Forbidden Bible Verses — 1 Timothy 4:1-5

The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.

Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.

Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

1 Timothy 4:1-5

Some Will Depart from the Faith

4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, ² through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, ³ who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, ⁵ for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

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Last week’s post discussed Paul’s verses on the mystery of Godliness, with its six truths about Jesus Christ.

These verses, which immediately follow, discuss apostasy. Paul commanded Timothy to rid the churches in Ephesus and surrounds from the false teachers springing up in the congregations.

Matthew Henry’s commentary says the two passages fit together:

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 …

We continue to be surprised when people we thought were believers fall away from the faith. However, this has been true since Old Testament times. There are also people who continue to go to church and are active in their respective congregations who do not really believe in Christ. They look the part and act the part but their hearts do not belong to Him.

Paul tells Timothy that the Holy Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons (verse 1).

Here is the verse in Matthew Henry’s version of the Bible (emphases mine below):

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;

Sin is seductive. We have only to look at how Satan mentally seduced Eve, who then encouraged Adam to sin (Genesis 3):

The fall

3 Now the snake was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’

² The woman said to the snake, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”’

⁴ ‘You will not certainly die,’ the snake said to the woman. ⁵ ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Returning to 1 Timothy 4:1, Henry offers this analysis:

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 (Jude 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, 1 John 4 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, every one who pretends to the Spirit.

MacArthur says:

Scripture tells us, whether you’re looking at the history of Israel, or whether you’re dealing with the church, church history affirms it since the finish of the New Testament that there has always been a battleground between God and His truth and the devil and his lies. And that battleground is clearly drawn in Scripture, and the fight goes on constantly. God calls to people through the truth, and Satan with his demons tries to lure people away from truth with his hellish lies.

Now such activities as that were going on in Ephesus when Timothy was there. The presence of false teachers has already been indicated …

This is not anything new; the Holy Spirit has been saying this since the Spirit began giving Scripture in the Old Testament. There are injunctions in the Old Testament about apostasy. There are warnings in the Old Testament about people who would depart from the faith, about now all Israel being true Israel, not all Jews being genuine believing Jews, some of them having uncircumcised hearts, though they had circumcised themselves on the outside. The Spirit, through all of the centuries of redemptive history, has said there would be those who departed from the faith. There would be rebels within the camp of Israel. The prophet spoke of it, Daniel spoke of it, Ezekiel spoke of it; not an uncommon subject at all, rather distinctly and explicitly has the Spirit made such predictions.

In fact, we follow even into the New Testament and we sense how many have departed from the faith, and how the Lord warned that they would do that. In Matthew 24, “Many false Christs, many false prophets would come; they would deceive many, and many would leave the faith.” Mark 13:22 says basically the very same thing: “They would go away from the faith.”

The Scriptures indicate to us in 2 Thessalonians 2 that before the coming of Christ in glory there would be a massive departure from the faith. In 2 Peter, there will come in the last times mockers and scoffers abandoning the faith. Jude 18, the same thing. First John 2, the Antichrist will come. As a result there will be people who will go out from us; it will reveal they never were of us, but they will depart from the faith. In 1 John again, in chapter 4, there is a very straightforward mention that there are false prophets who are gone out into the world, and they will go out into the world and they will rest souls away to their own enterprise. So the Spirit has expressly, explicitly said this time and time again. And the present tense “is now speaking” means that what He is saying right now is part of the continuation of that Holy Spirit revelation …

Do I need to add as a footnote that all biblical revelation comes from the Holy Spirit? Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. That’s how Scripture was written, 2 Peter 1:21. All Scripture comes by the inspiration of God through His Spirit. So what he’s referring to when he says, “The Spirit is now speaking,” is Scripture. He has spoken, He is now speaking through this verse right here as Paul pens it, the very word of the Holy Spirit comes. The stream of Holy Spirit revelation about apostasy is flowing to Paul at this very moment.

MacArthur recaps what we have read so far in 1 Timothy:

Back in chapter 1, do you remember verses 3 to 7 where he discusses the fact that there were some teaching other doctrines, fables, endless genealogies? They were dealing with questions that did not edify. They thought they were teachers and desired to be teachers of the law, but didn’t understand anything that they were saying. Verses 18 to 20 tells us they were apostate, they had made shipwreck of the faith. They had departed from the truth, and they should be delivered to Satan to learn not to blaspheme in such a way.

So at the very outset of this epistle, Paul introduces the false teachers. Then after dealing in chapter 2 and 3 with some of the ramifications of their false teaching in the order of the church as related to men and women and church leaders, he then returns to the matter of the false teachers themselves in chapter 4. He has, as I said, dealt with their teaching and its implications in chapters 2 and 3, called for proper kind of leadership, proper kind of roles in the church, and now comes back to dealing with this issue of false teaching.

… there is biblical mandate, and there is eternal cause for the souls of men to deal with false teaching as such. The battle lines were drawn in Israel, they were drawn in the early church, they must be drawn today. And we like Timothy must be warned and instructed as to how to understand what is behind false teaching. It is demonic activity; that is very clear.

You remember that chapter 3 closed with a mention of truth. Verse 15, the church is the pillar and ground of truth. Verse 16, Christ, the mystery of godliness, God incarnate, the very embodiment of truth. And as Paul has spoken of the truth in the church and the truth in Christ, he thinks immediately of the lying counterattack against that truth; and so in chapter 4 launches into a discussion of the demonic force that comes against the truth. He is still dealing with Timothy’s role in the church, with the errors Timothy is facing and how they must be set right. The first five verses of chapter 4, he presents this apostasy, and then from verse 6 to 16 tells Timothy how to be the kind of man necessary to deal with it, how to have the strength to counterattack the attacks of Satan.

MacArthur explains a Greek word Paul used in that verse:

Some, not all; but some, like Judas, like Demas, like the disciples of John 6 who walk no more with Christ, there will be some, he says, who will. And he uses the verb aphistēmi, which gives us the word “apostate.” This form of the verb is apostēsontai, and it means “to depart from,” “to remove yourself from a former place,” “to remove yourself from the position you originally occupied to another place.” That is a purposeful, intentional, deliberate departure from a former position. It isn’t talking about an unintentional fall, it isn’t talking about somebody struggling with doubt; it is someone who deliberately dispossesses himself of truth once affirmed to depart for another teaching, abandoning a once affirmed faith.

Some will do that, he says, some will do it. The term “the faith” means Christian doctrine; not faith in the sense of Christian believing but “the faith” in the sense of the content of what we believe. Some will depart from true faith, from the faith, Jude 3 says, once for all delivered to the saints, the content of Holy Scripture. Defectors who understand, who outwardly affirm, who behave in a way that reflects such affirmation but who have not a heart for God, who rather have an unbelieving heart and under the seduction of demons will depart from the faith. Paul says, “Timothy, you must expect that. Some will do it, and you must know how to deal with it.”

Paul knew this would happen in Ephesus:

Back in Acts 20, long before this event, the writing of this epistle to Timothy, when he gathered with the Ephesian elders in verse 29, he said, “I know that after my departure grievous wolves shall enter in, and men who are perverse from among you will rise up and deceive many and lead them astray.” The Spirit had told him that years before in the inspiration of that very moment recorded in Acts chapter 20.

MacArthur gives us six features of apostasy:

Number one is their predictability, their predictability. We should not be shocked. We should not be surprised. We should be ready to recognize apostasy, it is predictable. Verse 1: “But,” – is a better translation of the word de – “but the Spirit is now saying” – present tense – “explicitly that” – goes on to say – “some shall depart from the faith.” In other words, “This is the result of the conflict, and the Spirit has said it would happen.” It is absolutely predictable …

Secondly, in understanding the apostates, we have to look at their chronology. When will this happen? He says in verse 1, “In the latter times, in the latter seasons.” When is this? Is this a long time in the future? When is the latter times? Well, we need only to reflect on the Scripture to answer that question …

We are living then in the last times. “My little children, it is the last days now.” It is the time of Messiah, He has already come. He is now building His kingdom in the hearts of men, and will return to establish it on the earth and then throughout eternity. We are living in the last times …

Thirdly, we learn another thing about apostates: their source. We’ve already alluded to it, let’s look more closely. They are apostate during this dispensation as the Spirit predicted because they give heed to seducing spirits and the teachings of demons. The source – now mark this – the source of apostasy is demonic. It is supernatural.

Paul said it in Ephesians 6: “We do not wrestle against” – what? – “flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies, supernatural demonic spirits.” And what happens to these people who have an unbelieving heart, as Hebrews 3:12 describes it, who depart from the living God, is that that unbelieving heart, even though there is a facade of religion, is lured away and seduced away by demon spirits. It cannot be wooed by the Spirit of God, it is an unbelieving heart. It is not a heart that hears the Spirit, it is a heart that hears the prince of the power of the air as his siren voices are mediated to and through demon spirits.

Now the term “giving heed” is a very strong word. It doesn’t mean just to listen to, it’s also used in chapter 1, verse 4. It means more than giving your attention to, it means “to assent to.” It means “to devote oneself to,” “to attach oneself to,” “to cling to a person or thing.” It is a present-tense verb in this case; it has the idea of a continual clinging to the seduction of the spirits and the doctrines they purvey. What a statement. What a statement …

Now notice that little phrase “seducing spirits.” This refers to the source of these errors, heresies, false doctrines, supernatural demon spirit beings who are fallen angels. The word “seducing” comes from a very from which we get our word “planet.” That’s the idea of wandering. Those spirits who would lead you to wander from the truth, who would lead you astray. It came to mean to seduce or to deceive.

The history of seducing spirits, you can go all the way back to the garden where the first demon, the Demon himself with a capital “D”, Satan, seduced Eve with his luring, seductive implication that she might be being cheated out of the best thing that God had by not being able to eat of the one tree in the garden. He seduced Eve. And such seductions are chronicled throughout all the history of the Scripture. And you see them all the way into Revelation, and you get a glimpse in the book of Revelation of all the deception of the demons in the end of the history of man. So from Adam to Revelation, it is a history of seducing spirits plying doctrines of demons against unwitting human souls …

Paul says that some depart the faith because of the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared (verse 2), meaning that their consciences are so scarred that they have abandoned honesty, ethics and/or morality. In other words, they have no conscience left.

MacArthur continues with the fourth feature of apostasy as Paul discusses it in that verse:

Number four: We must also recognize not only the source, but the teachers. This is done through human agents, though the source is supernatural the means is natural. The source is supernatural, the means is natural. The seduction occurs on the human level. And verse 2 says, “These seducing spirits plying their doctrines of demons use” – and here are two substantives in the Greek – “they use hypocritical lie-speakers.” That’s the best way to translate that …

… the facade may be a facade of religiosity; but the truth is demon sources do not come without masks, and they mask themselves and their demon face with a mask of religion. Inevitably they do. And they find hypocritical lie-speakers, those who will be hypocritical in the sense that they pretend religion they don’t possess. They pretend to exalt God whom they don’t exalt at all, but rather Satan whom they do exalt …

Further, it says about them that they seem to be able to do what they do without any compunction. They have had their conscience burned as with a hot iron …

… And he is very careful to use the word “conscience,” which means their sensitivity to right and wrong, their sensitivity to truth and integrity. It has been scarred beyond function …

In fact, the term “seared” or “burned” is the technical medical term used by Hippocrates that we now call “cauterizing.” It is the verb kaustēriazō, and it means “to cauterize,” “to burn,” “to scar.”

Paul says that those liars — the false teachers — forbid marriage and certain foods, things that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth (verse 3).

Here MacArthur resumes with the fifth feature of apostasy, unbiblical teaching:

Let’s look at their teaching, number five. And this is just a sample. This is what was going on there. Anything other than the Scripture is their teaching.

But notice the subtlety of this. Here’s what they taught, verse 3: “Forbidding to marry, and to abstain from food.” They had two things they were majoring on. One was that if you wanted to be spiritual and if you wanted to know God and you wanted to possess salvation, you shouldn’t get married. Secondly, you had to abstain from food. Brōma means “that which is eaten” …

The point is, they were seeking by ascetic means, by self-denial, to attain spirituality. In other words, salvation for them was built on what they denied themselves. This is typical of all false religions. They devise human means by which you become saved, either by things you do or by things you – what? – you don’t do. That is typical of all the religion of human achievement; and initially looks very, very subtle.

But self-denial on the physical level was the supposed means of true sanctity, true holiness. The Essenes believed this. They were a Jewish sect that appear in Palestine as early as 166 B.C., living in a community down by the Dead Sea; very likely were involved in the writing of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Those scrolls were found adjacent to their community. They had an ascetic life style. They denied themselves everything. In fact, they denied themselves marriage. All the Essenes except one group never married, and, of course, they died out. That’s one way to put an end to your movement. They all, also, had special dietary abstinences which they adhered to. And maybe they were behind this influence in Ephesus. Maybe there had been some Essene influence there, that holiness came through self-denial.

There was also the beginnings of what we get now call “philosophical dualism.” The philosopher said, “Spirit is good, and all matter is evil.” You’ve heard of that. “Anything that is tangible, touchable, objective is evil. Anything that is untouchable, spirit, thought, idea, ideal is good.” And so they denied themselves all those evil, tangible things like marriage relationships, and foods, and certain things, believing that such abstinence put them in the place of pleasing the deities and the gods of their own Greek world.

Now maybe the Greek thought had influenced them. Perhaps that Greek thought was what influenced the Corinthians and got them so messed up about marriage they had to be corrected in chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians. Perhaps it was that that even got them confused about the resurrection of the body, because the ascetic view, the philosophical duelist view would want no resurrection of the body since it was evil anyway. So it had encroached upon the life of the church, both philosophical dualism and Essene asceticism. And there were some who were now saying that, “True spirituality’s attained by what we do or what we don’t do, or what we accept or what we deny ourselves.”

… No spirituality is any way, shape, or form related to what you do or don’t do, what you accept or deny yourself in terms of those things which are given by God for the enjoyment of man.

And that’s Paul’s point. That’s why in Colossians 2, verse 16 to 23 he says, “Don’t let anybody judge you regarding what you eat, what you drink, what you keep a feast day, whether you keep a new moon, whether you keep a Sabbath; those are only shadows. The reality is here in Christ. Don’t let anybody tie you up in some silly worship of angels. Don’t let anybody hold you to touch not, taste not, handle not, all that ascetic approach to life. That is unacceptable;” – he says – “for you are complete in Christ.”

… So in the truest sense, marriage, food, every good thing God made, He made primarily for those who believe and know the truth – why? – because if they were made for His glory, the only people who fulfill that purpose are the people who know Him, because it’s only us who give Him glory for it.

We’re the ones who thank God for our marriage. We’re the ones that thank God for our food. We’re the ones that show our gratitude. So in the truest purest highest sense, everything God ever made He made for those who believe and know the truth. Isn’t that a wonderful statement?

The world, yes, they get in on it. “The rain falls on the just and” – what? – “the unjust.” They benefit from marriage, they benefit from food; but they never were the reason God gave it, because the reason He gave it was His own glory, and only believers give that back to Him. So every good thing God made. He made for us.

How stupid to come along and deny marriage and deny certain foods and think you’re holy, when what you’re really doing is you’re denying God the right to be glorified for the beauty of what He gave us. You should be better to be married and eat everything He provided and praise Him, than think you’re holy by abstaining from those things.

Paul tells Timothy that everything God created is good and we are not to reject anything if it is received with thanksgiving (verse 4).

MacArthur elaborates:

Verse 4 follows it up: “For every creature of God is” – what? – “inherently excellent,” kalos. “Every creation of God, whether” – and I think here he’s referring to both marriage and food. “Every creation of God is in itself inherently good, and nothing is to be thrown away, nothing if it’s received with thanksgiving.” That’s the purpose.

Now there’s the key again. God gave it to us in order that we might do what? Thank Him. That’s why it’s primarily for believers, because believers are the only ones that thank Him. So when you receive it and thank Him, you fulfill its purpose, you fulfill its purpose. Take it and give God thanks.

So the first error of apostates and their false teaching was the failure to thank and praise God for what He made. The second error was to fail to understand that everything He made is good, not evil. And the third error was failure to believe what the Word says, because it says it’s good. God said it’s good. Genesis 1:28 and 29, “It’s good.”

God’s creations, Paul says, are made holy by the word of God and prayer (verse 5).

Here is the sixth feature of apostasy, the denial of the goodness of God’s creation and not giving Him thanks for it and their replacement of it with their human self-denial, which displeases Him greatly:

That brings us, sixthly, to their error. What is the error of such apostasy, such false teaching? Verses 3 to 5 give it to us just very briefly.

“Did you forget that God has created to be received with thanksgiving all these things? God created marriage. God made marriage.” God took Adam and gave him a wife and they were married, right? In fact, Peter calls marriage the grace of life. “And God made all foods.” In fact, when God made everything, He stood back in Genesis and looked at it and said it’s what? “It’s good. It’s good.” “How can you deny men what God has created to be received with thanksgiving by them who believe and know the truth?” …

And verse 5 says, “It is sanctified” – or set apart – “by the word of God.” That refers to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the pastoral epistles. That phrase is used, one, two, three, four, five, six – this may be the seventh time total, and it refers always to the message of salvation. Through the message of salvation we have come to know the Lord, we have come to know the truth in Christ. We have come to know that Christ has abolished all food laws, all dietary laws. The gospel has ended all those dietary restrictions. They were given only for a brief time in Israel’s history to develop their moral faculty of discernment, and to teach them to understand the truth of separation. But once Christ came, they were set aside; they had a limited national purpose. To reimpose them is to manufacture a works-righteousness system which dishonors God by saying He created something evil when He did not.

And so if we understand that the word of God in the gospel has freed us from dietary laws, and if in prayer we offer God thanks, then we can receive any and all of His good gifts. You see? Mandatory celibacy, abstinence from certain foods is demon teaching. It denies God’s creation. It denies God’s desire for thanks and praise. It denies God’s word revealed in the gospel of Christ which sets aside any such restriction. External self- denial is a severe error from demons. So we are taught then to understand the error of the apostates, thinking they please God by their show in the flesh like the Pharisees, they severely displease God and follow the lies of demons.

I cannot help but think of Christian engagement with vegetarianism and veganism here.

Let’s close with Peter’s vision in Acts 10 before he went to convert Cornelius, the Roman centurion from the Italian Cohort:

Peter’s Vision

⁹ The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour^[b] to pray. ¹⁰ And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance ¹¹ and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. ¹² In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. ¹³ And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” ¹⁴ But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” ¹⁵ And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” ¹⁶ This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

Returning to 1 Timothy, Paul then discusses what is involved in being a good servant of Christ Jesus. More on those instructions next week.

Next time — 1 Timothy 4:6-10