1 Timothy 4:3 -- For your enjoyment

To catch up on our adventure through 1 Timothy, click here and read from the bottom post up.

1 Timothy 4:3 (NIV) :

"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."

The specific problem that Paul addresses here regarding the church at Ephesus is this: Some of the people were following false teachers who were apparently Greek philosophers. They taught that the body is evil and only the soul/spirit is good. (These were the forerunners of the Gnostics of the 2nd century.) Because they believed that all matter and the physical body were evil, it followed that all bodily appetites were evil, including normal desires for sex and food. Thus they gave stringent rules, such as forbidding people to marry or to eat certain foods.

(By the way, they also believed that Jesus could not have been fully man and fully God. If He was human, He could not have been holy in their eyes. But the fact is that if He wasn't fully human, then He could not have paid the price for our sin.)

Following these strict rules made these false teachers appear self-diciplined and righteous...on the outside. But inside they were wicked like the Pharisees.

But Paul says that matter itself is not inherently evil. He says that "God created" these things. That alone makes them not evil. Plus they were designed "to be received" or, more literally, "for partaking." That is, God created them for our use and enjoyment.

He says that "those who believe and who know the truth" can gratefully receive and use things that God created for our bodies.

The fact is, people today can fall into this same trap when they start trying to live the Christian life under their own power. They can start condemning certain things as inherently evil (certain types of music, movies, TV, art, etc.). These are not inherently evil, but can certainly be used for evil intent. God has made all things for our enjoyment.