Berean Study Bible
Warnings against False Teachers
1Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, 2influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.
3They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected, 5because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
"some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, 2influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron." This is hard for a believer in Christ to imagine.
Guzik states:
i. Paul here refers to the ancient practice of branding a criminal on the forehead with a distinguishing mark. For these, it was not their forehead that was branded with a hot iron, but their conscience instead.
ii. "They bear the marks of their hypocrisy as evidently and as indelibly in their conscience in the sight of God, as those who have been cauterized for their crimes do in their bodies in the sight of men." (Clarke)
"3They will prohibit marriage". This describes the legalistic teaching of those who have departed from the faith. They taught that it was by following this list of man-made rules that one was justified in God's sight - that you would be more holy to God if you didn't marry, and if you did not eat certain foods.
"require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth." Peters vision of a white sheet coming down from heaven was clear and so was Jesus' statement on what defiles a man. David
God is the creator! Yes He created everything.
Regarding what we eat, we can eat all things. We receive things rightly when we receive them with thanksgiving, with an abiding sense of gratitude towards God. We receive the blessings of food, shelter, and comfort as gifts, and not as rights.
Many today believe healthcare is a right. But if you accepted your healthcare as a gift from God would our nation as a whole be better off?
Go deeper: http://biblehub.com/commentaries/guzik/1_timothy/4.htm
Blessings, David
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