CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1 Timothy 4:1. Doctrines of devils.—The term “devils” seems to give the spirit of the apostle’s meaning more accurately than the more literal “demons” would.
1 Timothy 4:2. Having their conscience seared with a hot iron.—R.V. “branded in their own conscience.” As a runaway or offending slave was sometimes punished by having the brand of his infamy stamped on his brow, so these men carry about with them their own condemnation.
1 Timothy 4:3. Forbidding to marry.—It does not appear whether they forbade all to marry or only the aspirants to peculiar sanctity. To abstain from meats, which God created to be received.—The strongest condemnation of ascetic practices, St. Paul seems to think, is that they contravene the good purpose of God. With thanksgiving.—The true attitude towards the gifts of God. “It was a maxim even of the heathen that the good gifts of the gods were not to be refused” (Ellicott).
1 Timothy 4:5. For it is sanctified.—Not merely declared holy, but made holy.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Timothy 4:1-5
False Doctrine—
I. Leads to apostasy.—“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith” (1 Timothy 4:1). Signs of apostasy were already discernible in the operation of the Gnostic heresy. Apollonius Tyanæus, a notorious heretic, came to Ephesus in the lifetime of Timothy. The defection was within the Church; and the active cause of the apostasy was the false teaching of the heresiarchs. It is perilous for members of the Church to give heed to the seductive voice of error.
II. Is the suggestion of evil spirits.—“Giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1). The spawn of devilish malice—the reckless sport or cunning designs of inveterate wickedness. The throne of Satan was shaken by the introduction of the gospel, and the opposition of evil spirits was the more fierce and malignant. In warning the Thessalonians the apostle connects the mystery of iniquity which was working such mischief with the activity of some wicked demon acting under the instigation of Satan.
III. Is discoverable by unmistakable marks.—
1. By the character of its teachers. “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2). They are hypocritical liars, self-branded with crime: not only speaking lies to others, but having their own consciences seared. Professing to lead others to holiness, their own consciences all the while defiled. A bad conscience always has recourse to deception. They are branded with the consciousness of sins committed against their better knowledge and conscience, like so many scars burnt in by a branding-iron—an image taken from the branding of criminals. They are conscious of the brand within, yet with a hypocritical show of sanctity they strive to deceive others. Pollok called the hypocrite “the man that stole the livery of heaven to serve the devil in.”
2. By its enforcing a spurious outward sanctity. “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats” (1 Timothy 4:3). Sensuality leads to false spiritualism. Their own inward impurity is reflected in their eyes in the world around them, and hence their asceticism. By a spurious spiritualism which made moral perfection consist in abstinence from outward thing they pretended to attain to a higher perfection. Those who do not keep from ambition, covetousness, hatred, and cruelty endeavour to obtain righteousness by abstaining from those things which God has left at large. Not long after the death of the apostle arose Encratites, Tatianists, Catharists, Montanus with his sect, and at length Manichæans, who had extreme aversion to marriage and the eating of flesh, and condemned them as profane things. Such is the disposition of the world, always dreaming that God ought to be worshipped in a carnal manner, as if God were carnal.
IV. Degrades the true use of the Divine gift of food.—
1. All God’s gifts are good. “For every creature of God is good” (1 Timothy 4:4). A refutation by anticipation of the Gnostic opposition to creation, the seeds of which were now lurking latently in the Church. Judaism was the starting-point of the error as to meats: Oriental gnosis added new elements. The old Gnostic heresy is now almost, extinct, but it remains in the celibacy of the priesthood, and in Church fasts from animal meat, enjoined under the penalty of mortal sin. In and for itself no food is objectionable, yet on condition that it be used with thanksgiving to God. Creatures are not called good merely because they are the works of God, but because through His goodness they have been given to us.
2. God’s gifts are good to us only as we receive them in a devout and thankful spirit. “And nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4-5). Just as in the Lord’s Supper the thanksgiving prayer sanctifies the elements, separating them from their natural alien position in relation to the spiritual world, and transferring them to their true relation to the new life, so, in every use of the creature, thanksgiving prayer has the same effect, and ought always to be used. One of the most beautiful models of the primitive “Grace before meat,” consisting almost wholly of Scripture, was this: “Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who hast fed me from my youth, who givest food to all flesh. Fill our hearts with joy and gladness, that, having always what sufficeth, we may abound unto all good works in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom be unto Thee honour, glory, and power, for ever and ever. Amen” (Calvin, Fausset).
Lessons.—
1. False teachers, deceived themselves, deceive others.
2. Error in doctrine leads to sins in practice.
3. Prayer and thanksgiving are safeguards against false doctrine.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Timothy 4:2. A Seared Conscience.—Note the successive stages which lead to a seared conscience.
I. Dull conscience.—Not quick and active, but slothful; like a storm-bell ringing in the storm, when it should be as a storm-signal run up in a blue sky.
II. Uneasy conscience.—Multiplied sins, small and trifling as each may appear, will lead to this, just as accumulated snow-flakes bend the strongest bough.
III. Guilty conscience.—Accusing the sinner of his sin and folly. This may be either an awakened or a remorseful conscience.
IV. Hardened conscience.—The hardened need not be invulnerable; there may be a joint somewhere where the arrow of conviction may enter.
V. A seared conscience.—Cauterised. A nerve diseased or almost paralysed may possibly be healed; but when it has been subjected to the cauterising iron it is perished. What hope for a man whose conscience is cauterised?—E. Conder, D.D.
1 Timothy 4:4-5. The Gifts of God—
I. Though good, may be abused.
II. Should be enjoyed in a thankful spirit.
III. Should be hallowed by prayer in harmony with the word of God.