What is the Meaning of I Timothy 4:1-6?
By Kelly McDonald, Jr.
In I Timothy 4:1-6, Paul wrote: “1 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; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 3 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. 4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.”
Common Arguments: These verses are commonly cited to say that: 1) Anyone who obeys the difference between clean and unclean animals follows a doctrine of devils; 2) Anyone who follows the distinction between clean and unclean animals is a hypocrite; and/or 3) We can pray over any animal meat, and it will become clean.
Think it Through: The devil did not give us Leviticus chapter 11, so Paul cannot be referring to anything God said. Jesus obeyed it, and He was not a hypocrite. Lastly, no one can pray to change the biology of an animal from clean to unclean.
Also consider the following: How could someone pray and change what God said? Obviously, it is not possible. What other subjects would people be allowed to pray about and change? Unclean animals are still mentioned in Romans 6:19, 2 Cor. 6:17, Eph. 4:17-24, Col. 3:5, and Rev 18:2, so they can’t be done away with by these words from Paul.
Short Answer: The heresy Paul referenced focused on two things: 1) forbidding marriage AND 2) forbidding people from eating clean animal meat. In the second century, heretical teachers arose which pushed this false doctrine because they believed that the material world was created by an evil god.
Longer Answer: In I Timothy 4:1-6, Paul received a prophetic message about the days after his, which is the meaning of ‘latter times.’ He mentioned those who will depart from the faith and follow the teachings of devils. These ‘hypocritical liars’ will teach men to abstain from marriage AND “from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.”
Some people have tried to apply these verses to the dietary laws in Leviticus 11 on clean and unclean animals. This interpretation runs into some problems.
First, Paul said that this false teaching comes from demons. Did a demon speak in Leviticus 11? Absolutely not! The LORD spoke those words (Lev. 11:1). This distinction started at the beginning of creation (Genesis 7:1-2) and is mentioned at the end of the Bible in Revelation 18:1-2. This eliminates the possibility that the hypocritical teaching of I Timothy 4 refers to anything God said!
What foods did God create to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth? We discussed this thoroughly in the article “How Does God Define Food?” (Click here to read).
Interestingly enough, Paul used the Greek word bromaton in verse 3. It is translated as ‘meats.’ This Greek word refers that which God created ‘to eat’ according to Leviticus 11. The false teaching prohibits people from eating clean animal meat.
Paul referred to truth in verse three. Jesus said God’s Word is the truth (John 17:17). In Paul’s time, no New Testament existed. The only text that believers had to call truth was the Old Testament or Tanakh. There is no other truth for Paul to reference and there are no other foods other than bromaton that God created to be eaten.
In verse four, Paul wrote: “For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.” This verse is not meant to be read alone or by itself, but in the context of verses 3 and 5. As Jesus said, “the scripture cannot be broken…” (John 10:35).
The word ‘all’ or ‘every’ in the Bible sometimes means every single one. Sometimes it means many. In Romans 14:10, we learn that ‘all’ will stand before God for judgment. This means every single one.
In other places, it means many. In I Timothy 6:10, Paul said that the love of money is the root of ‘all evil.’ There are plenty of evils committed in the world not committed for the love of money, such as the sin in the Garden of Eden. But the love of money contributes to many evils.
Contexts determines how we understand the words all or every in the Bible. God never once said it was acceptable to eat unclean.
Certain kinds of fish can kill a person if they are consumed. Paul did not invent a new belief for God to accept. He did not try to contradict or to teach God. He told us that every creature God made to be eaten is good to be received with thanksgiving. The context defines Paul’s words in verse four.
In verse five, we have confirmation of this conclusion. Paul then said that everything we eat should be consecrated (or made holy) by two things: the word of God AND prayer. In the word of God, pigs, shellfish, and other unclean animals were never set apart for humans to eat.
From the beginning, unclean animals were made for certain purposes, but never for human consumption! Prayer will not make a pig chew the cud or a shrimp grow fins and scales because God did not make those animals that way. Creation does not evolve.
In I Timothy 4:6, Paul mentioned that Timothy was brought up in this vital truth. This is an interesting statement based on two facts about Timothy.
First, Paul told Timothy: “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). The Scriptures refer to the Old Testament. Paul would not contradict the Scriptures in his first letter to Timothy and then commend him for knowing them in the second letter to Timothy. Secondly, Timothy’s mother was a Jewess (Acts 16:1). The truth that Timothy was reared into was the truth that God made clean animal meat to eat.
Two vital Bible truths protect us from the false doctrine Paul prophesied concerning: 1) marriage is not forbidden by God and 2) clean animal meat is allowed by God to be consumed. Man cannot overrule God’s truth.
Historical Application
What is the false teaching? When did it manifest itself in history?
The first historical fulfillment of these verses occurred in the second century AD. In the early to mid-second century AD, the Christian community was influenced by a number of teachers called Gnostics.
Gnosticism is a belief system which blended Greek and Middle Eastern influences. In the second century, many teachers who received this label believed that physical matter was evil and spiritual things were good. Pursuant to that view, they thought that an inferior, evil god made the material world. Also, they thought that a superior, good god made the spiritual realm. They placed a strong emphasis on secret knowledge as essential to the salvation of one’s immortal soul.
Because of these beliefs, they taught that the God who created everything in the Old Testament was evil and that Jesus had no connection to Him. They rejected marriage because reproduction creates more material beings. They also rejected eating animal meat. They focused highly on knowledge.
This explains why Paul also warned Timothy in the same letter to “keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called…” (I Timothy 6:20). In this verse, the word science is another word for knowledge. There was a false knowledge of reality spread at that time.
Basilides, Saturninus, and Marcion were among the more famous heretical teachers of the second century. They started to teach during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) and continued to do so into the reign of Antonius (138-161 AD). Below we have four quotes from contemporary authors of that time who describe their heretical ideas, which connect us directly to I Timothy 4:1-5.
“…They declare also, that marriage and generation are from Satan. Many of those, too, who belong to his school, abstain from animal food, and draw away multitudes by a feigned temperance of this kind” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1.24.2).
“But one Saturnilus, who flourished about the same period with Basilides, but spent his time in Antioch…And he affirms that marriage and procreation are from Satan. The majority, however, of those who belong to this (heretic’s school) abstain from animal food likewise, (and) by this affectation of asceticism (make many their dupes)…” (Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 7.16).
“49. There are some who say outright that marriage is fornication and teach that it was introduced by the devil…60. But those who from a hatred for the flesh ungratefully long to have nothing to do with the marriage union and the eating of reasonable food, are both blockheads and atheists, and exercise an irrational chastity like the other heathen…102…They say: Man became like the beasts when he came to practice sexual intercourse…And if the serpent took the use of intercourse from the irrational animals and persuaded Adam to agree to have sexual union with Eve, as though the couple first created did not have such union by nature, as some think, this again is blasphemy against the creation. For it makes human nature weaker than that of the brute beasts if in this matter those who were first created by God copied them….104. Furthermore they wish to maintain that the intercourse of man and wife in marriage, which is called knowledge, is a sin; this sin is referred to as eating of the tree of good and evil, and the phrase ‘he knew’ signifies transgression of the commandment….” (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 3.17.49, 60, 102, 104).
“We must now encounter the subject of marriage, which Marcion, more continent than the apostle, prohibits. For the apostle, although preferring the grace of continence, yet permits the contraction of marriage and the enjoyment of it, and advises the continuance therein rather than the dissolution thereof” (Tertullian, Against Marcion, 5.7).
After looking at these historical quotes, we can see why Paul used the term ‘doctrines’ in I Tim. 4:1. These false teachers had other false teachings they spread with their opposition to marriage and animal meat.
While these heretical teachings started in the second century, they would manifest in later centuries among Catholic and non-Catholic groups. For instance, as the centuries progressed the Roman Catholic Church would adopt the policies of forbidding priests from marrying and forbidding food on certain days of the week (such as Friday and Saturday).
This historical knowledge helps us to understand that Paul never referenced God’s Word as a doctrine of devils, but the false teachers who arose after him in the second century. These false doctrines have persisted in some forms into modern times.
Kelly McDonald, Jr.
Pastor, David’s Tent Christian Fellowship
Bibliography
Clement of Alexandria. Stromata, 3.17. Translated by John Ernest Leonard Oulton and Henry Chadwick. The Library of Christian Classics. Vol. 2. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1954. pp 62-63, 68, 88-89.
Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 7.16. Translated by J.H. MacMahon. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886. pp 109-110.
Irenaeus. Against Heresies, 1.24.2-4. Translated by Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899. pp 349-350.
Tertullian. Against Marcion, 5.7. Translated by Peter Holmes. Ante Nicene Fathers, vol. 3. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo: The Christian Literature Publishing Company,1885. pp 271-295.
The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. Rev. Alfred Marshall. Regency Reference Library. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan. 1975. p 826.