A note from our Pastor:

”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.”

1 Timothy 4:3

Good Morning Dearly Beloved,

In our study verse this week, the Apostle Paul outlines some of the false teachings that were arising. This verse provides specific warnings to Timothy but is preserved for the modern disciple as examples of false teachings. From these examples, the modern believer can understand traits of the false teachings and use those to evaluate new teachings in their era.

Before looking at the particular examples, it is important to remember the words of the Apostle in the prior verse. These false teachings were lies and were spoken in hypocrisy. There were burdens being placed on the people to create shows of religion that were not rooted in spirituality.

The first of the false teachings the Apostle highlights is a forbidding of marriage. Any attempt to understand the details of the false teaching the Apostle was pointing to would be mere supposition but suffice it to say Timothy understood. The forbidding of marriage was contrary to the types and shadows established throughout scripture as marriage is even used to represent the relationship between Christ and the church. 

The lesson for the modern believer is to be aware of teachings taking scriptural teachings and calling them evil. A recent example that falls into this category happened during the pandemic. False teachers began calling those who followed medical advice “sheep”. The scriptures make it very clear, being a sheep is a blessed state. It means you are the elect of God and you are following after Christ. For people then to take this spiritual term, with the same meaning of being a follower, and imply it was a negative characteristic was to pollute a spiritual idea and be contrary to God.

The second false teaching highlighted in this verse was a new teaching to abstain from eating meat. Again, the scriptures do not record the exact false teaching here or the details of it, but to be blunt and to the point any time religion ventures into the space of dictating diet in the New Testament age it is false teaching and meant to be oppressive. There are simply too many scriptures which reiterate the message from Jesus to not consider any food source unclean.

The lesson for the modern believer is to be aware of teachings forbidding actions or things having little impact on spirituality. If one were to attempt to create a list of all of the forbidden items throughout the history of the New Testament church it would be lengthy and surprising to many. However, very few of those items that were forbidden had any impact on devotion or belief but had a tremendous impact on making people feel burdened and oppressed. 

The best rule to keep in mind when evaluating teachings is to remember the doctrine of Christ is quite simple. Scriptures tell us there are but two commandments in the New Testament that believers are told to keep. First, love God with all your mind, body, and soul. Second, love your neighbor as yourself and in the same manner as you love God.

Our Prayers are with you daily,

Brother Jeremiah