1 Timothy 4:1-6: Faith Departure
2021-10-16
Verses 1-2
After hearing about the qualification of elders and deacons, the church being the foundation of truth, and the Lord Jesus being the incarnate God who ascended to heaven, we are brought to a warning. This warning is from the Spirit, and He says so “expressly,” or clearly.
The question we have is, what does it mean when the Spirit says, “the latter times”? We know for a fact that we live in the “last days” because the Bible tells us so: “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:2). If it were the “last days” in the first century, then it is safe to say that nearly 2,000 years later we are in the last days! Here, we do not see the same phrase here; the word “latter” is employed instead. The word is only used here. One gets the sense that he is talking about his day as well as our day, because Paul gives Timothy commands accordingly considering this stark warning.
What is the warning? Some shall depart from the faith. They will fall away. They will leave church and do their own thing. They will succumb to “seducing spirits”; these demonic forces will drive them away from the truth. Consider the antichrists of 1 John 2:18-19. The origin of their falling away is from the forces of darkness. They were never “of us”; otherwise, they would “have continued with us.”
They follow “doctrines of devils.” They do not teach what the Lord teaches; their teaching comes from Satan. They teach what is very fleshly, as we shall see (cf. Hebrews 13:9). They would be “speaking lies in hypocrisy” (1 Timothy 4:2). They teach things that are not true, but they do not practice what they teach anyway.
They have “their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2). Their moral conscience has become numb. They are sociopathic or psychopathic. This is the sign of a reprobate mind. Let us consider a few Scriptures on what it is to be one who has departed from the faith or has the conscience seared.
Hebrews 6:1-12. Here, Paul (or possibly another author; not everyone agrees on who wrote Hebrews) is speaking to an audience of Hebrews that have become “dull of hearing” (Hebrews 5:11). They are confused on a lot of the fundamentals and are not growing in knowledge (Hebrews 6:1-2). Paul and others are willing to go over these fundamentals again but are cautious in doing so. If they are not getting it, is it because they are hardened toward it? The author is wondering this to some degree.
Paul says that it is impossible for an unsaved person to completely understand the Gospel and all its implications and reject it, but then come crawling back to Christ to be truly saved. This person was not truly saved in the past; this is someone who knew all the facts intellectually but was never regenerated. They were enlightened, they tasted how wonderful the things of Christ are, they heard the Spirit speaking to them and were convicted, they saw marvelous things in the Word of God, and yet fell away from it all (Hebrews 6:4-5). They cannot ever get saved for real (Hebrews 6:6).
Paul gives a further explanation through an analogy. The plants that bear fruits receive the blessing of God (Hebrews 6:7). The plants that bear thorns are rejected and burned (Hebrews 6:8). They may both be plants, but only one bears the fruit of salvation. Paul says he has confidence in the recipients of the letter, because he sees “things that accompany salvation” (Hebrews 6:9) in their lives including labors of love and ministering to the saints (Hebrews 6:10). He encouraged them to continue in the hope until the very end.
Acts 18-19. An example is in the city of Ephesus. When Paul first visited there, there was a general consensus that they wanted him to stay and continue to preach (Acts 18:20). Apollos preached there afterward, though imperfectly at first (Acts 18:26). Paul returned to preach there again, in Acts 19:8-9, some of them were hardened and lashed out at Paul.
Paul also had concerns about the Galatians (Galatians 4:11) and the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 13:5), because they seemed to be rejecting the pure Gospel message he brought to them in favor of doctrine from false apostles.
Romans 1 also shows the gradual giving over to a reprobate mind (Romans 1:28-32). People reject God, and the more they reject God, the more God gives them over to their desires and a reprobate mind. They do the most abominable things that seem inhuman.
Verse 3-5
In 1 Timothy 4:3-5, we see some specific doctrines that such apostate groups were/are teaching. The first is that these apostates teach that one should not get married. In the Bible, I could only think of one time where someone was forbidden to marry, and that was the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 16:2). The reason was that the land was going to be destroyed and having a family during that turmoil would be very terrible. Other servants of the Lord sometimes were single by choice (such as Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:7-8; see also Matthew 19:9-12). Most other prophets and apostles had wives (1 Corinthians 9:5; Ezekiel 24:18; Abraham had Sarah, Moses had Zipporah, etc.). The only other case may be the 144,000 in Revelation 14:4.
That said, Jeremiah is the only one who was ever forbidden to marry in the whole Bible, and possibly the 144,000, but both cases would be because of harrowing times in which they lived. There is no reason to command someone to stay single. First Corinthians 7 gives the case why staying single is the better life considering Christian ministry, but never forbids it (1 Corinthians 7:1-2). Any religion that says, “You must not get married,” is a cult originating from the same spirit as these false teachers mentioned in 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
The other restriction is dietary laws. There are dietary restrictions in the Old Testament. They were for a certain time in the Bible only. This must be discussed because adversaries of Christianity love to bring up these dietary restrictions, and then point out so-called “hypocrisy” in Christians. You might point out certain things are “abominations” and then they will tell you that eating shellfish is also an “abomination.”
It might sound tedious to go through this study on the dietary laws, but because this is used against us, we need to discuss it in some detail.
In Genesis 9:2-3 says, “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things” (Genesis 9:2-3). Previously, only plants were given to humankind for food (Genesis 1:29). The passage in Genesis 9:2-3 tells us that eating animal meat is something new (“even as the green herb have I given you all things”). You do not see any restriction on types of animals that could be eaten. There may have been unclean birds (Genesis 7:2), but clean birds were for sacrifices by implication (Genesis 8:20). Nothing of diet is mentioned in that context.
In Leviticus 11, we see a list of animals that can be eaten. Others listed are “unclean unto you” or “an abomination unto you.” Note the phrase “unto you.” Note they are not unclean or abominations in themselves; the Israelites are to consider these animals unclean and abominations. Deuteronomy 14 uses the same phrase.
Like many of the carnal ordinances of the Old Testament, this word picture has a purpose. We see explicitly the difference it is trying to teach in Acts 10:9-16. The unclean animals represent the nations of the world in Peter’s vision. Since then, God had “broken down the middle wall of partition” between Gentiles and Jews. Gentiles could be saved without adopting the Jewish Law. The word picture of the clean and unclean animals is eliminated. God made the Gentiles “clean.”
Those who hang on to the dietary laws doubtlessly hang on to the distinction between Jew and Gentile. They say that the carnal ordinances (Hebrews 9:10) of the Law still need to be followed. The result is a carnal religion that will be works-based and merit-based.
The food that these people reject was “created to be received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:3). God provided food for us. Whatever He provides, we must thank Him for it. If the previously declared unclean food is what He gives us, that is what we shall be eating.
It should “be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” We as believers know that there is nothing magical about this or that type of meat. Jesus told us that meat does not make anyone unclean (Matthew 7:18-23). It is what comes out of a man’s heart that does so! This is the truth that the Spirit refers to here.
Since the Lord created all creatures, “every creature of God is good” (1 Timothy 4:4). The key is thanksgiving. He provided the food; we thank Him for it, regardless of what it is.
“For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:5). This is another reason we pray before we eat our food.