Confused as to the meaning of a passage in 1 Timothy 4.

Asry

Heyas

I'm doing a reading plan (like the dork I am) on prayer, and today's passage is this, from 1 Tim. 4.:

4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

But if you read it in the context of the entire section...is it not talking about more specific things (like food, for example)? :

1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

Am I reading this wrong or what? I'm confused as to what it's meant to mean. Is everything really good that comes from God? Or not?

dvae

Everything that comes from God is good.
Because of that passage in Timothy i ignore all those people who are forbidden to marry and eat meat on good Fridays.

Manach

Offhand at a guess, it could refer to groups that would twist what is intrinsiccally good (as created by God) into something inimical to its true nature. Marriage and food being one of the great blessings in life, but a group that tries enforcing celibacy or having a blanket ban on meats for all, would be destroying those good attributes.

hivizman

Manach wrote: »

Offhand at a guess, it could refer to groups that would twist what is intrinsiccally good (as created by God) into something inimical to its true nature. Marriage and food being one of the great blessings in life, but a group that tries enforcing celibacy or having a blanket ban on meats for all, would be destroying those good attributes.

Yes, I would agree with you here. The wording in verse 4 is almost certainly intended to remind readers of Chapter 1 of Genesis (for example, verse 31: "God saw everything that he had made, and, indeed, it was very good.") Tom Wright, the well-known evangelical theologian, interprets the words "seared with a hot iron" as suggesting that the "liars" referred to were people who had experienced the debauchery of the time, and over-reacted by denouncing activities that were, in themselves, good, but could in certain circumstances become distorted. So marriage was forbidden because sex was seen as depraved and certain foods were forbidden because of the temptation of gluttony. Yet marriage as a social institution, and food, were given by God and could not be inherently evil.

Verse 4, taken out of context, appears to raise the big problem - if everything created by God is good, where does evil come from? But perhaps that's going beyond the scope of the thread.

dvae

The book of Timothy was written to Timothy from Paul.
Before Jesus death there were laws concerning what you could and could not eat.
When Jesus died all the old laws died with him.
Paul in his letter, is simply warning Timothy about people who were still using parts of the
old law or making up there own law, such as abstaining from certain foods or forbidding to marry.
The fruit of the tree of knowledge was the first food, then blood, and
animals such as pigs or cloven hoof animals etc.
Most of these laws were done away with the death of Jesus.

Asry

So it's about food and marriage? But if everything is good then like. What about all the people who are meant to be bad? They were made by God too.

leonil7

the 'good' refers to food particularly. look at the sentence structure in v3 &v4 . 'receive with thanksgiving' repeated twice. on the first instance referring to food.

the contextual situation during those times (and even now) was a smorgasborg of belief. certain sects like jews abstain from eating food - insisting they have religious significance (committing a sin since God commanded them not to eat pork, etc..). well we all know what happened to Peter in Acts about this issue.

Marriage also an issue (and even now) as people devalue the religious significance of the ceremony. most likely not from Jews but of gentile beliefs.