it is not of Essenism as a distinct sect, but of its ideas and tendencies we speak, and these unquestionably had largely leavened the Hebrew mind. All the strange mixtures of Eastern and Greek theosophy had their influence on the later Jewish culture, and the Christian Gnosticism was only the ripening of the germs then planted in the church.—W.]
1Ti_4:3. Which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving, εἰς μετάληψιν μετὰ εὐχαριστίας = ἵνα οἱ π., κ.τ.λ., μεταλαβῶσιν αὐτῶν. For the participation, the acceptance, and enjoyment of His own creatures, God in the beginning ordained food, and human prohibition is thus purely wilful.—With thanksgiving. This added clause meets the conceit, that the Apostle gives an unbridled freedom—a freedom that so easily leads to excess. Enjoyment with thanksgiving must eo ipso be moderate and seemly, as befits those who believe and know the truth. The πιστοί are, in the Apostle’s view, the true γνωστικοί. As to the main thought expressed in this restriction, we recall the words of Calvin: “Paulum de usu licito hic agere, cujus ratio coram Deo nobis constat. Hujus minime compotes sunt impii, propter impuram conscientiam, quæ omnia contaminat, quemadmodum habetur ad Titum1:15. Et sane proprie loquendo, solis filiis suis Deus totum mundum et quidquid in mundo est destinavit, qua ratione etiam vocantur mundi hæredes.”
1Ti_4:4. For every creature of God is good. As the previous verse has shown us Paul’s fidelity to the position of genuine Christian freedom, which he holds also in the Epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians, so here, according to his usual custom in the discussion of a special case, he utters a universal principle. This is an internal evidence of the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles, which should not be overlooked.—Κτίσμα, creature, a created thing; while elsewhere, with Paul, κτίσις occurs in a passive sense. Naturally the word is to be understood here of those κτίσματα which are specially made for our nourishment. Comp. Rom_4:14; Rom_4:20; Act_10:15.—Καλὸν, good, suited to its end, healthful. In and for itself, no food is objectionable, yet on condition that it be used with thanksgiving to God.
1Ti_4:5. For it is sanctified, Ἁγιάζεται γὰρ. The ground of the preceding. The sense is: it is set apart as food holy and well-pleasing to God (comp. Lev_19:24). In itself, the food is not holy, nor is it at all unholy, but mere matter. Yet it can be raised to a higher rank, to that of things consecrated to God; and it really becomes such by the word of God, and prayer. By the word of God is meant not a special passage of Scripture, e.g., Gen_1:29 (Mack), nor a Divine command in the general sense (Matthies), nor the prayer itself, which is offered to God (Leo, Wahl), since this would be tautological; but most probably the word of God uttered in and with the ἔντευξις named in addition. The customary prayer at the table probably consisted of words of holy Scripture; or the person praying should be regarded as speaking by the Spirit, and thus with the word of God. For an example of such a prayer at table, see Huther on this passage. [One of the most beautiful models of the primitive “Grace before meat” is cited by Conybeare from the Apost. Constitut., 7, 49. We translate it here: “Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who hast fed me from my youth, who givest food to all flesh. Fill our hearts with joy and gladness, that, having always what sufficeth, we may abound unto all good works, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom be unto Thee honor, glory, and power, forever and ever. Amen.”—W.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. As the gospel is the fulfilment of the prophecy of the Old Testament, it contains also predictions of those great events which precede the second coming of the Lord. The Lord Himself had already declared that false prophets also should then arise (Mat_24:11): “Etsi omnia sæcula inde usque ab initio generis humani multas magnas confusiones religionum, bella et vastationes habuerunt, tamen vox divina sæpe testatur in ultima senecta mundi majores futuras esse confusiones, quam fuerunt antea. Et crescunt mala propter tres causas. Prima, quia cumulatis malis sequuntur majores pœnæ. Secunda, in his ipsis peccatis et pœnis natura fit languidior et disciplina dissolutior. Tertia, quia rabies diabolorum crescit, qui jam scientes instare diem judicii, odio filii Dei magis sæviunt in Ecclesiam;” Melanchthon.
2. While the heretics, opposed by Paul in the Epistle to Titus, are regarded as then present, he speaks of them in both the Epistles to Timothy in a more prophetic tone. Even then his prediction, though rooted in the present, reaches on to the far future. The errors here opposed are only the germs of those which in the course of centuries reveal themselves continually in new and varied forms; and which, though not at all exclusively, appear in the papacy. The Reformers consequently asserted the truth, but not the whole truth, when they found in 1Ti_4:3 a distinct description of the erring mother-church. Such phenomena may be regarded as among the many signs, although not the highest reach of Anti-christ. Already in the second century the heresies, here opposed, appeared in their first strength, and the whole sickly asceticism of the middle ages is only a variation of the theme here treated by the Apostle. [Thus Latimer, “Sermons,” ed. Parker Soc., p. 1Tim 162: “Here learn to abhor the abominable opinion of the Papists, who hold that marriage is not an holy thing, and that the minister of the word of God be defiled through marriage, which is clean against God and His Word. Therefore, seeing beforehand in the Spirit, St. Paul saith, 1Ti_4:3, which prophecy is verified in this our time.” The stout old Reformer had no nice criticism of the text; but he saw the real identity of the false principle in the Jewish-Christian asceticism, and that of the later Latin monkery.—W.]
3. Between the two cliffs of spiritualism and materialism we see the bark of the Church continually tossed hither and thither in the course of the centuries. It has scarcely escaped the one, when it runs into peril of being stranded on the other. In our time, with the prevailing love of pleasure and luxury, there seems little danger of such severe morality as Paul here describes. But will there not be, sooner or later, a necessary reaction? and does not history clearly show that one extreme leads to the opposite?
4. It is a sad evidence of the blindness and pride of the sinner, that, when God has freed him by grace from a law that can only condemn him, he will not rest until he has again put himself under the yoke of a law fashioned by himself. So eager are we to build up a righteousness of our own before God, so loth simply to be blessed by free grace. Self-righteousness always remains the fond idol of the natural man; nor does he perceive that he must thus fall into new and worse unrighteousness.
5. The perfect law of liberty (Jam_1:26) has annulled the letter of the Mosaic command in regard to meats and drinks for the Christian man, and he needs no longer agree with those who say, “Thou shalt not handle that, thou shalt not taste that, thou Shalt not touch that” (Col_2:21). But this very emancipation from the letter of the law is the best fulfilment of its spirit and substance; for when the Christian sanctifies all God’s gifts through prayer and thanksgiving, all food becomes pure, even that which under the old Levitical code was unclean. Thus Christian freedom is not a passport for license, but the best bulwark against it.
6. “The special design of every outward gift of God is to lead to the knowledge and praise of the Giver; to lead from the earthly and temporal to the heavenly and eternal. As this design of God is not fulfilled in the unbelieving, if they continue in unbelief, He has in this view made all these things not for them, but for His children who know the truth;” Von Gerlach.
7. The dark visions which Paul opens to us of the future, directly conflict with the optimistic and sanguine hopes of those who believe that, from the unceasing growth of knowledge, all on earth and in the Church of Christ is becoming always better, more harmonious, more peaceful. The same Scripture which gives the promise of the last glorious day for the Christian, utters its ever-increasing lamentations over the last times which are to precede that day. Yet without the pains of travail, and σκάνδαλα in the ὑστέροις καιροῖς, the full glory of the ἐσχάτη ὥρα cannot break forth.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The prophecy of the New Testament the continuation and crown of the Old.—The prophetic character of the New Testament.—When God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel hard by.—The weeds in the Lord’s garden do not grow slower than the wheat.—The diabolical feature in the heresies of the Church.—False spirituality not rarely the cloak of immorality.—A forced celibacy the devil’s mask.—“Is this the fast which I have chosen?” (Isa_58:5).—True and false asceticism.—True Christian freedom likewise the highest restraint.—The high purpose for which God created food.—Passing enjoyment a chosen aid to lead us to the abiding good.—“All things are yours, but ye are Christ’s” (1Co_3:21-23).—The sanctity and worth of grace at table.—To glorify God even in the little things of domestic life, the Christian’s honor, duty, and blessing.
Starke: Great comfort, that God has revealed to His poor Church what is to come, that it may have the less cause to complain.—Cramer: The devil always finds his followers; and it is vain to hope that in this world all religious strife shall cease.—Anton: Whoso will shun false spirits, must first beware of his own spirit.—False teachers use for their craft hypocrisy, and the appearance of sanctity; they go about in sheep’s clothing, and inwardly are ravening wolves (Mat_7:15; Mat_23:28).—If every creature of God be good, it is godless for the Papist exorcists to pretend to cast out the devil from water, salt, and oil, and, by certain passes with the cross, and conjurations, drive him away.—Hedinger: If food should be received with thanksgiving, then man must not seek his bread by extortion. cheat, theft, and the like; for no one can give thanks for these.—Luther (in his “Larger Catechism”) teaches that “marriage is not to be esteemed lightly or scornfully, as the blind world and our false spiritual guides do, but is to be regarded according to God’s word, whereby it is made fair and holy; so that it is not only set on a level with all other estates, but is honored before and above them all; wherefore both spiritual and secular estates must humble themselves, and all accept this estate.”—Heubner: The devout spirit, enlightened by God, may often have glimpses of the future, so far as it is of importance for the present.—The corruptions and discords of Christianity are allowed by God for manifold reasons.—All that God made is in itself good; only through man’s distrust it becomes evil. The Christian knows how to sanctify even his own pleasures.—The unholy and the holy enjoyment of the gifts of God.—Lisco: The contradiction of all mere outward restraints imposed by man, to the witness of the revelation of God in Christ.
Footnotes:
[1]1Ti_4:2.—[Whitby translates ἐν, instrumentally=διά. “Through the hypocrisy of liars.” He appears to connect the phrase with προσέχοντες; so Wiesinger and Huther. The construction is difficult, several words being in apparent apposition with δαιμονίων, as if the devils were liars, seared in their conscience, and the rest. He would he a bold commentator who would maintain that the Apostle here calls heretics devils. Yet, in Php_3:2, he writes, “Beware of dogs.”—E. H.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–7 Rather translate, "Through (literally, 'in'; the element in which…
Rather translate, "Through (literally, 'in'; the element in which the apostasy has place) the hypocrisy of lying speakers"; this expresses the means through which "some shall (be led to) depart from the faith," namely, the reigned sanctity of the seducers (compare "deceivers," Tit 1:10).
having their conscience seared--Greek, "having their own conscience," &c., that is, not only "speaking lies" to others, but also having their own conscience seared. Professing to lead others to holiness, their own conscience is all the while defiled. Bad consciences always have recourse to hypocrisy. As faith and a good conscience are joined (Ti1 1:5); so hypocrisy (that is, unbelief, Mat 24:5, Mat 24:51; compare Luk 12:46) and a bad conscience here. THEODORET explains like English Version, "seared," as implying their extreme insensibility; the effect of cauterizing being to deaden sensation. The Greek, however, primarily means "branded" with the consciousness of crimes committed against their better knowledge and conscience, like so many scars burnt in by a branding iron: Compare Tit 1:15; Tit 3:11, "condemned of himself." They are conscious of the brand within, and yet with a hypocritical show of sanctity, they strive to seduce others. As "a seal" is used in a good sense (Ti2 2:19), so "a brand" in a bad sense. The image is taken from the branding of criminals.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1. Now—Greek, but, contrastive between the incarnation and matter-hating…
1. Now—Greek, but, contrastive between the incarnation and matter-hating Gnosticism.
The Spirit—The divine inspirer of all prophecy. The apostle does not here refer to any written prophecy, although the same essential prophecy we now have at any rate in the epistles of John. He had himself briefly uttered the same prediction to the elders of Ephesus in Act_20:29-30. He had written to the Thessalonians (2Th_2:7, where see notes) cognate predictions. The Spirit, therefore, is here the permanent prophetic witness within himself speaking forth on its own occasions.
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Expressly—Not in parable, allegory, or symbol; but in explicit, unmistakable, literal words.
Latter times—The various phrases of this kind are of course antithetical, and to be explained by the former period to which they stand in contrast. In these last days, Heb_1:1, stands in antithesis to the Old Testament days, and means the days of the Christian dispensation. The last days of 2Pe_3:3, plainly refers to the last days before the second advent; of which Martha, in Joh_11:24, mentions the very last day. In 1Jn_2:18, we have a (not in Greek the) last time, which, in our note on 2Th_2:7, we imply to be the close of the apostolic age. It is the same period with the latter times of this verse, when, the apostles having deceased, and the apostolic age closed, the Church is handed over to their successors, and their hands having ceased to write, the completed canon becomes her guide. John’s many antichrists are the very same as the seducing spirits of Paul here. Hegesippus, the earliest of Church historians, near the end of the second century, says, in a fragment quoted by Eusebius, (Book iii, § 32:) “The Church remained until then a pure and incorrupt virgin. If there were any that desired to corrupt the healthful type of gospel doctrine they lurked in dark retreats. But when the sacred choir of apostles departed from life, and the generation privileged to listen to their divine teachings passed away, then the system of godless error took a start, through deception of teachers varying from the apostolic doctrine. No one of the apostles surviving, they attempted with bare face to preach a falsely-styled gnosis in opposition to the preaching of the truth.”
Some—The followers, of whom the seducing spirits are the leaders.
Depart from the faith—As a true church officer should hold the faith. 1Ti_3:9; Tit_1:9.
Seducing spirits—The demoniac opposite of the Spirit just mentioned. The Holy Spirit gives warning of the diabolic spirits.
Doctrines of devils—Doctrines propagated by demons; not doctrines about demons.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1–5. False Teachers mar the Truth of the Incarnate…
1–5. False Teachers mar the Truth of the Incarnate Redeemer
1. Now the Spirit speaketh] The connexion is this. The teachers and ministers of the Church must hold her central doctrine. It stands strong and firm—a rock pillar; ‘Christ the Son of the living God,’ (1) incarnate, (2) redeemer of the world. But there will be, notwithstanding, false teachers, evil heresies, subverting this great mystery of Godliness. See Bp Wordsworth’s note. ‘For example, forbidding to marry is heresy, since by His incarnation the Son of God has married our Nature, has espoused to Himself a Church and so has sanctified marriage. Eph_5:23-32. Commanding to abstain from meats is heresy, since if (as is implied in the command) the flesh was created by the evil principle, and was therefore unclean, God could not have taken human flesh and united it for ever to the Godhead: and it is heresy too, since Christ, the second Adam, recovered for us the free use of all the creatures of God and recovered for them their original benediction.’
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‘The Spirit,’ as very frequently, put alone for ‘the Holy Spirit’; where ‘the Spirit saith expressly’ and distinctly that these heresies will arise, is not clear. The words of our Lord (Mat_26:11), of the prophets in various Christian Churches, of St Paul (2Th_2:3) are referred to. But it may be best to take the passage here as itself the new and more explicit utterance by the Spirit in St Paul of what is coming; in a manner similar to St Paul’s statement at Miletus of what would befall himself and the Church at Ephesus, ‘the Holy Ghost testifieth unto me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me … I know that … from among your ownselves shall men arise speaking perverse things.’ Act_20:23; Act_20:29.
expressly] The Greek word is postclassical and occurs here only in N.T. As applied to the operation of the Spirit it is very remarkable as implying more than illumination or influences—direct communication understood to be such by the recipient.
in the latter times] Perhaps as R.V. in later times, as distinguishing this phrase from ‘the last days,’ 2Ti_3:1. So Huther, ‘The former points simply to the future, the latter to the last time of the future.’ But the distinction must not be too much pressed: the ‘later times’ predicted here are surely the ‘last hour’ spoken of by St John (1Jn_2:18) some 25 years later, if, as Bp Westcott says of the date of that letter, ‘this may be fixed with reasonable likelihood in the last decade of the first century.’ He adds on 1Jn_2:18, ‘the last days are found in each of the seasons of fierce trial which precede the several comings of Christ. The phrase marks a period of critical change.’
shall depart from the faith] R.V. fall away, as the parent of a word afterwards used still more definitely, ‘apostate.’ ‘The faith’ objectively as above.
seducing spirits] Here opposed to ‘the Spirit,’ as in 1Jn_4:6, giving the history of what is here prophecy, we have the cognate substantive: the adjective ‘deceiving’ or ‘deceiver’ occurs Mat_27:63, ‘that deceiver said,’ and 2Co_4:8, but is used in 2Jn_1:7, evidently with reference to the same heresy as here. The substantive has been rendered by A.V. sometimes ‘deceit,’ sometimes ‘error;’ by R.V. always ‘error.’ These deceiving spirits, as Bp Ellicott says, are the spiritual emissaries of Satan which work in their hearts; cf. Eph_6:12. See 1Jn_4:3, where the proof of a spirit being ‘not of God’ is the failure to confess the Incarnation. ‘The many false spirits represent one personal power of falsehood, the prince of the world (Joh_12:31), the devil, whose “children” the wicked are (1Jn_3:10). The many false prophets stand in a relation towards the Spirit like that which the “many Antichrists” occupy towards Christ. Through them evil spiritual powers find expression.’ Westcott.
doctrines of devils] The last sentence seems an exact paraphrase of this clause, the instructions given by the evil spirits to the false teachers used by them as ‘their organs through whom to speak.’ ‘Devils’ or ‘demons’ is clearly thus a subjective genitive. The word ‘demon’ in general classical usage signified intermediate beings, the messengers of the Gods to men. The notion of evil demons was due to the later influences of the East, and in LXX. the word is generally used of the heathen idols, Psa_95:3; cf. 1Co_10:19-20; but Josephus employs it always of evil spirits, Bell. Jud. vii. 6, § 3. Cf. Act_19:12-13, Jas_2:19. From the N.T. we gather certainly that the demons are agents of Satan in his work of evil, probably that they must be the same as ‘the angels of the devil,’ Mat_25:41; Rev_12:7; Rev_12:9, ‘the principalities and powers’ against whom we ‘wrestle.’ See Bp Barry, Dict. Bib.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–7 (1) Now the Spirit speaketh expressly.—Rather, But the Spirit.…
IV.
(1) Now the Spirit speaketh expressly.—Rather, But the Spirit. But (de) in very strong contrast to the sublime mystery of Redemption St. Paul has been speaking of as the glorious treasure contained in the Church of which Timothy and his colleagues were ministers: but in spite of that sublime truth which should occupy the thoughts and fill the hearts of Christians, men will busy themselves with other and very different things; with a spurious mock devotion, dreaming that God’s mercy and love were to be purchased by mere abstinence from certain meats, or by an unnatural renunciation of the home and family life. The “words of the Spirit” here allude to a mysterious power, to a divine gift, traces of which occur again and again in the New Testament pages. Among the supernatural signs which were vouchsafed to the first generation of believers, and with very rare exceptions only to the first generation—to men and women, many, if not most, of whom had seen Jesus, and had had personal contact with Him—must be reckoned those mysterious intimations of the will of the Holy Spirit which guided and encouraged the Church of the first days. That intimation came in varied forms: to the Twelve in the form of fiery tongues (Act_2:1-12); to a more numerous company (Act_4:31); to Peter on the occasion of the conversion of Cornelius (Act_10:10-16; Act_10:19-20); to St. Paul on three occasions in the course of his second missionary journey (Act_16:6-7; Act_16:9-10); through the medium of the prophet Agabus (Act_21:11). St. Paul alludes to many such voices of the Spirit, and heavenly intimations, when speaking to the elders of Miletus (Act_20:23). One of these special revelations, made to himself, he here quotes.
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In the latter times.—All those ages are here referred to which succeed the coming of the Lord. In these Paul lived, and we are still watching the slow and solemn march past of these latter ages. The errors foreseen then, have more or less affected the internal government of the Church during the eighteen hundred years which have passed since St. Paul’s words were written. In no age, perhaps, have they been more ostentatiously thrust forward than in our own.
Some shall depart from the faith.—“By denying what is true, by adding what is false,” says Bengel.
Giving heed to seducing spirits.—This expression must not be watered down by explanations which understand this expression as referring to false teachers. The “seducing spirits” are none other than created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. (4) For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be evil powers and spirits subject to Satan, and which are permitted to influence and to work in human hearts. (See Eph_2:2; Eph_6:12—passages in which these spiritual communities of wickedness and their powers over men are again alluded to by St. Paul.)
Doctrines of devils.—Doctrines and thoughts taught by, suggested by, evil spirits. The personality of these unhappy beings is clearly taught by St. Paul. Of their influence in the heathen world and their antagonism to Christ and His followers, see 1Co_10:20-21.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–7 But for now, A.V; saith for speaketh, A.V; later…
But for now, A.V; saith for speaketh, A.V; later for the latter, A.V; fall away for depart, A.V The Spirit saith expressly (rJhtwv); only here in the New Testament, and very rare in classical Greek. But the adjective rJhtov, in the sense of something "laid down," "definite.... expressly mentioned," is common. It was, doubtless, on account of these prophetic warnings of a falling away from the faith, that the apostle gave the preceding heads of Christian doctrine in such a terse and tangible form, and laid such a solemn charge upon Timothy. (For examples of these prophetic utterances, see Act_11:28 Act_13:2 Act_20:23 Act_21:11; 1Co_12:8 1Co_12:14. "30, 32, etc.) Shall fall away (ajposthsontai). So St. Paul says (2Th_2:3) that the day of Christ will not be, "except the falling away (hJ ajpostasia) come first". (comp. Heb_3:12) The faith; objective (see 1Ti_3:9 and 16, note). This "falling away" is to take place ejn uJsteroiv kairoiv; not, as in the R.V, in "later times," but as in the A.V, "the latter times." The adjective usterov is only found here in the New Testament. But in the LXX (e.g. 1Ch_29:29; Jer_1:19 Jer_27:17) usterov means "the last," as opposed to "the first." And so the adverb usteron always in the New Testament (seenten, Mat_4:2 Mat_21:37 Mat_26:60; or more fully usteron pa 22:27). Here, therefore, ejn uJsteroiv kairoiv is equivalent to ejn taiv ejscataiv hJmeraiv (Act_2:17) and ejn ejscataiv hJmeraiv. (2Ti_3:1; comp. Jam_5:3; 1Pe_1:5; 2Pe_3:3; Jud_1:18) It should be observed that in all these passages there is no article. Giving heed (prosecontev); as in ver. 1Ti_1:4; Tit_1:14; masi Act_8:6, and elsewhere. Seducing spirits (pneu planoiv). Such were the "lying spirits" who deceived (hjpathsan) Ahab to his destruction. (2Ki 21) Planov, seducing, is not elsewhere found in the New Testament as an adjective. (see Mat_27:63; 2Co_6:8 2Jn_1:7, in all which places, however, it is almost an adjective) The idea is "causing to wander," or "go astray." St. John warns his people against such deceiving spirits. (Joh_4:1-6) He calls them generically pneuma thv planhv, "the spirit of error." Doctrines of devils; i.e. teachings suggested by devils. So the unbelieving Jews suggested that John the Baptist had a devil, (Luk_7:33) and that our Lord himself had a devil. (Joh_7:20 Joh_8:48, 52 10:19)
HOMILETICS.
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Vers. 1-16.
Latter-day apostasies.
The history of the Christian Church is the history of the sowing of tares as well as of the sowing of good grain; and it describes the work of seducing spirits as well as that of the Spirit of God. The work of heresy is not merely the denial of true doctrine, but it is the invention and propagation of a multitude of false doctrines. Nor, again, are the false doctrines so invented and promulgated, on the face of them, necessarily ungodly doctrines. On the contrary, they often assume to themselves to be holier, stricter, more heavenly doctrines, than those of the Church of God. The Church of God is not holy enough for these spirit-taught separatists; the precepts of Jesus Christ do not attain a standard high enough for their exalted aspirations; the apostles do but grovel in the dust of commonplace piety, while these self-sent teachers soar to the heights of the true knowledge of the Infinite. But not only does Church history record the rise, in a lamentable succession, of the various troublers of the spiritual Israel, the men who have done more to hinder God"s work on earth than all the persecutors and atheists put together have accomplished the Cerinthuses, and Marcions, and Montanuses, and Manicheuses, and Socinuses, and countless other sectaries of later times but the spirit of prophecy revealed beforehand for the Church"s warning that so it should be. The Holy Ghost, in no obscure or doubtful words, made it known to the Church that there would be apostasies many and grievous from the faith once delivered to the saints, that the leaders of those apostasies would be seducing spirits spirits of antichrist, as St. John has it and that some of them at least would put on the hypocritical appearance of greater holiness, for the purpose of the better deceiving the hearts of the simple. Thus while Christ taught by his apostle that "marriage is honorable in all," these forbade to marry; while the Word of God declared that "every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving," these commanded "to abstain from meats," saying, "Touch not, taste not, handle not." The Word of God teaches that God gives us richly all things to enjoy; these enjoined every kind of austerity to the body exercises" which profited little. The Word of God bids us approach bodily to the throne of grace through the mediation of Jesus Christ; these would keep men back from God, and substitute, in the name of humility, the worship of angels. And that these pernicious doctrines were not confined to the first ages of the Church, the history of the Church too sadly teaches. The most opposite forms of heresy which have in all ages distracted the Church have always had this in common, that, pretending to improve upon the sound, sober, and wise teaching of the Word of God, they have corrupted and forsaken it. Enforced celibacy for pure-minded chastity; artificial rules of abstinence for habitual temperance and self-restraint; groveling saint and image worship for direct communion with the living God; self-righteous separation from the world for holy living in the world; bruising the body for mortifying the soul; pretentious rejection of wealth for self-denying use of it; leaving the state of life in which God has placed a man, instead of adorning the gospel in it; making those things to be sins which God has not made sins, and those things to be virtues which God has not made virtues; these have ever been the characteristics of those "doctrinesof devils," the purpose of which is to turn the simple away from the truth. "The good minister of Jesus Christ" must hold his course boldly and straightforwardly in the teeth of all such false doctrine. He must not parley with the teachers of heresy, nor mix the wine of the gospel with the water of falsehood. He knows that the Word of God is purer, and holier, and wiser, and higher, than all the subtleties of human invention, and will stand in its glory when they are all swept away into nothingness. And, knowing this, he must give himself wholly to teaching the truth, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear, being fully assured that in so doing he will both save himself and them that hear him.
HOMILIES BY T. CROSKERY. Vers. 1, 2.
A predicted apostasy in the Christian Church.
In opposition to this exhibition of the mystery of godliness, the apostle places the prediction of a serious apostasy from the faith.
I THE APOSTASY IS A SUBJECT OF EXPRESS PREDICTION. "But the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in after times some shall depart from the faith." It may seem strange that apostasy should be thought of so soon after the foundation of Christianity, but the Church is fully forewarned of the coming danger. It was foretold, not obscurely, but expressly, in the prophecies by Daniel, (Dan_7:25 Dan_8:23) of our Lord, (Mat_24:4, Mat_24:11) and of the apostle himself (2Th 2; Act_20:29, 30 Col 2) But he here alludes more specifically to a development of error in the future, the germs of which he discerns in the present.
II THE TIME OF ITS APPEARANCE. "In after times." The words signify any period subsequent to the age in which the apostle lived, for he saw in the apostasy of the present the beginning of a still more serious apostasy in the future. The mystery of iniquity had already begun to work. But it would project its evil shadow far forward into the dispensation, in many various forms.
III THE EXTENT OF THE APOSTASY. "Some shall depart from the faith.
1. Some, not all. Not the whole visible Church, but a considerable part of it. Thus an assurance is given that the true Church of God shall not be extinguished.
2. The apostasy is from the doctrine of faith though it be the mystery of godliness not the grace of faith, which, being of an incorruptible origin, cannot be lost. Christ is the Author and Finisher of faith. The elect cannot be finally deceived. The doctrine of faith was to be corrupted by "denying what was true, by adding what was false.
IV THE REASON OR PROCESS OF THE APOSTASY. "Giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." The prime movers were not false teachers, but unseen agents in the spirit-world.
1. Man does not stand isolated in this world. If he is not influenced by the Holy Spirit, he is influenced by the spirits of delusion, who are the emissaries of Satan. If we are not possessed by the truth, error will make an easy conquest of us. Often the heart that is made empty by skepticism is the most ready to welcome superstition.
2. It is possible for evil spirits to influence the human mind.
(1) Satan could tempt David to number the people. (1Ch_21:1) As the father of lies, the suggestion of error would be a congenial work. The coming of the man of sin is to be after the working of Satan.
(2) There is a sacrifice to devils, a communion with devils, a cup of devils, a table of devils. (1Co_10:20, 1Co_10:21) There is a spiritual wickedness in high places capable of compassing great destruction by error.
(3) The apostle teaches the personality of such evil spirits.
(4) There is no more difficulty in understanding their communication of thought to man, than in understanding the communication of thought from one evil man to another. An evil man can communicate evil by a glance of his eye. But if the Spirit of God can, without the intervention of the senses, influence the minds of believers, it is easy to understand that seducing spirits can have access to the centers of thought and feeling without any similar intervention.
V THE CHARACTER OF THE FALSE TEACHERS UNDER SUCH EVIL INSPIRATION. "In the hypocrisy of speakers of lies, being branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron.
1. They assumed a mask of holiness which they did not possess, with the view of giving better currency to their lies. Their assumed sanctity would throw the unwary off their guard, and lead to the confounding of truth with error. The lies they taught were that holiness was to be attained through abstinence from marriage and particular kinds of food.
2. They were essentially corrupt, for their conscience had become so seared through transgression that they had lost the true distinctions between right and wrong, error and truth. They were incapable of relishing the "mystery of godliness," and therefore devoted themselves to the arts of religious seduction in the interests of an essentially unspiritual asceticism. T.C.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON Vers. 1-5.
Timothy warned.
I APOSTASY. "But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith." This was to be properly an apostasy, or movement away from Christ from within the Church. Some who were professed believers were to fall away from the faith. They were unworthily to use their Christian position, Christian enlightenment and reputation, against Christ. This was to take place in "later times," not in the times before the completion of the kingdom of God, but simply in times subsequent to the time that then was, not all in one time but, as pointing to more than one anti-Christian development, in times. This was explicitly foretold, the prophecy being traced, not to the consciousness of the apostle, but to the inflatus of the Spirit. The prophecy had already been made known, but we may understand that it was still already witnessed in the consciousness of the apostle. If the mystery of godliness was operating, there was also, as announced in 2 Thessalonians, already operating the mystery of iniquity.
II HOW THE APOSTASY WAS TO BE BROUGHT ABOUT.
1. Source. "Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." The apostle points to the apostasy as having its origin from beneath. There is the agency of those who are the tools of the devil. These are seducing spirits, their object being to lead away from Christ. And they are demons, hostile to souls, who give rise to soul-destroying doctrines. This is the quarter from which the apostates are to draw their inspiration and their faith. It has been remarked here how we cannot stand isolated. If we are not influenced by the Holy Spirit, we must fall under the power of one or other for they are a plurality, and do not agree unless in their end of the deceiving spirits. If we do not give heed to the doctrine of God our
2. Savior one and thoroughly consistent as well as sublime we must give heed to one or other of the doctrines of devils, many and inconsistent.
3. Instrumentality. "Through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron." The evil spirits are to be thought of as working in and through these heretical teachers. They are hidden from our view and from the consciousness of the teachers themselves; but there seems no reason to doubt that those who pay no heed to the leadings of the Spirit of truth lay themselves open to be possessed, in an ordinary way, by one or other of the spirits of falsehood whose instruments they become. The heretical teachers are suitably described as speakers of lies. They were to give forth as truth what were lies what did not agree with the nature of things, what did not agree with the nature of God, with the facts of human nature, that for which they were without evidence, and of which they had no clear conviction. They were to be like men wearing a mask, laying claim to superior sanctity and to show the way to sanctity, but only to conceal their own turpitude. For they were to be branded in their own conscience, branded as criminals were branded, and branded where the marks of their crimes could not be concealed from themselves.
III TWO POINTS IN THE HERETICAL TEACHING THAT WAS TO BE THE PRECURSOR OF THE APOSTASY. "Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats." This asceticism was already appearing in Essenism. The honorable, and even exaggerated, estimate of marriage which was characteristic of the Jew, and of the Pharisee as the typical Jew, found no favor with the Essene. Marriage was to him an abomination. Those Essenes, who lived together as members of an order, and in whom the principles of the sect were carried to their logical consequences, eschewed it altogether. To secure the continuance of their brotherhood, they adopted children, whom they brought up in the doctrines and practices of the community. There were others, however, who took a different view. They accepted marriage as necessary for the preservation of the race. Yet even with them it seems to have been regarded only as an inevitable evil. They fenced it off by stringent rules, demanding a three years" probation, and enjoining various purificatory rites. The conception of marriage as quickening and educating the affections, and thus exalting and refining human life, was wholly foreign to their minds. Woman was a, mere instrument of temptation in their eyes, deceitful, faithless, selfish, jealous, misled and misleading by her passions. But their ascetic tendencies did not stop here. The Pharisee was very careful to observe the distinction of meats lawful and unlawful, as laid down by the Mosaic code, and even rendered those ordinances vexatious by minute definitions of his own. But the Essene went far beyond him. He drank no wine, he did not touch animal food. His meal consisted of a piece of bread and a single mess of vegetables. Even this simple tare was prepared for him by special officers consecrated for the purpose, that it might be free from all contamination. Nay, so stringent were the rules of the order on this point, that, when an Essene was excommunicated, he often died of starvation, being bound by oath not to take food prepared by defiled hands, and thus being reduced to eat the very grass of the field (Lightfoot). In Gnosticism, which came to its full development after the apostle"s day, these points had great prominence, being grounded in the idea of matter as being the principle of evil. The same points come out ver remarkably in Roman Catholicism. The ordinance of marriage, which our Lord honored, is thus depreciated in a decree of the Council of Trent: "Whosoever shall say that the married state is to be preferred to a state of virginity or celibacy, and. that it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity or celibacy than to be joined in marriage, let him be accursed." In the same line superior sanctity, or special merit, is connected with abstinence from meats. Thus the prophecy received striking fulfillment.
IV REFUTATION OF THE SECOND POINT IN THE HERETICAL TEACHING.
1. Position to which it is opposed. "Which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth." God has created meats, and he has created them for the use of all. At the same time, it is true that the purpose of creation is only fulfilled in the case of them that believe and know the truth. They alone can appreciate the condition attached to the use of meats, viz. receiving with thanksgiving. "A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this." But those that have experience of the truth as believers are sensible of their mercies, and give God thanks for them.
2. Substantiation.
(1) Broad principle. "For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving." This is one broad principle on which practice is to be based. "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." We must lay hold against a false asceticism of the essential goodness of whatever God has made for food. It may have to be refused on the ground of health, on the ground of moral discipline as expressed in 1Co_9:27, on the ground of benefit to others as expressed in 1Co_8:13. But apart from such considerations, to which only their due weight must be attached, a creature-comfort as good in itself has no unholiness to us, if the condition is fulfilled, viz. receiving with thanksgiving. It is a very important consideration, which we must not lose sight of in feeling the claims of abstinence, that by our creature-comforts God is seeking to make us glad, and to attach us to himself in thankfulness.
(2) Elucidation of the good creature of God having no unholiness to us. "For it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer." By conversing with God through his Word we rise above our own low ideas and aims, and get into the region of his thoughts and purposes. We get at the principles which are to regulate us, and the feelings which are to animate us, in our daily life. We thereby connect God with our daily life, and are prepared for sitting down to the meals of the day. But we are to connect God more immediately with our meals by prayer. We are to ask God, from whom our table mercies come, to bless us in the use of them, and to accept our thankfulness for them. Here is a very old form of grace before meat: "Blessed be thou, O Lord, who hast fed me from my youth, who givest food to all flesh. Fill our hearts with joy and gladness, that, having always what sufficeth, we may abound unto all good works, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom be unto thee honor, glory, and power, for ever and ever." By such reasonable acknowledgment of God before our food is it sanctified to us. We can partake of it as a holy thing, as that which we have as a covenant privilege. Nothing is said about the first point in the heretical teaching. But it can be refuted on much the same ground. God has instituted marriage for our happiness. The end of the institution is carried out in the case of them that believe and know the truth, by their thanking God for the happiness which is thus ministered to them. The married life is made holy by being connected with the Word of God and prayer. R.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 7 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter…
1Ti_4:1-3
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times.
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A great heresy
The Spirit referred to is unquestionably the Holy Spirit of God, who had been promised to the Church as its abiding teacher and comforter. In all their agencies and appointments the apostles sought His direction. It sometimes came in outward events, sometimes in strong impulses, and sometimes in the distinct utterances of men who were recognized by their brethren as inspired prophets. The trained ear of a musician can discover meanings and suggestions in a harmony which to an ordinary listener is nothing but a pleasant sound. And the conscience of one who habitually lives near God and listens for Him is sensitive to His whispers, and finds the meaning and the value of the promise I will guide thee with Mine eye. Among the functions of the Holy Spirit was the occasional revelation of coming events; for there were in this sense prophets in the Christian Church, as truly as there had been under the Jewish dispensation. Nor were these always prominent and well-known men. Ananias and Agabus. Glimpses of the future came to some whose one qualification was that they stood on heights of spiritual communion--just as from the summits of the Rigi we have seen flashes of distant scenes through the broken clouds, which would be utterly hidden from one standing on a lower level. It was probably through one of the unknown prophets of the early Church that the distinct prophecy had been given to which Paul here alludes, which pointed out the speedy coming of a great heresy, the main outlines of which were definitely foreshadowed. Let us look at this great heresy, which has often and in various forms repeated itself even down to our own day.
I. As to the source of the heresy Paul speaks in no wavering tones.
1. Be traces it through the human agents to demon power. The Scriptures affirm that this world is the scene of conflict between evil and good, and that outside the range of our senses is, on the one side, the Holy Spirit of the living God, and on the other side are principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of the world. The alternations of night and day, of storm and calm, are not more real than are the vicissitudes of this great contest going on in the hearts of men. Allusion is made here to seducing spirits; but mysterious and mighty as may be their power, they are not omnipotent, nor are they resistless, but have control over those only who (to use Pauls phrase) give heed to them. Whether we are tempted to false thoughts, or to impure acts, or to anything else that is evil, it is not in vain that the summons is heard, Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
2. But while we must guard against the evil thoughts which sometimes, as we are conscious, do not arise from ourselves, we have to give heed to this warning against the human agents of wickedness, of whom the apostle says, They speak lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. If there was one iniquity which more than another aroused the anger of our Lord, it was hypocrisy. A man who is false and unreal has no part in the kingdom of light, but is silently, if not openly, fighting against it. And the evil man here described has his conscience seared with a hot iron--a phrase which blazes with the apostles holy indignation, but expresses a tremendous fact. Just as seared flesh has lost its sensibility, the once delicate nerves in it being destroyed, so there are consciences which nothing can affect. Appeals to honour and to shame are alike useless. The fatal influence exercised by such men was seen in the early Church, and is felt around us still, for no one can fall to be a power either for good or evil. Dr. Chalmers admirably puts it in these words: Every man is a missionary now and for ever, for good or for evil, whether he intends or designs it or not. He may be a blot radiating his dark influence outward to the very circumference of society; or he may be a blessing, spreading benediction over the length and breadth of the world; but a blank he cannot be. There are no moral blanks; there are no neutral characters. We are either the sower that sows and corrupts, or the light that splendidly illuminates and the salt that silently operates; but, being dead or alive, every man speaks.
II. The nature of the heresy thus originated, and propagated, next demands notice. The danger in our day is not towards unwholesome asceticism but towards unwholesome indulgence. Not fasting, but feasting, is the peril of the modern Church. Why then did Paul speak so strongly as he does here against asceticism? That error, which appeared and reappeared like the fabled Phoenix, was this: that there was an evil creator aa well as a good creator, and that while the flesh with all the matter belonged to the evil one, only the spirit belonged to the latter. That was the philosophical reason given for neglecting the body, for eschewing all fleshly relations, and for abstaining from the material satisfaction of appetite; and against it the apostles protested with all their might, and no wonder. For if this were true, God was not the good creator of all things. If this were true, God had not come really in the flesh, seeing that flesh was the product of an alien and hostile power. Hence many came to deny the true humanity of our Lord; they said His body was only a phantasm, not a reality, which implied that His temptations, His sufferings, His death and resurrection took place in appearance only. Paul was not striving about words to no profit when he struck out vigorously against this pernicious doctrine; and before you dismiss such language in the New Testament as exaggerated, try to see what really lay behind it. Even Satan may appear as an angel of light, especially when seen down the vista of eighteen centuries. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
Forbidding to marry.--
The doctrine, which forbiddeth to marry is a wicked doctrine
I. How far the popish doctrine forbiddeth to marry.
II. That the popish doctrine which forbiddeth the marriage of the clergy, and of all under the celibate vow, is a wicked doctrine.
1. That doctrine which is a false doctrine, and contrary unto the Word of God, is a wicked doctrine: but the popish doctrine which forbiddeth the marriage of the clergy, and of all under the celibate vow, is a false doctrine, and contrary unto the Word of God: therefore it is wicked.
(1) The popish doctrine which forbiddeth the marriage of the clergy, and of all under the celibate vow, forbiddeth that which the Word of God alloweth.
(a) The Word of God alloweth marriage, and maketh no exception of the clergy, or any under the celibate vow. That which God did at first institute and appoint, surely the Word of God doth allow (Heb_13:4).
(b) The Word of God is so far from excepting the marriage of the clergy, that it doth plainly allow the marriage of such persons.
(i.) In the Old Testament times the prophets, priests, Levites, and all those who attended more immediately the service of God, and at the altar under the law, were allowed to marry. Abraham, who was a prophet and priest in his own house, did not take Sarah to be his wife without Gods allowance; otherwise, surely, God would not have so signally owned his marriage, as to make promise of the Blessed Seed unto him hereby. Rebekah was a wife of Gods choosing for Isaac. God never blamed Moses, that great prophet, for marrying Zipporah; neither was Aaron faulty because he had his wife and children. Isaiah, that evangelical prophet, was married, and had children too, in the time of his prophecy; which the Scripture, in the recording of it, doth not impute to him for any iniquity. The priests and Levites generally did marry; and, however some of them are reproved in Scripture for divers sins, yet matrimony is never in the least charged upon them for any crime.
(ii.) In the New Testament times ministers have a plain and express allowance to marry, as will appear by two or three places of Scripture (1Co_9:5; Tit_1:6; 1Ti_3:2; 1Ti_3:4-5; 1Ti_3:11-12).
(2) The popish doctrine, which forbiddeth the marriage of the clergy, and all under the celibate vow, forbiddeth that which the Word of God in some case doth command (1Co_7:1-2).
2. That doctrine which, under the show of piety, doth lead unto much lewdness and villainy, is a wicked doctrine: but the popish doctrine, which forbiddeth the marriage of the clergy, and of all under the celibate vow, under the show of piety, doth lead unto much lewdness and villainy: therefore this doctrine is a wicked doctrine. Whatever it be that leadeth unto lewdness and villainy, is devilish and wicked. He that committeth sin is of the devil (1Jn_3:8).
3. That doctrine which forbiddeth the marriage of any, that hereby they may merit the kingdom of heaven is a wicked doctrine: but the popish doctrine which forbiddeth the marriage of the clergy, and of all under the celibate vow, forbiddeth the marriage of such, that thereby they may merit the kingdom of heaven.
4. That doctrine which is a badge or character of antichrist is a wicked doctrine: but the popish doctrine which forbiddeth the marriage of the clergy, and of all under the celibate vow, is a badge or character of antichrist: therefore this popish doctrine is wicked.
III. Answer the popish arguments which they bring to prove the unlawfulness of the marriage of the clergy, and such who are under the celibate vow.
1. Their first argument is drawn from the uncleanness which they affirm to be contracted by marriage; such as the clergy, and all who are more immediately devoted unto God, must abstain from. This they endeavour to prove--
(1) By the Levitical uncleanness (Lev_15:1-33.); and the speech of Abimelech unto David (1Sa_21:4).
(2) Such as are married, they say, are in the flesh, therefore unclean, and so cannot please God (Rom_8:8). Answer
1. There is no uncleanness or unholiness in marriage itself, or in any use thereof; which is evident, because marriage was instituted in Paradise, in the state of mans innocency; and marriage, being Gods ordinance, must needs be holy, because all Gods ordinances are so. Moreover, the Scripture calleth marriage honourable in all, where the bed is undefiled by adultery (Heb_13:4).
2. The papists will find it difficult to prove that there was ever any Levitical uncleanness by the use of marriage; that Scripture in Lev_15:1-33. speaking of something else, as will appear unto such as read and seriously weigh the place.
3. It is a gross misinterpretation of Rom_8:8, to apply it unto married persons, as if they were the persons spoken of by the apostle that are in the flesh, and cannot please God.
4. As to their inference from 1Co_7:5,--because such as would give themselves to fasting and prayer, must abstain for a while, therefore ministers must abstain from marriage altogether, is such a non sequitur, as the schools will hiss at.
2. The second popish argument is drawn from 1Co_7:1, It is good for a man not to touch a woman; and, verse 8, I say therefore unto the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. If it be good for the unmarried and widows to abide in a single estate like unto the apostle, then, say they, it is evil for such to marry; and therefore the clergy should abstain from this evil. That may be good for some, which is evil for others. A single estate may be good and best for such as have the gift of continency, and are persuaded in their heart that in this estate they may most glorify God; whereas this estate may be evil for such as are without this gift, or in likelihood may most glorify God in a married estate. It may be good at some time not to marry; namely, in the time of the Churchs persecution; and all that have the gift at such a time, should choose the celibate estate, that they might be the more ready both to do and suffer for Christ, and be the more free from temptations to apostasy. The apostle is so far from asserting it to be an evil for any in the worst of times to marry, that he asserteth the quite contrary when there is a necessity for it: If need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry; (1Co_7:36, 38).
3. The third popish argument is drawn from 1Co_7:32-34 :
Answer
1. It is not universally true, that all who are unmarried do care for the things which belong to the Lord, how they may please the Lord, and that hereby they are taken off from minding and caring for the things of the world. As to the latter, who intermeddle more with secular affairs than many of the popish unmarried clergy?
2. Neither is it universally true, that such as are married do care for the things of the world chiefly, so as to neglect the things of God; as instance may be given in the holiness of many married persons, which the Scripture doth take notice of. It is said that Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters (Gen_5:22). Abraham, who is called the friend of God; Moses, unto whom the Lord spake face to face; Samuel, who was so highly in favour with God; David, who was a man after Gods own heart; Isaiah, Ezekiel, and almost all the prophets, were married persons: and we hardly read of any in the Old Testament that were famous for integrity and zeal for God, but they were such as were married.
3. Men may care for the things that belong unto the world moderately, and labour to please their wives in the Lord subordinately, and not transgress the bounds of their duty. (T. Vincent, M. A.)
Celibacy, its advantages and disadvantages
This state is as honourable, useful, and blessed as that of marriage. John was the unmarried disciple whom Jesus loved. The family at Bethany of two sisters and a brother was the family that Jesus loved. They had all loveworthy characters even by Him. The advantages of celibacy are threefold--
1. It is a state of larger liberty.
2. It allows more money to give away.
3. It affords more time for direct work for God.
The dangers are twofold--
1. For the women; they are liable to become shallow and frivolous, mere butterflies or wasps.
2. For the men; they are liable to become selfish and sensual, mere octopi, grasping all for their own self-indulgence. The one safeguard is to live close to Christ. (R. A. Norris.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v7 Chapter 13
Chapter 13
THE COMPARATIVE VALUE OF BODILY EXERCISE AND OF GODLINESS. - 1Ti_4:7-8.
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IT is almost impossible to decide what St. Paul here means by "bodily exercise." Not that either the phrase or the passage in which it occurs is either difficult or obscure. But the phrase may mean either of two things, both of which make excellent sense in themselves, and both of which fit the context.
At the beginning of this chapter the Apostle warns Timothy against apostates who shall "give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats." St. Paul has in his mind those moral teachers who made bodily mortifications the road, not to self-discipline, but to self-effacement; and who taught that such things were necessary, not because our bodies are prone to evil, but because they exist at all. To have a body, they held, was a degradation: and such a possession was a curse, a burden, and a shame. Instead of believing, as every Christian must, that a human body is a very sacred thing, to be jealously guarded from all that may harm or pollute it, these philosophers held that it was worse than worthless, fit for nothing but to be trampled upon and abused. That it may be sanctified here and be glorified hereafter, that it may be the temple of Gods Holy Spirit now and be admitted to share the blessedness of Christs ascended humanity in the world to come, - they could not and would not believe. It must be made to feel its own vileness. It must be checked, and thwarted, and tormented into subjection, until the blessed time should come when death should release the unhappy soul that was linked to it from its loathsome and intolerable companion.
It cannot, of course, for a moment be supposed that St. Paul would admit that "bodily exercise" of this suicidal kind was "profitable" even "for a little." On the contrary, as we have seen already, he condemns the whole system in the very strongest terms. It is a blasphemy against Gods goodness and a libel on human nature. But some persons have thought that the Apostle may be alluding to practices which, externally at any rate, had much resemblance to the practices which he so emphatically condemns. He may have in his mind those fasts, and vigils, and other forms of bodily mortification, which within prudent limits and when sanctified by humility and prayer, are a useful, if not a necessary discipline for most of us. And it has been thought that Timothy himself may have been going to unwise lengths in such ascetic practices: for in this very letter we find his affectionate master charging him, "Be no longer a drinker of water, but use a little wine for thy stomachs sake and thine often infirmities."
This, then, is one possible meaning of the Apostles words in the passage before us. Discipline of the body by means of a severe rule of life is profitable for something: but it is not everything. It is not even the chief thing, or anything approaching to the chief thing. The chief thing is godliness. To the value of bodily exercise of this kind there are limits, and rather narrow limits: it "is profitable for a little." To the value of godliness there are no limits: it is "profitable for all things." Mortifications of the body may preserve us from sins of the flesh: but they are no certain protection even against these. They are no protection at all-sometimes they are the very reverse of protection-against sins of self-complacency and spiritual pride. Asceticism may exist without godliness; and godliness may exist without asceticism. Bodily mortifications may be useful; but they may also be harmful to both soul and body. Godliness must always be useful to both; can never be harmful to either.
But it is quite possible to understand the expression "bodily-exercise," in the sense in which the phrase is most commonly used in ordinary conversation among ourselves. In the text which we are considering it may mean that exercise of the body which we are accustomed to take, some of us of necessity, because the work by which we earn our daily bread involves a great deal of physical exertion; some of us for healths sake, because our work involves a great deal of sitting still; some of us for pleasure, because bodily exercise of various kinds is delightful to us. This interpretation of the Apostles statement, like the other interpretation, makes good sense of itself, and fits the context. And whereas that was in harmony with the opening words of the chapter, this fits the immediate context.
St. Paul has just said "Exercise thyself unto godliness." In using the expression "Exercise thyself" (γυμναζε σεαυτον) he was of course borrowing, as he so constantly does borrow, from the language which was used respecting gymnastic contests in the public games. The Christian is an athlete, who must train himself and exercise himself for a lifelong contest. He has to wrestle and fight with the powers of evil, that he may win a crown of glory that fadeth not away. How natural, then, that the Apostle, having just spoken of spiritual exercise for the attainment of godliness, should go on to glance at bodily exercise, in order to point out the superiority of the one over the other. The figurative would easily suggest the literal sense; and it is therefore quite lawful to take the words "bodily exercise" in their most literal sense. Perhaps we may go further and say, that this is just one of those cases in which, because the literal meaning makes excellent sense, the literal meaning is to be preferred. Let us then take St. Pauls words quite literally and see what meaning they will yield.
"Bodily exercise is profitable for a little." It is by no means a useless thing. In its proper place it has a real value. Taken in moderation it tends to preserve health and increase strength. It may sometimes be the means of gaining for ourselves and for the circle to which we belong praise and distinction. It makes us more capable of aiding ourselves and others in times of physical danger. It may even be the means of enabling us to save life. By taking us out of ourselves and turning our thoughts into new channels, it is an instrument of mental refreshment, and enables us to return to the main business of our lives with increased intellectual vigor. And beyond all this, if kept within bounds, it has a real moral value. It sometimes keeps us out of mischief by giving us innocent instead of harmful recreation. And bodily training and practice, if loyally carried out, involve moral gains of another kind. Dangerous appetites have to be kept in check, personal wishes have to be sacrificed, good temper has to be cultivated, if success is to be secured for ourselves or the side to which we belong. All this is "profitable" in a very real degree. But the limits to all these good results are evident; and they are somewhat narrow. They are confined to this life, and for the most part to the lower side of it; and they are by no means certain. Only indirectly does bodily exercise yield help to the intellectual and spiritual parts of our nature; and as regards both of them it may easily do more harm than good. Like excessive meat and drink, it may brutalize instead of invigorating. Have we not all of us seen men whose extravagant devotion to bodily exercise has extinguished almost all intellectual interests, and apparently all spiritual interests also?
But there are no such drawbacks to the exercise of godliness. "Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise" not only "of the life which now is, but of that which is to come." Its value is not confined to the things of this world, although it enriches and glorifies them all. And, unlike bodily exercise, its good results are certain. There is no possibility of excess. We may be unwise in our pursuit of godliness, as in our pursuit of bodily strength and activity; but we cannot have too much exercise in godliness, as we easily can in athletics. Indeed, we cannot with any safety lay aside the one, as we not only can, but must, frequently lay aside the other. And we need to bear this simple truth in mind. Most of us are willing to admit that godliness is an excellent thing for attaining to a peaceful death; but we show little evidence that we are convinced of its being necessary for spending a happy life. We look upon it as a very suitable thing for the weak, the poor, the sickly, the sorrowful, and perhaps also for sentimental persons who have plenty of leisure time at their disposal. We fail to see that there is much need for it, or indeed much room for it, in the lives of busy, capable, energetic, and practical men of the world. In other words, we are not at all convinced of the truth of the Apostles words, that "Godliness is profitable for all things," and we do not act as if they had very much interest for us. They express a truth which is only too likely to be crowded out of sight and out of mind in this bustling age. Let us be as practical as our dispositions lead us and our surroundings require us to be; but let us not forget that godliness is really the most practical of all things. It lays hold on a mans whole nature. It purifies his body, it illumines and sanctifies his intellect; it braces his will. It penetrates into every department of life, whether business or amusement, social intercourse or private meditation. Ask the physicians, ask employers of labor, ask teachers in schools and universities, ask statesmen and philosophers, what their experience teaches them respecting the average merits of the virtuous and the vicious. They will tell you that the godly person has the healthiest body, is the most faithful servant, the most painstaking student, the best citizen, the happiest man. A man who is formed, reformed, and informed by religion will do far more effectual work in the world than the same man without religion. He works with less friction, because his care is cast upon his heavenly Father; and with more confidence, because his trust is placed on One much more sure than himself. Moreover, in the long run he is trusted and respected. Even those who not only abjure religion in themselves, but ridicule it in others, cannot get rid of their own experience. They find that the godly man can be depended upon, where the merely clever man cannot; and they act in accordance with this experience. Nor does the profitableness of godliness end with the possession of blessings so inestimable as these. It holds out rich promises respecting future happiness, and it gives an earnest and guarantee for it. It gives a man the blessing of a good conscience, which is one of our chief foretastes of the blessedness which awaits us in the world to come.
Let us once for all get rid of the common, but false notion that there is anything unpractical, anything weak or unmanly, in the life of holiness to which Christ has called us, and of which He has given us an example: and by the lives which we lead let us prove to others that this vulgar notion is a false one. Nothing has done more harm to the cause of Christianity than the misconceptions which the world has formed as to what Christianity is and what it involves. And these misconceptions are largely caused by the unworthy lives which professing Christians lead. And this unworthiness is of two kinds. There is first the utter worldliness, and often the downright wickedness, of many who are not only baptized Christians, but who habitually keep up some of the external marks of an ordinary Christian life, such as going to church, having family prayers, attending religious meetings, and the like. And perhaps the worst form of this is that in which religion is made a trade, and an appearance of godliness is assumed in order to make money out of a reputation for sanctity. Secondly, there is the seriously mistaken way in which many earnest persons set to work in order to attain to true godliness. By their own course of life they lead people to suppose that a religious life, the life of an earnest Christian, is a dismal thing and an unpractical thing. They wear a depressed and joyless look; they not only abstain from, but leave it to be supposed that they condemn, many things which give zest and brightness to life, and which the Gospel does not condemn. In their eagerness to show their conviction as to the transcendent importance of spiritual matters, they exhibit a carelessness and slovenliness in reference to the affairs of this life, which is exceedingly trying to all those who have to work with them. Thus they stand forward before the world as conspicuous evidence that godliness is not "profitable for all things." The world is only too ready to take note of evidence which points to a conclusion so in harmony with its own predilections. It is, and has been from the beginning, prejudiced against religion; and its adherents are quick to seize upon, and make the most of, anything which appears to justify these prejudices. "In a world such as this," they say, "so full of care and suffering, we cannot afford to part with anything which gives brightness and refreshment to life. A religion which tells us to abjure all these things, and live perpetually as if we were at the point of death or face to face with the Day of Judgment, may be all very well for monks and nuns, but is no religion for the mass of mankind. Moreover, this is a busy age. Most of us have much to do; and, if we are to live at all, what we have to do must be done quickly and thoroughly. That means that we must give our minds to it; and a religion which tells us that we must not give our minds to our business, but to other things which it says are of far greater importance, is no religion for people who have to make their way in the world and keep themselves and their children from penury. We flatly refuse to accept a gospel which is so manifestly out of harmony with the conditions of average human life."
This charge against Christianity is a very old one: we find it taken up and answered in some of the earliest defenses of the gospel which have come down to us. The unhappy thing is, not that such charges should be made, but that the lives of Christian men and women should prove that there is at least a prima facie case for bringing such accusations. The early Christians had to confront the charge that they were joyless, useless members of society and unpatriotic citizens. They maintained that, on the contrary, they were the happiest and most contented of men, devoted to the well-being of others, and ready to die for their country. They kept aloof from. many things in which the heathen indulged, not because they were pleasures, but because they were sinful. And there were certain services which they could not, without grievous sin, render to the State. In all lawful matters no men were more ready than they were to be loyal and law-abiding citizens. In this, as in any other matter of moral conduct, they were quite willing to be compared with their accusers or any other class of men. On which side were to be found those who were bright and peaceful in their lives, who cherished their kindred, who took care of the stranger, who succored their enemies, who shrank not from death?
A practical appeal of this kind is found to be in the long run far more telling than exposition and argument. It may be impossible to get men to listen to, or take interest in, statements as to the principles and requirements of the Christian religion. You may fail to convince them that its precepts and demands are neither superstitious nor unreasonable. But you can always show them what a life of godliness really is; that it is full of joyousness, and that its joys are neither fitful nor uncertain; that it is no foe to what is bright and beautiful, and is neither morose in itself nor apt to frown at lightheartedness in others; that it does not interfere with the most strenuous attention to business and the most capable dispatch of it. Men refuse to listen to or to be moved by words; but they cannot help noticing and being influenced by facts which are all round them in their daily lives. So far as man can judge, the number of vicious, mean, and unworthy lives is far in excess of those which are pure and lofty. Each one of us can do something towards throwing the balance the other way. We can prove to all the world that godliness is not an unreality, and does not make those who strive after it unreal; that it is hostile neither to joyousness nor to capable activity; that, on the contrary, it enhances the brightness of all that is really beautiful in life, while it raises to a higher power all natural gifts and abilities; that the Apostle was saying no more than the simple truth when he declared that it is "profitable for all things."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1–3. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly. In revelations made…
1–3. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly. In revelations made to Paul and other inspired men. See 2 Thess. 2:3. In the latter times. In future times. How far away is not indicated. Some shall depart from the faith. There shall be an apostasy. Compare 2 Thess. 2:3. Some of the marks of this apostasy are now given. Giving heed to seducing spirits. The apostle seems to recognize a preternatural element which speaks by false prophets, in false utterances which claims to be from God. These seducing spirits might work through hierarchs, who claimed to speak for God, or through councils which claimed to make infallible utterances. Doctrines of demons. Doctrines suggested by demons. The Greek daimonion, demon, not devil, always refers in the New Testament to an evil spirit.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 1Ti_4:1. Doctrines of devils.—The term “devils” seems to give…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Ti_4:1. Doctrines of devils.—The term “devils” seems to give the spirit of the apostle’s meaning more accurately than the more literal “demons” would.
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1Ti_4:2. Having their conscience seared with a hot iron.—R.V. “branded in their own conscience.” As a runaway or offending slave was sometimes punished by having the brand of his infamy stamped on his brow, so these men carry about with them their own condemnation.
1Ti_4:3. Forbidding to marry.—It does not appear whether they forbade all to marry or only the aspirants to peculiar sanctity. To abstain from meats, which God created to be received.—The strongest condemnation of ascetic practices, St. Paul seems to think, is that they contravene the good purpose of God. With thanksgiving.—The true attitude towards the gifts of God. “It was a maxim even of the heathen that the good gifts of the gods were not to be refused” (Ellicott).
1Ti_4:5. For it is sanctified.—Not merely declared holy, but made holy.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Ti_4:1-5
False Doctrine—
I. Leads to apostasy.—“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith” (1Ti_4:1). Signs of apostasy were already discernible in the operation of the Gnostic heresy. Apollonius Tyanæus, a notorious heretic, came to Ephesus in the lifetime of Timothy. The defection was within the Church; and the active cause of the apostasy was the false teaching of the heresiarchs. It is perilous for members of the Church to give heed to the seductive voice of error.
II. Is the suggestion of evil spirits.—“Giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1Ti_4:1). The spawn of devilish malice—the reckless sport or cunning designs of inveterate wickedness. The throne of Satan was shaken by the introduction of the gospel, and the opposition of evil spirits was the more fierce and malignant. In warning the Thessalonians the apostle connects the mystery of iniquity which was working such mischief with the activity of some wicked demon acting under the instigation of Satan.
III. Is discoverable by unmistakable marks.—
1. By the character of its teachers. “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1Ti_4:2). They are hypocritical liars, self-branded with crime: not only speaking lies to others, but having their own consciences seared. Professing to lead others to holiness, their own consciences all the while defiled. A bad conscience always has recourse to deception. They are branded with the consciousness of sins committed against their better knowledge and conscience, like so many scars burnt in by a branding-iron—an image taken from the branding of criminals. They are conscious of the brand within, yet with a hypocritical show of sanctity they strive to deceive others. Pollok called the hypocrite “the man that stole the livery of heaven to serve the devil in.”
2. By its enforcing a spurious outward sanctity. “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats” (1Ti_4:3). Sensuality leads to false spiritualism. Their own inward impurity is reflected in their eyes in the world around them, and hence their asceticism. By a spurious spiritualism which made moral perfection consist in abstinence from outward thing they pretended to attain to a higher perfection. Those who do not keep from ambition, covetousness, hatred, and cruelty endeavour to obtain righteousness by abstaining from those things which God has left at large. Not long after the death of the apostle arose Encratites, Tatianists, Catharists, Montanus with his sect, and at length Manichæans, who had extreme aversion to marriage and the eating of flesh, and condemned them as profane things. Such is the disposition of the world, always dreaming that God ought to be worshipped in a carnal manner, as if God were carnal.
IV. Degrades the true use of the Divine gift of food.—
1. All God’s gifts are good. “For every creature of God is good” (1Ti_4:4). A refutation by anticipation of the Gnostic opposition to creation, the seeds of which were now lurking latently in the Church. Judaism was the starting-point of the error as to meats: Oriental gnosis added new elements. The old Gnostic heresy is now almost, extinct, but it remains in the celibacy of the priesthood, and in Church fasts from animal meat, enjoined under the penalty of mortal sin. In and for itself no food is objectionable, yet on condition that it be used with thanksgiving to God. Creatures are not called good merely because they are the works of God, but because through His goodness they have been given to us.
2. God’s gifts are good to us only as we receive them in a devout and thankful spirit. “And nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1Ti_4:4-5). Just as in the Lord’s Supper the thanksgiving prayer sanctifies the elements, separating them from their natural alien position in relation to the spiritual world, and transferring them to their true relation to the new life, so, in every use of the creature, thanksgiving prayer has the same effect, and ought always to be used. One of the most beautiful models of the primitive “Grace before meat,” consisting almost wholly of Scripture, was this: “Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who hast fed me from my youth, who givest food to all flesh. Fill our hearts with joy and gladness, that, having always what sufficeth, we may abound unto all good works in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom be unto Thee honour, glory, and power, for ever and ever. Amen” (Calvin, Fausset).
Lessons.—
1. False teachers, deceived themselves, deceive others.
2. Error in doctrine leads to sins in practice.
3. Prayer and thanksgiving are safeguards against false doctrine.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ti_4:2. A Seared Conscience.—Note the successive stages which lead to a seared conscience.
I. Dull conscience.—Not quick and active, but slothful; like a storm-bell ringing in the storm, when it should be as a storm-signal run up in a blue sky.
II. Uneasy conscience.—Multiplied sins, small and trifling as each may appear, will lead to this, just as accumulated snow-flakes bend the strongest bough.
III. Guilty conscience.—Accusing the sinner of his sin and folly. This may be either an awakened or a remorseful conscience.
IV. Hardened conscience.—The hardened need not be invulnerable; there may be a joint somewhere where the arrow of conviction may enter.
V. A seared conscience.—Cauterised. A nerve diseased or almost paralysed may possibly be healed; but when it has been subjected to the cauterising iron it is perished. What hope for a man whose conscience is cauterised?—E. Conder, D.D.
1Ti_4:4-5. The Gifts of God—
I. Though good, may be abused.
II. Should be enjoyed in a thankful spirit.
III. Should be hallowed by prayer in harmony with the word of God.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 7 1. “The Spirit positively says, that in the last…
ARGUMENT 9
DEMONIACAL POSSESSIONS OF THE PREACHERS IN THE LAST DAYS
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1. “The Spirit positively says, that in the last time certain ones will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and the teachings of demons,
2. “Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having been cauterized as to their own conscience”. Multiplied millions of demons throng the air, all doing their best to find a home in some human heart. They constantly transform themselves into angels of light, and pass themselves on Christians for the Holy Ghost, and on Spiritualists for their dead relatives, thus deceiving the world by wholesale. A preacher stands in the pulpit, and a demon behind him gives the message and the utterance, passing himself for the Holy Ghost. It does not mean that the conscience of the people is seared with a hot iron, but that of the demons. Hence, their hopeless reprobacy. As the powers of Satan increase upon the earth in the last days, these demons literally flood the fallen Churches, inundating the pulpit. What is the remedy? Nothing but entire sanctification, in which dispensation we live, and for which we are especially responsible to God. The baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire burns out all of the jungles of inbred sin and all the morasses of depravity, leaving the demons no hiding-places, so they can no longer play off on you. You should always follow Jesus, led by the Holy Ghost; as these demons have no incarnation, they can not counterfeit Jesus, but as the Holy Ghost has no incarnation, they can counterfeit him. The Divine leadership is triple,—the Word, Spirit, and Providence. If you are true to this threefold leadership, you will never get sidetracked by these demons. I am satisfied they manipulate many pulpits and rule Churches not a few this day. I am in the forty-fifth year of my ministry. O what a fearful apostasy in my recollection! Entire sanctification is the only attitude in which you can securely avail yourself of the Divine leadership. If you will not have it, you must take chances among the demons.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 1Ti 4:7
1Ti 4:7
I. The word godliness signifies a religious character in all its integrity, with special reference to God: it is therefore the highest idea to which your aspiration can be raised. It is not simply salvation from sin, or holiness as separation from evil, but the result into which both flow. It is religion known by its highest possible name. And this piety, thus clothed with its perfection, you are bidden to seek as the business of your life: as the goal of all other aspirations. There is not in the Bible a more impressive and stimulating appeal to your own individual energy. The words assume it as the universal law of the supernatural order that one condition of our spiritual wellbeing, indeed of our spiritual life, is our own sedulous self-discipline. There is much music in the air that is not played to this note. There is a danger of our resting on Jesus and casting all our care on Him, in a sense for which He gives no authority.
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II. Exercise thyself unto godliness. With regard to all the exercises of a holy life, whether the training of the soul to overcome sin, or its education to habits of deep devotion, ever more remember that the aim must be godliness, and nothing but that. Here is, the protection of all religious discipline against the abuse to which it is liable. For instance, if your end is likeness to God, to God as revealed in His all-holy Son, you will never rest in the means. You will not mistake the aids and helps of religion for religion itself; you will for ever be freeing your way through them to Him who is the end. And if the whole soul is set on genuine godliness, no failure will divert its pursuit from that. The very sincerity of its desire will shield it from despair.
W. B. Pope, Sermons and Charges, p. 314.
Reference: 1Ti 4:7.—R. G. Gould, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 228.
1Ti 4:8
The Right Human Life is its own Reward.
I. The life which we have received from nature, beyond a very brief stage, is impracticable: it will not hold together. One and one only human life can hold its own and renew itself for ever. Therefore, clearly, it is the only wise life, the only profitable life. All your real interests for time and all your real interests for eternity, you may stake on the life that recognises God for its source and law. It is as reliable as God’s own existence. It will repay all your training, unfolding and unfolding for ever into higher and higher forms of humanity. Your strength and labour spent on any other human life will be lost and your time wasted.
II. The Highest, the Eternal, is capable of human development. More, God, who is the infinite Love and Reason, and Law and Power, seeks to unfold Himself in man. More, He can only reveal Himself to men and women, as He unfolds His powers in them. He has revealed Himself, He is now revealing Himself, and He will be for ever revealing Himself to humanity. Whether in the heavens, or on the earth, humanity is the throne and the kingdom of His manifestation.
III. Godliness is not gloom, nor asceticism. It makes no man a monk, no woman a nun. To enjoy with God, all that God has created, is godliness. Godliness despises no good thing, no beautiful thing, but rather freely receives all good things in thanksgiving and turns them into gladness. In the enjoyment of this world’s blessings, cherish the confidence that they are shadows, and only shadows, of richer blessings—the perfectly human blessings and delights of our Father’s Home-kingdom.
J. Pulsford, Our Deathless Hope, p. 115.
The Twofold Promise.
Paul’s words are often quoted as if he meant that through godliness we might make our fortune here and hereafter, and as if a skilful Christian man might find life a sort of palatable soup, pleasant to the hungry and even to the dainty, by the due mixture of earthly and heavenly ingredients. The wages Christ earned of a wicked world were paid Him in full at Calvary. He entered into glory afterwards. His disciples, indeed, carried a wallet which was never without generous alms; and so godliness paid its way, as it always will do, but that way led it by the Cross. And so Christians may find that godliness is profitable for a livelihood and little more: a little more here, and much more hereafter. Here, a livelihood and afflictions; hereafter, rest and Divine riches; and so godliness with contentment is great gain.
I. We were born to advance and increase; and, therefore, to seek a higher place and a broader field may be, not only natural but godly. But God, who is highest of all, and in whom there can be no ambition, when He comes down to commence an ascending career, carries upward the world of sinners and sufferers in His own progress. As He rises, we rise. If, then, we set our affections on things above, they must be things where Christ is, not where Satan is.
II. The promise of godliness for the life to come is rest, satisfaction with God in that rest, and enjoyment of the results of our labour in that satisfaction. Rest is a sweet and necessary thing: so necessary that without a day of rest our days of work would be unendurable: so sweet, that it is the first thought of the wearied earthly traveller that he will find it at the end of his journey. In the heavenly Canaan, the land of promise, we shall be rich and happy. Yes, but we shall find rest. Two things must have our care in exercising ourselves unto godliness; and these will be one sure test of our advancing proficiency—(1) We must pray; (2) we must revise our estimate of things temporal that are things desirable; (3) our proficiency will be shown in the ready, unprompted movement of our mind towards God in times of common or special activity.
T. T. Lynch, Three Months’ Ministry, p. 25.
The Promise of Godliness for the Present Life.
The Apostle meant by godliness life under God’s direct personal guidance, inspired by love to God, led in obedience to God and in personal communion with God. The Apostle means, further, to say, that to such a life God promises good and profitable things, not only in heaven, but here upon earth. That godliness has its possibilities of joy, of usefulness, of attainment, of victory, of knowledge, of social good, of spiritual stature, in this world as well as in the heavenly world.
I. And it seems to me that this must be true from the nature of the case. For if godliness consists in being loyally under God’s administration, then it follows, of course, that a godly man is under that administration no less on earth than in heaven. A sovereign whose kingdom embraces mountain ranges and valleys, does not impose one law on the mountaineers and another on the men of the plains. The administration is one, and the loyal subject at the foot of the hills shares its privileges with the mountaineer. Conditions are different, but the king is the same, the law is the same; and whatever privileges of that administration are possible to the dweller in any part of it, are freely his.
II. I wonder if we all realise how much the Bible has to say about this life as compared with the next. Whatever the Bible may be, it is preeminently something to live by here. The more the significance that attaches to the future life, the stronger is the reason for giving us a manual for this life. Christ brings life to light by bringing immortality to light. Instead of turning away our thoughts from earth to heaven, He makes earth lighter and earthly life more significant with the light of heaven. There is too strong a tendency to make escape rather than victory the keynote of life. But the kingdoms of the world are promised to Christ. Sin is mighty, but Christ is mightier. God did not make this world to lose it. He did not make you and me to be dwarfs in holiness and weaklings in holy effort.
M. R. Vincent, The Covenant of Peace., p. 33.
References: 1Ti 4:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., Nos. 937, 946; G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons to English Congregations in India, p. 66; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 99; Ibid., Plymouth Pulpit Sermons, 3rd series, p. 355; J. Pulsford, Our Deathless Hope, p. 115; J. Tinling, Ibid., p. 338; Ibid., vol. iv., p. 104; A. J. Griffith, Ibid., vol. xv., p. 348; H. P. Liddon, Ibid., vol. xx., p. 353; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. v., p. 27; vol. x., p. 84.
1Ti 4:10
I. Whether we take the words, "the living God," in our text to apply to Christ Himself, or to the Father acting by Christ, it is equally asserted that Christ is the Saviour of all men, that the salvation which He wrought is, in and of itself, co-extensive with the race of man. What He did, He did for, or in the stead of, all men. Christ, being the Divine Son of God, and having become the Son of man, was no longer an individual man, bounded by the narrow lines and limits of His own personality, but was and is God manifest in the flesh: a sound and righteous Head of our whole nature, just as Adam was its first and sinful head. Hence it is that, whatever He does, has so large a significance. Hence that, when He fulfils the law, His righteousness is accepted as ours. From the vicarious work and sacrifice of the Redeemer, consequences not only possible, but actual, flow forth to every member of our common race, in virtue of that common membership, in virtue of their physical union with Christ in their common humanity. Whether these consequences will be to them an advantage or a disadvantage, a gain or a loss, must, from the very constitution of our nature, both physical and spiritual, depend on further considerations, involving the exercise of their own spiritual faculties and capacities. "Christ is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe."
II. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." He is the Saviour of all men, in that He included them all in that nature which He took on Him, and bore the whole world’s sin, and made a way for all to God. He is specially the Saviour of them that believe, in that in their case only does this His salvation become actual and come to its ripeness and perfection; in them only does His Spirit dwell; they only are changed into His image; they only shall be with Him and behold His glory where He is and be perfectly like Him, seeing Him as He is.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vi., p. 108.
References: 1Ti 4:10.—R. W. Dale, Discourses on Special Occasions, p. 121; W. C. E. Newbolt, Counsels of Faith and Practice, p. 88; J. T. Stannard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 136. 1Ti 4:12.—J. Thain Davidson, Sure to Succeed, p. 207; R. Tuck, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 224; Ibid., vol. xxxii., p. 18. 1Ti 4:13.—C. Babington, Church of England Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 20; W. G. Horder, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 107.
1Ti 4:16
Self-discipline.
I. What, as regards man, guilty man, is the final cause of the atoning Cross, the red altar of the all-blessed substitute of the sinner? It is the creation, in the penitent who embraces that one hope set before him, of a character in harmony with that God, equally absolute in grace and in "severity," who spared not His own Son. I do not say that this is the immediate purpose of the Cross, as set out in Scripture. No, it has first to effect, not transfiguration of character, but acceptance of person. It has to effect the objective reality of a righteous pardon. But that sacred pardon, or call it rather acceptance, a nobler word, is all the while a means and not an end. Its end, as far as the justified are concerned, is the transfiguration of character. The millstone of condemnation is lifted away, on purpose, above all things, that the penitent may be made effectually willing, with a will disengaged from the fears and the repulsions of the unpardoned state, to be trained into a character in harmony with God and capable of His heavenly presence.
II. We inhabit a period full of subtle tendencies to self-indulgence. I mean the moral self-indulgence which, in plain words, abhors not evil; the temper that can tolerate what ought to be intolerable to the conscience, even if it be some elaborate romance of sin, it only it comes in a garb that commends it to the intellect and the imagination. Too often the soul that has grasped personal justification yet forgets to grasp what should be its direct result; no negligent repose in sacred privileges, but the real and glorious work of the will in the strength of the peace of God. The assured and gladdened disciple too often needs to be reminded that his liberty is the liberty to observe, and love and do every detail of his Redeemer’s will; that in his happy faith he is to find the nerves of his unwearied virtue; that from his whole plan of life down to its minutiae of daily personal habits, public, private, and solitary, aye, down to his sleep, his table, and his dress, he must habituate himself to the moral and spiritual consciousness of being under discipline. For he is being trained under his Lord’s grace and guidance, into the character of the Gospel.
H. C. G. Moule, Christ is All, p. 175.
The Teacher and the Taught (Sermon to Sunday School Teachers).
I. You are workmen of God. The great Worker has called you to His counsels, and He has assigned to you a task. Much of His purpose and government, of His mercy and judgment, proceeds in utter independence of all human aid or cooperation; but there is a larger portion of His blessedness which He only communicates to men through the human mind and heart. God waits and asks for the cooperation of His children, and finds for every kind of talent, intellect, and moral energy, some work to do. In one sense, indeed, every atom of every world is busily at work for God; and in one sense, every mind has a work to do for God, consciously or unconsciously, which no other mind can accomplish. Surely the highest dignity God could confer on any human being is to use Him for a purpose and work like this.
II. You are students of God’s Word. If you are not students, if you are not doing your best to understand God’s truth, you will soon exhaust your stock of capital, you will be perpetually baffled when you need not be, by the inquiries of the youngest children; you will not be thoroughly furnished for this great work. If Timothy needed to give himself to reading, exhortation, doctrine, it is equally necessary that you should devote yourselves to the study of revealed truth within your reach, and commune with the Spirit of its Author.
III. You are servants of the Church. One great function of the Church is to teach the world. It may be the function of some to exhort, of some to console. There are some in the Church whose great work seems to be to rule; the work of others is to give. The teaching office of the Church is not and cannot be confined to the pastorate. The Church should regard the school as a portion of its own operations, and the teachers as its own servants or representatives.
IV. Once more, you are watchers for souls. It is a wise and wonderful thing to save souls, to win souls. Are you habitually aware of the grand dimensions of your work? Do you never slip into routine? Are you always alive to its magnitude? Take heed to your doctrine that it be (1) scriptural, (2) comprehensive, (3) connected and ordered upon some plan, (4) appropriate to the class of minds with which you have to deal. "Take heed to thyself." Thou art not only to be free from the blame of others, and from the accusations of thine own conscience, but to be a pattern of purity and honour, of spirit and love, of word and conversation. Thou art to be a specimen of what a Christian ought to be, in the transactions of daily life, at the innermost shrine of earthly affections, on the highways of the world. A pattern to believers. Ordinary believers naturally look to those who teach for the deepest faith and for the highest kind of life. Patient perseverance in such godlike work is a way not only of securing the salvation of others, but our own salvation too. This taking heed to ourselves is, indeed, necessary, in order that we should have any influence with those that hear us. This taking heed to the doctrine is utterly indispensable to our own salvation. Let us continue in them, and remember that when we thus seek the salvation of others, we are seeking our own.
H. R. Reynolds, Notes of the Christian Life, p. 311.
The Comparative Influence of Character and Doctrine.
As a means of moral and religious influence, life should precede doctrine, character be regarded as of even greater importance than verbal teaching. We may perceive this by reflecting—
I. That life tends very greatly to modify a man’s own views of doctrine.
II. It affects also his power of expressing or communicating truth to others.
III. It has in many respects an influence which direct teaching or doctrine cannot exert. Actions are (1) more intelligible, (2) more convincing than words, and (3) they are available in many cases in which the teaching of the lips cannot, or ought not, to be attempted.
J. Caird, Sermons, p. 301.
References: 1Ti 4:16.—W. Elmslie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxiv., p. 305; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 257.
The Life to Come.
Consider:—
I. The certainty of the life to come. I admit that our storehouse of proofs is here, in the revelation of God. It is here that life and immortality have been disclosed by the Great Teacher, who came down from heaven, and not only disclosed in His instructions, but set in a most vivid light, by the miracles He wrought, in bringing men back from the grave, and by His own resurrection, the type and pledge of the resurrection of the race. The teaching of the Bible accords with the workings of the human mind, with the analogies of things, as we see them around us, and with the general constitution of nature.
II. What are the characteristics of the life to come? The future is to be but the full development, in different circumstances, and in a different form of life, of the present. The symbols used in the Scriptures, and the analogies they adopt to illustrate and throw light upon the subject, all show that the life which is, is to give shape and form and impart its elements to the life which is to come.
III. While we shall be the same beings, as far as our moral consciousness is concerned, the materials of thought, the objects which shall excite the passions and determine the experience shall be the same. The present is the great storehouse of the future, wherein we are laying up the elements of our future experience. Our emotions in the life to come, whether present or prospective, shall exist in view of the past. He that is holy shall be holy still; and he that is filthy shall be filthy still; rising in holiness or sinking in degradation for ever.
E. Mason, A Pastor’s Legacy, p. 186.
Reference: 1Ti 5:1-16.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. in., p. 380.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Division 4. (1Ti 4:1-16.)
Division 4. (1Ti 4:1-16.)
The latter-day apostasy.
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The fourth division stands in the saddest contrast with that which we have just been looking at. The brighter the light, the darker the shadows. The corruption of the best becomes the worst corruption; and, alas, as soon as ever we speak of what is entrusted to man, there is sure to follow the demonstration of man’s wilful incapacity. We must never lose sight of the wilfulness which is the incapacity. Scripture never forgets the complete responsibility of man in every way, and never allows that he fails through weakness simply, through mere incompetency. The apostle goes on now, therefore, to speak of the foreseen apostasy, even from a faith like this; the power of Satan working where the power of God is working, and man giving heed to Satan rather than to God. How blessed, however, to realize that here also, where it may least seem so, God is absolute Master of all circumstances, and that even the worst revolt of the creature shall at last glorify Him! For us also the knowledge of these things should be also the knowledge of that which is in our own hearts, and which should make us cleave, in the consciousness of our weakness, to Him, with fuller purpose and desire, who alone is able to deliver us from all that is within as well as all that is without.
1. It is remarkable how much the apostle connects, in all that is here, the present with the past, carrying us back to the very beginning, to the creation and the fall, and showing us the apostasy in Christendom as being still the revolt of the creature against the Creator, the spurning of that which God instituted at the beginning, so that just as Christianity embodies in itself also the principles inherent in God’s first creation, so the apostasy too sums up in itself the elements of all apostasy, which is seen to be rebellion all along the line of history, as we may say. How gracious of God that all this is marked out for us, that we might not be dismayed or overborne by that in itself so startling, the spirit of evil yet unconquered and manifesting itself only the more, the more God’s grace is manifested! "The Spirit," then, "speaketh expressly that in the latter days some shall apostatize from the faith." We have not here exactly, as in Thessalonians, the fully organized apostasy. It is the individual, rather, and in that way so soon to manifest itself. The faith is here what is struck at in the first place, as it is, as we know, the foundation of all. Other things will follow; and if the faith can be destroyed, the fruits of faith will of necessity follow. Men may make, as they are making now, light of doctrine. Satan is wiser, and, with all this, while he encourages it, is only making manifest his own estimation of doctrine. He knows how to exalt morality at its expense, and to be here, apparently, the angel of light contending for righteousness. Only, in fact, his lies begin with a doctrine which his followers must receive, and in which all is found for the accomplishment of that which it is in his heart to accomplish. Apostasy from the faith will be found always to be the "giving heed to deceiving spirits, and teachings of demons," although there may be times in which this may be palpable, and, as the darkness increases, demonolatry may, and naturally will, become more openly in fashion. It is all about us today; by which we may judge of the darkness; but the apostle’s words are not to be limited to this. A certain homage to the truth, if we can call it so, is found in these lies in hypocrisy. Evil has to put on the form of godliness, and is a successful imitator of that for which it can be no substitute. The conscience is, in fact, being seared at the same time that there is the utmost pretence of following it, and of something higher than even ordinary Christianity itself can produce. Of this character is the "forbidding to marry," and "bidding to abstain from meats," an asceticism which puts Stylites upon his pillar, and is a real satisfaction of the flesh, abhorrent to Him whose delight is that His creatures should freely enjoy that which He has created to be received with thanksgiving. Self-denial is, of course, all well, when there are interests to be served by it, and which make it, therefore, to be really this; but this is the mere caricature, the aping of self-denial, not the reality. It is plainly nothing like what you find in Christ at all, in whose presence there was a rejoicing as of the men of the bride-chamber in the Bridegroom come. Christianity has now, therefore, removed even the restrictions of Judaism, and justified God in His creation of every creature as good. The Jewish restrictions had, as we know, their typical significance, and were shadows for the time -not even then the very image of the true. The word of God thus sanctifies the reception of all that He has made for us and put into our hands; and it is the mere part of unbelief to refuse anything. With this reception there is, of necessity, that which is the acknowledgment of our dependence upon Him which all this implies, and of our need that He should make it to us that which He has ordained it for. Our very food is not sanctified to us, does not rightly become our own for Christian use, except by prayer.
2. The apostle goes on now to exhort, in view of all this, that everything that is not sanctified by the word of God should be refused. There must be no speculation, no dreaming outside the Word, nothing which would bring in uncertainty. We must walk amid realities, in the light of ascertained truth. In putting the brethren in remembrance of these things, Timothy would be a good minister of Jesus Christ, himself nourished with the words of the faith and of good doctrine, which he had fully followed up; for in all doctrine there must be that which ministers to the need of the soul, in order that there may be the fruit from it also for which it is intended. He was to avoid, therefore, "profane and old wives’ fables," the merely speculative and the profane never being far apart; in fact, lacking in the very beginning of it the sobriety of mind which finds all-sufficient the revelation of God, and distrusts all human ability to transcend it. Piety was to be sought, and to this he was to exercise himself, the body being but a small part of it here, and the exercise of it being profitable for a little, but piety profitable for everything; having promise of the present life and of that which is to come. It is plain that even the Lord’s words as to the losing of one’s life in this world are not contradictory to what the apostle says here. A path with the light of heaven upon it, whatever be the path itself, must be a bright one; and God has amply provided for this. Happiness, indeed, is the only thing that will satisfy Him.
Faithful is this word and worthy of all acceptation: even the laboring and striving because of hope in a living God grows out of faith in One who is the Preserver of all men, especially of those who believe. The character of a Saviour-God for all is here again, as we have found it before in the epistle. Sin has brought in all the distress there is, all the hardship, all the straits and limitations. In these we are not called to rejoice, save only as indeed God works by them to give us the necessary lessons of our schooling time’ but His glorious, beneficial love is that which we are called to believe in, and to see everywhere thus, whatever may be the appearances.
These things, then, Timothy was to command and teach. Youthful as he might be, he was to allow no one to despise him on that account. His own growth and maturity in the Word were to be manifest, as well as all the moral character which attaches to this. He was to give himself to exhortation, to teaching, developing by using the gift which had been given to him. He was not to neglect that which was in him. How many do this, perhaps by the false humility which would make the gift to be but little -false, because the smallest gift from God is not to be despised, and contains in it a germ which may indefinitely grow, if only God is served in it. In Timothy’s case this gift had been given through prophecy, with the laying on of hands of the eldership. It was not the laying on of hands that communicated the gift, although it owned it, no doubt. The gift was given through prophecy, the voice of God announcing it, as prophecy means here as elsewhere. He had thus a special place which none of us can now pretend to; but with all this there is only the more need of recognition of how dependent he was upon the thing upon which we too are dependent. His gift did not release him from that which Christianity imposes upon all. He was to occupy himself with these things that he ministered, to be wholly in them -an immense point, as he declares, for a progress which was to be made manifest to all. There is nothing for power like real occupation, heart-occupation with our own things. We are relieved from the pressure of things upon us, from the cares which fret away the good of life. The things eternal assuming their proper place with us, nothing that is of time can be a real hindrance. To these things, then, he had to take heed, and to the teaching; himself not alone being concerned in them, he would both save himself (that is, in the working out salvation after the manner we have seen in Philippians) and those also who heard him.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v7 1 Timothy
1 Timothy
SPIRITUAL ATHLETICS
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1Ti 4:7.
Timothy seems to have been not a very strong character: sensitive, easily discouraged, and perhaps with a constitutional tendency to indolence. At all events, it is very touching to notice how the old Apostle--a prisoner, soon to be a martyr--forgot all about his own anxieties and burdens, and, through both of his letters to his young helper, gives himself to the task of bracing him up. Thus he says to him, in my text, amongst other trumpet-tongued exhortations, ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness.’
If I were preaching to ministers, I should have a good deal to say about the necessity of this precept for them, and to remind them that it was first spoken, not to a private member of the Church, as an injunction for the Christian life in general, but as having a special bearing on the temptations and necessities of those who stand in official positions in the Church. For there is nothing that is more likely to sap a man’s devotion, and to eat out the earnestness and sincerity of a Christian life, than that he should be--as I, for instance, and every man in my position has to be--constantly occupied with presenting God’s Word to other people. We are apt to look upon it as, in some sense, our stock-in-trade, and to forget to apply it to ourselves. So it was with a very special bearing on the particular occupation and temptation of his correspondent that Paul said ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness’ before you begin to talk to other people.
But that would not be appropriate to my present audience. And I take this injunction as one of universal application.
I. Notice, then, here expressed the ever-present and universal aim of the Christian life.
Paul does not say ‘be godly’; but ‘exercise thyself unto’--with a view towards--’godliness.’ In other words, to him godliness is the great aim which every Christian man should set before him as the one supreme purpose of his life.
Now I am not going to spend any time on mere verbal criticism, but I must point to the somewhat unusual word which the Apostle here employs for ‘godliness.’ It is all but exclusively confined to these last letters of the Apostle. It was evidently a word that had unfolded the depth and fulness and comprehensiveness of its meaning to him in the last stage of his religious experience. For it is only once employed in the Acts of the Apostles, and some two or three times in the doubtful second Epistle of St. Peter. And all the other instances of its use lie in these three letters--the one to Titus and two to Timothy; and eight of them are in this first one. The old Apostle keeps perpetually recurring to this one idea of ‘godliness.’ What does he mean by it? The etymological meaning of the word is ‘well-directed reverence,’ but it is to be noticed that the context specifically points to one form of well-directed reverence, viz. as shown in conduct. ‘Active godliness’ is the meaning of the word; religion embodied in deeds, emotions, and sentiments, and creeds, put into fact.
This noble and pregnant word teaches us, first of all, that all true religion finds its ultimate sphere and best manifestation in the conduct of daily life. That sounds like a platitude. I wish it were. If we believed that, and worked it out, we should be very different people from what the most of us are; and our chapels would be very different places, and the professing Church would have a new breath of life over it. Religion must have its foundation laid deep in the truths revealed by God for our acceptance. And does God tell us anything simply that we may believe it, and there an end? What is the purpose of all the principles and facts which make up the body of the Christian revelation? To enlighten us? Yes! To enlighten us only? A hundred times no! The destination of a principle, of a truth, is to pass out from the understanding into the whole nature of man.
And if, as I said, the foundation of religion is laid in truths, principles, facts, the second story of the building is certain emotions, sentiments, feelings, desires, and affections, and ‘experiences’--as people call them--which follow from the acceptance of these truths and principles. And is that all? A thousand times no! What do we get the emotions for? What does God give you a Revelation of Himself for, that kindles your love if you believe it? That you may love? Yes! Only that you may love? Certainly not. And so the top story is conduct, based upon the beliefs, and inspired by the emotions.
In former centuries, the period between the Reformation and our fathers’ time, the tendency of the Protestant Church was very largely to let the conception of religion as a body of truths overshadow everything else. And nowadays, amongst a great many people, the temptation is to take the second story for the main one, and to think that if a man loves, and has the glow at his heart of the conscious reception of God’s love, and has longings and yearnings, and Christian hopes and desires, and passes into the sweetnesses of communion with God, in his solitary moments, and plunges deep into the truths of God’s Word, that is godliness. But the true exhortation to us is--Do not stop with putting in the foundations of a correct creed, nor at the second stage of an emotional religion. Both are needful. Number one and number two are infinitely precious, but both exist for number three. And true religion has its sphere in conduct. ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness.’ That does not mean only --for it does include that--cultivate devout emotions, or realise the facts and the principles of the Gospel, but it means, take these along with you into your daily life, and work them out there. Bring all the facts and truths of your creed, and all the sweet and select, the secret and sacred, emotions which you have felt, to bear upon your daily life. The soil in which the tree grows, and the roots of the tree, its stem and its blossoms, are all means to the end--fruit. What is the use of the clearest conceptions, and of the most tender, delicate, holy emotions, if they do not drive the wheels of action? God does not give us the Gospel to make us wise, nor even to make us blessed, but He gives it to us to make us good men and women, working His work in our daily tasks. All true religion has its sphere in conduct.
But then there is another side to that. All true conduct must have its root in religion, and I, for my part--though of course it is extremely ‘narrow’ and ‘antiquated’ to profess it--I, for my part, do not believe that in the long-run, and in general, you will get noble living apart from the emotions and sentiments which the truths of Christianity, accepted and fed upon, are sure to produce. And so this day, with its very general depreciation of the importance of accurate conceptions of revealed truth, and its exaltation of conduct, is on the verge of a very serious error. Godliness, well-directed reverence, is the parent of all noble living, and the one infallible way to produce a noble life is faith in Christ, and love which flows from the faith.
If all that is so, if godliness is, not singing psalms, not praying, not saying ‘How sweet it is to feel the love of God,’ still less saying ‘I accept the principles of Christianity as they are laid down in the Bible’; but carrying out beliefs and emotions in deeds, then the true aim which we should have continually before us as Christians is plain enough. We may not reach it completely, but we can approximate indefinitely towards it. Aim is more important than achievement. Direction is more vital in determining the character of a life than progress actually made. Note the form of the exhortation, ‘exercise thyself towards godliness,’ which involves the same thought as is expressed in Paul’s other utterance of irrepressible aspiration and effort, ‘Not as if I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after,’ or as he had just said, ‘press towards the mark,’ in continual approximation to the ideal. A complete penetration of all our actions by the principles and emotions of the Gospel is what is set before us here.
And that is the only aim that corresponds to what and where I am and to what I need. I fall back upon the grandly simple old words, very dear to some of us, perhaps, by boyish associations, ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and {so} to enjoy Him for ever.’ ‘Unto Godliness’ is to be the aim of every true life, and it is the only aim which corresponds to our circumstances and our relations, our powers and possibilities.
II. Notice the discipline which such an aim demands.
‘Exercise thyself.’ Now, I have no doubt that the bulk of my hearers know that the word here rendered ‘exercise’ is drawn from the athlete’s training-ground, and is, in fact, akin to the word which is transported into English under the form ‘gymnasium.’ The Apostle’s notion is that, just as the athlete, racer, or boxer goes through a course of training, so there is a training as severe, necessary for the godliness which Paul regards as the one true aim of life.
You Christian people ought to train your spirits at least as carefully as the athlete does his muscles. There are plenty of people, calling themselves Christians, who never give one-hundredth part as much systematic and diligent pains to fulfil the ideal of their Christian life as men will take to learn to ride a bicycle or to pull the stroke oar in a college boat. The self-denial and persistence and concentration which are freely spent upon excellence in athletic pursuits might well put to shame the way in which Christians go about the task of ‘doing’ their religion.
I suppose there never was a time, in England’s history at any rate, whatever it may have been in Greece, when modern instances might give more point to an old saw than to-day does for this text, when athletic sports of all kinds are taking up so much of the time and the energy of our young men. I do not want to throw cold water on that, but I do say it is a miserable thing to think that so many professing Christians will give a great deal more pains to learn to play lawn tennis than ever they did to learn to be good, Christian people.
‘Exercise thyself unto godliness.’ Make a business of living your Christianity. Be in earnest about it. A tragically large number of professing Christians never were in earnest about mending themselves. And that is why they are so far, far behind. ‘Exercise thyself.’ You say, How?
‘Well, I say, first of all, concentration. ‘This one thing I do.’ That does not mean narrowing, because this ‘one thing’ can be done by means of all the legitimate things that we have to do in the world. Next Friday, when you go on ‘Change, you can be exercising yourself to godliness there. Whatever may be the form of our daily occupation, it is the gymnasium where God has put us to exercise our muscles in, and so to gain ‘the wrestling thews that throw the world.’ ‘Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.’ The concentration for which I plead does not shut us out from any place but the devil’s wrestling-ground. All that is legitimate, all that is innocent, may be made a means for manifesting and for increasing our godliness. Only you have to take God with you into your life, and to try, more and more consciously, to make Him the motive-power of all that you do. Then the old saying which is profoundly true as it was originally meant, and has of late years been so misused as to become profoundly false, will be true again, ‘ Laborare est orare .’ Yes! it is; if worship underlies the work, but not else.
Again I say, exercise yourselves by abstinence. How many things did the athlete at Corinth do without in his training? How many things do prizefighters and rowing men do without when in training to-day? How rigidly, for a while at any rate, they abstain--whether they recompense themselves afterwards or not has nothing to do with my present purpose. And is it not a shame that some sensual man shall, for the sake of winning a medal or a cup, be able gladly to abandon the delights of sense--eating, drinking, and the like--and content himself with a hermit’s Spartan fare, and that Christian people so seldom, and so reluctantly, and so partially turn away from the poisoned cups and the indigestible dainties which the world provides for them? I think that any Christian man who complains of the things which he is shut out from doing if he is to cultivate the godliness which should be his life need only go to any place where horse-jockeys congregate to get a lesson that he may well lay to heart. ‘Exercise thyself,’ for it is unto godliness.
And then what I said in a former part of this sermon about the various stages of religion may suggest another view of the method of discipline proper to the Christian life. The strenuous exercise of all our powers is called for. But if it is true that the godliness of my text is the last outcome of the emotions which spring from the reception of certain truths, then if we work backwards, as it were, we shall get the best way of producing the godliness. That is to say, the main effort for all men who are in earnest in regard to their own growth in Christlikeness is to keep themselves in touch with the truths of the Gospel, and in the exercise of the sentiments and emotions which flow from these. Or, to put it into other words, the ‘gymnastic’ is to be, mainly, the man’s clinging, with all his might of mind and heart, to Christ, and the truths that are wrapped up in Him; and the cultivation of the habit of continual faith and love turned to that Lord. If I see to number one--the creed, and to number two--the emotions, they will see to number three--the conduct. Keep the truths of the Gospel well in your minds, and keep yourselves well in the attitude of contact with Jesus Christ, and power for life will come into you. But if the fountain is choked, the bed of the stream will be dry. They tell us that away up in Abyssinia there form across the bed of one of the branches of the Nile great fields of weed. And as long as they continue unbroken the lower river is shrunken. But when the stream at the back of them bursts its way through them, then come the inundations down in Egypt, and bring fertility. And there are hundreds of professing Christians whose fields lie barren and baked in the sunshine, because they have stopped with weeds, far away up amongst the hills, the stream that would water them. Clear out the weeds, and the water will do the rest.
And ‘exercise thyself unto godliness’ by keeping the crown and the prize often and clear in view. ‘Paul the aged’ in this very letter says: ‘I have finished my course, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of glory.’ He had said, in the midst of the strife: ‘Not as though I had already attained--I press toward the mark for the prize.’ And the prize which gleamed before him through all the dust of the arena now shone still more brightly when his hand had all but clasped it. If we desire to ‘run with perseverance the race that is set before us’ we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and see in Him, not only the Rewarder, but the Reward, of the ‘exercise unto godliness.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Various Directions and Exhortations
Various Directions and Exhortations
1-10. A return to, and emphatic reiteration of, the first charge to Timothy (1Ti_1:3-20) against heterodoxy and in favour of true godliness. This form of heterodoxy which he would have to oppose was an asceticism which taught that there was merit in abstaining from meats, and forbade conjugal intercourse as on a lower moral level than celibacy.
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1. The Spirit speaketh (RV 'saith')] possibly in some definite prophecy of OT., or of our Lord, or of the Apostles, but more probably in the general prophetic testimony of the Church, and particularly in the present and former words of St. Paul himself (cp. Act_20:29). In the latter times] RV 'in later times.'
2. Seared] RV 'branded.' Their consciences were not made incapable of feeling, but false principles were burnt into them.
3. From meats] cp. Col_2:16.;
4. If we partake of food and accept other such blessings with gratitude to the Giver, which naturally shows itself in words of thanksgiving, that food and those blessings are thereby hallowed to us; so that it is not only a mistake, but a sin, to refuse them.
6. Minister] The word diaconus is still used in its general sense (cp. Eph_3:7) as well as specifically (1Ti_3:8).
7. Old wives' fables] such as those which are recorded in the apocryphal books of the 2nd cent., and became the mythology of the Middle Ages.
8. We are to train the body and exercise self-denial, which will help us to control our lower nature, and is often necessary to be practised that we may help others. It is 'profitable for a little' (RV)—that is, up to a certain point—as it is a help towards, and a part of, piety; but it does not lay up merit for us, and it does not procure for us the blessedness which is the promised result of piety in this and in the future life.
9. This v. is parenthetical.
There was a Christian 'saying, the Apostle reminds Timothy, to the same effect as what he had written in the last verse.
10. For] This word refers us back to the promise of the future life in 1Ti_4:8 : 'For,' says the Apostle, 'it is in hope of the future salvation, offered by God to all and attained by believers, that we bear toil and suffering.'
11-16. Sixth charge to Timothy—personal to himself.
12. Thy youth] Timothy was probably at this time between 35 and 40—an early age to be placed over other presbyters, all of whom were comparatively elderly men, as St. Paul's deputy. St. Paul was called a young man when his age was about the same (Act_7:58).
13. Reading.. exhortation.. doctrine] i.e. the public reading of Scripture in church and sermons hortative and doctrinal.
14. By prophecy] through the medium of prophecy: cp. Act_13:1-2 for a parallel. This is a second reference to Timothy's ordination, and we see that in it the 'prophets' (preachers), presbyters, and St. Paul took part (1Ti_1:18; 2Ti_1:6). It is probably owing to this precedent that the presbytery alone, or in association with the bishop, according to the form of Church polity in use, has to do with laying hands on a presbyter at his ordination.
16. Thou shalt.. save] i.e. be the salvation of, or the means of, saving.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 mystery (See Scofield "Mat 13:11").
mystery (See Scofield "Mat 13:11").
angels (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
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world kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. What the Spirit has predicted (1Ti 4:1-5)
IV. CONCERNING THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY
CHAPTER 4
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1. What the Spirit has predicted (1Ti 4:1-5)
2. The remedies against apostasy (1Ti 4:6-16)
1Ti 4:1-5
The mystery of godliness having been mentioned, the apostle speaks of Satan’s power in opposition to the faith and truth of God (the mystery of godliness here, and the mystery of iniquity in 2 Thessalonians). “But the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.” It is a prophetic warning. Paul had given a similar warning to the Ephesian elders gathered at Miletus a number of years before, and elsewhere in the New Testament the Holy Spirit gives the same warning concerning an apostasy in the future days. Inasmuch as the faith is the foundation upon which everything rests, Satan aims to destroy this first, knowing if faith is given up and the truth of God denied, that he, the master-mind, can easily introduce his seducing spirits and substitute for the faith, demon doctrines.
All this is fully evidenced in our days, the latter times which are the perilous times (2Ti 3:1). The mystery of godliness, the doctrine of Christ, is being increasingly denied and rejected by seducing spirits, active in systems like the destructive criticism, Unitarianism, the New Theology and others. And in “Christian Science,” Spiritism, Mormonism and other “cults” we find the very doctrines of demons. Anyone who rejects the mystery of godliness, no matter what else he may put in its place, has departed from the faith and becomes the prey of seducing spirits who lead him on to destruction and eternal ruin. And these seducers and seducing spirits, Satan’s ministers, appear as ministers of righteousness (2Co 11:15). They feign sanctity, “speaking lies in hypocrisy.” They teach the most deadly error under the cloak of piety, devotion and of deeper religious knowledge. Evil and error put on the form of truth and godliness. All this fits the different systems which claim to be “Christian,” but which are “anti-Christian.” They have seared, that is branded, consciences; claiming to lead others into righteousness and holiness while their consciences are defiled.
Two things are especially mentioned, “forbidding to marry” and “commanding to abstain from meats.” (The Roman Catholic Church forbids her priests to marry, and also commands her members to abstain from certain meats on certain days.) This austere asceticism was a pretension to superior piety. Men began to teach these heresies even in apostolic days. They developed later into systems like Gnosticism; and today we see the same principles advocated in theosophical and other occult movements. They forbid what God has established in creation, for marriage is an institution which God has sanctified, and to use that which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by them which believe and know the truth. They claimed that their superior holy character would not be consistent with marriage and eating meats.
“Forsaking the real and practical holiness of communion with God, and of His commandments by Christ, they created a false sanctity for themselves, which denied that which God had ordained from the beginning, and thus exalted themselves against the authority of Him who had ordained it, as though He was an imperfect or perhaps evil being” (Synopsis of the Bible).
The Spirit of God through Paul assures us that any creature of God is good, and nothing to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. If that which God has made for the creature for its use is refused and rejected, it is sin. But all that the Creator has provided must be received from Him with thanksgiving, and the acknowledgment of a dependence upon Him. Prayer is needed for that, to sanctify to our use what He has so graciously given.
1Ti 4:6-13
The rest of the chapter consists of exhortations in view of the threatening apostasy, how these evils may be combated and remedied. If Timothy put the saints of God in remembrance of these things, he would be a good minister (deacon) of Jesus Christ, and be continually nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine. To remember the apostolic instructions and to maintain by them faith and good doctrine effectually counteracts error and the doctrines of demons. Then profane and old wives’ fables must be avoided and refused, We have an all-sufficient revelation of God; speculative things of the human mind intruding into things unseen (Col 2:18), following the theories, imaginations and traditions of men, only lead away from godliness, and lead from foolish questionings into that which is profane. (A believer has no business to investigate Spiritism, Theosophy, or occupy his mind with things not made known in the Word of God. We must avoid these things, refuse to have anything to do with them, else we step upon the territory of the enemy, and lay ourselves open to his attacks.)
The true exercise must be unto godliness, pious, consecrated living; and the true exercise is self-judgment, maintaining a good conscience and communion with God. Bodily exercise by erratic living, abstaining from meats and other things, profits but little. It is far different with true godliness. It is profitable for everything, both in this life and that to come. This is another faithful word and worthy of all acceptation (1:15). And for this doctrine the apostle labored and suffered reproach; but he had faith in the living God, who as Saviour-God, by His power and providence, sustains all men. He is the preserver of all men, but especially of those who believe. As Creator He is the preserver and benefactor of all men; but for those who believe He is much more than that. In this God as Creator and Saviour, preserver and keeper, the believer trusts. “These things command and teach.” It is another remedy against the seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. None should despise his youth. Timothy was very young when he joined Paul (Act 16:1-3), and now after some eleven years he was still youthful, especially in comparison with Paul the aged. He urges him to be in his life and walk a model of the believers--in word, in conduct, in faith and in purity.
These are the evidences of true piety and holding sound doctrine. Then as to himself and his service, till Paul came, he was to give himself to reading, which of course must mean the Holy Scriptures, to exhortation and to teaching. He was not to neglect the gift that had been bestowed upon him. In his case this gift was a direct bestowal of prophecy, the voice of the Spirit making it known (as in Act 13:1). The laying on of hands by the elders had not communicated the gift. It was the outward expression of fellowship with the gift imparted unto Timothy. This gift had to be used and developed like every other gift of the Spirit. A gift may be idle and neglected, but if rightly used it will grow and be used in blessing. To do all this and meditate in these things, be whole-hearted in them, progressing constantly in godliness, is a safeguard against all error. “Take heed to thyself and the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.” Some have perverted this instruction as if it meant the salvation of the soul, for eternal salvation. It has nothing to do with eternal life and salvation. This the believer has in Christ through grace. “Save” has here the same meaning as in Philippians, a present salvation from the dangers in the way, being saved from error.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 The False Doctrines of the Last Days and Their…
The False Doctrines of the Last Days and Their Refutation.
v. 1. 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;
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v. 2. speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
v. 3. 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.
v. 4. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving;
v. 5. for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.
Just as the apostle had begun this section of his letter with a warning against errorists, so he also closes it with a specific reference to some of the most dangerous doctrines of the last days: But the Spirit says distinctly that in the latter times certain men will apostatize from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and to doctrines of demons. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of prophecy, who transmits the divine revelations, was especially active in the early days of the Christian Church, also by unveiling the future and thereby conveying warnings to the believers. In this case the Spirit, probably through the mouth of one of the prophets among the disciples, or through a revelation made to Paul personally, had expressly, with distinct words, declared that there would be a falling away from the truth in times to come. After the first love of the apostolic days had died down, many Christians remained with the congregations only for conventional reasons, just as many do in our days. But in addition to that, men would actually apostatize from the faith, would fall away from the sound doctrine of the Gospel. How extensively this was fulfilled is seen in the case of the great number of anti-Christian sects that have arisen in the very midst of the Church. Although many of these men were brought up in the true faith, they have deliberately denied it by giving heed and assent to the spirits of error, to such teachers as have not only left the paths of truth for their own persons, but are also making every endeavor to lead others astray. Spirits of error the apostle calls the false teachers, because they have yielded to, and are driven by, the spirit of lying and deceit. Therefore their doctrines are also called teachings of demons, the evil spirits themselves being the originators of their false ideas, of their perversion of the truth.
The apostle continues to characterize the errorists: in hypocrisy speaking lies, being branded in their own conscience. With a fine show of piety and interest in the welfare of men the demons, or rather the false prophets actuated by them, teach lies. The insidiousness of the temptation therefore consists in this, that it bears the appearance of godliness. See Mat 7:15; 2Co 11:14. Such people are fully conscious of the fact that they are working harm with their hypocritical conduct, but they have branded, seared, their own conscience; they bear the knowledge of their guilt and culpability around with them at all times. The more actively they carry on their propaganda for their false doctrines, the more deeply they drive the hot iron into their conscience. Yet they harden their hearts and are finally lost with their false doctrines.
The apostle now enumerates some of the errors which would be taught in the very midst of the Church: Forbidding to marry and (commanding) to abstain from foods which the Lord has created for enjoyment on the part of them that believe and acknowledge the truth. The state of holy wedlock is God’s ordinance and institution, and it is His will that the average normal adult person enter into this state. But certain false teachers did not hesitate to pervert even this order of God by prohibiting marriage, by denying men and women the right and the duty of entering into holy wedlock. But their insolent arrogance did not stop there, since the same teachers also had the temerity to issue orders that men must abstain from certain foods. Not only meats were included in this commandment of men, but foods of every kind. The apostle’s judgment of the false teachers, therefore, is sharp, for he calls such teaching doctrine of devils, proclamation of lies. If we take the characterization of the apostle as a whole, it certainly applies, so far as deliberate lying, doctrines of men, the prohibition of marriage and of foods is concerned, to the Church of Rome. As one commentator has it: "There can be no doubt of its applicability to the papal communion. The entire series of doctrines respecting the authority of the Pope, purgatory, the Mass, the invocation of the saints, the veneration of relics, the seven sacraments, the authority of tradition, the doctrine of merit, etc. , is regarded as false. Indeed, the system could not be better characterized than by saying that it is a system speaking lies. ’ The entire scheme attempts to palm falsehood upon the world in the place of the simple teaching of the New Testament."
In refuting the false doctrine, the apostle says of the foods, first of all, that God has created them for the use and enjoyment, with thanksgiving, of those that believe and know the truth. The believers, those that know the truth, those that, by the grace of God, have come to the understanding of the truth of the Gospel and have made this truth their confession: they alone receive the gifts of God in the right spirit, namely, with thanksgiving with a heart that acknowledges Him as the Giver of all good things. It is true, indeed, that God lets His sun rise upon the evil and upon the just, and sends rain upon the good and upon the bad, but the only people that accept His goodness in the right spirit are the believers, who, in Christian liberty, make no distinction in foods and do not believe in false asceticism.
The Christians know, as the apostle writes: For every creature of God is good, and nothing objectionable that is accepted with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer. Here is a definite rejection of the errorist position as to foods. Everything that God has created, everything that His almighty power has brought into being, is good, is excellent even by virtue of its being a product of His goodness. Everything that God has intended for food should then be regarded as such and not prohibited as useless, dangerous, and sinful It all depends upon the manner of acceptance, for if the heart of him that receives the gift is full of ungrateful, sinful thoughts, if he does not accept the goodness of God with thanksgiving, then the purpose of the Creator in donating the gifts is not fully realized. Luther’s explanation of the Fourth Petition shows that he really grasped the meaning of this verse: "We pray in this petition that God would teach us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. " So far as God is concerned, His gifts are indeed not influenced by the conduct of those that receive them, but so far as men are concerned, their behavior in accepting the gifts and their use of God’s blessings make a big difference indeed. He that makes use of any of God’s gifts, including food and drink, only for the gratification of sinful desires, thereby profanes these blessings. On the other hand, the grateful acceptance of the gifts of God by the Christians with the Word of God and with prayer is a consecration of these blessings. Undoubtedly the apostle here had in mind the prayers at meat, which are usually clothed in Bible language, and which always make mention of the dependence of man upon the Creator, the Giver of every good gift This spirit of the Christians incidentally keeps them from despising and abusing any blessing that comes down from above. The errorists with their prohibition of foods can gain no foothold in a congregation where this knowledge is still held.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul tells Timothy what the Spirit says will happen and encourages him in what he should teach.
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Now
This word is used here to mark a break in the main teaching. Here Paul starts to tell a new part of the teaching.
in later times
Possible meanings are 1) this refers to a time after Paul dies or 2) this is at a latter time in Paul's own life.
leave the faith
Paul speaks of people ceasing to trust in Christ as if they were physically leaving a place or an object. AT: "stop trusting in Jesus" (See: Metaphor)
and pay attention
"and give attention" or "because they are paying attention"
deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons
"spirits who trick people and the things that demons teach"
demons in lying hypocrisy
This can be stated as a new sentence. AT: "demons. These people will be hypocrites and speak lies"
Their own consciences will be branded
Possible meanings are 1) Paul is speaking of people who can no longer tell that they are doing wrong as if their minds are ruined like skin that someone has burned with a hot iron or 2) Paul is speaking of these people as if Satan had put a mark on these people with a hot iron to indicate that they belong to him. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Holy Spirit
faith
deceive
demon
teach
hypocrite
conscience
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 6 4:1-5 Paul’s sound teaching (3:16) contrasts with the false…
4:1-5 Paul’s sound teaching (3:16) contrasts with the false teachings that he denounces.
4:1 The early church regarded itself as already in the last times (see Acts 2:16-17; Heb 1:2; cp. 2 Thes 2:7; 1 Jn 2:18-23).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.