1 Timothy 4:3

4:1-5 The Holy Spirit, both in the Old and the New Testament, spoke of a general turning from the faith of Christ, and the pure worship of God. This should come during the Christian dispensation, for those are called the latter days. False teachers forbid as evil what God has allowed, and command as a duty what he has left indifferent. We find exercise for watchfulness and self-denial, in attending to the requirements of God's law, without being tasked to imaginary duties, which reject what he has allowed. But nothing justifies an intemperate or improper use of things; and nothing will be good to us, unless we seek by prayer for the Lord's blessing upon it.

{3} Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, {4} which God hath created {5} to be received {6} with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. (3) He sets down two types of this false doctrine, that is, the law of single life, and the difference of meats. (4) He proves that he justly called such doctrines devilish, first, because the teachers of them make laws of things which are not their own: for have they created the meats? (5) Secondly, because they overthrow with their decrees the reason why they were created by God, that is, that we should use them. (6) Thirdly, because by this means they rob God of his glory, who will be honoured in the use of them. And here with this, the apostle declares that we must use the liberality of God solemnly, and with a good conscience.

1 Timothy 4:3 . Forbidding to marry — The same hypocritical liars, who should promote the worship of demons, should also prohibit lawful marriage. This false morality was very early introduced into the church, being taught first by the Encratites and Marcionites, and afterward by the Manicheans, who said marriage was the invention of the evil god; and who considered it as sinful to bring creatures into the world to be unhappy, and to be food for death. In process of time the monks embraced celibacy, and represented it as the highest pitch of sanctity. It is a thing universally known, that one of the primary and most essential laws and constitutions of all monks, whether solitary or associated, whether living in deserts or in convents, is the profession of a single life, to abstain from marriage themselves, and to discourage it all they can in others. It is equally certain that the monks had the principal share in promoting and propagating the worship of the dead; and either out of credulity, or for worse reasons, recommended it to the people with all the pomp and power of their eloquence in their homilies and orations. At length celibacy was recommended by the priests, and by the orthodox themselves, and more especially by the bishops of Rome, the great patrons of the worship of angels and saints. For they strictly enjoined their clergy, both regular and secular, to abstain from marriage.

Thus the worship of demons and the prohibition of marriage, though naturally unconnected, have gone hand in hand in the church, as the Spirit here foretold. And commanding to abstain from meats — The same lying hypocrites, who enjoined the worship of demons, would not only prohibit lawful marriage, but likewise impose unnecessary abstinence from meats. This part of the prophecy hath been exactly fulfilled; for it is as much the rule of the monks and nuns to abstain from meats as from marriage. Some never eat any flesh, others only of certain kinds, and on certain days. Frequent fasts are the rule, the boast of their order; and their carnal humility is their spiritual pride. So lived the monks of the ancient church; so live, with less strictness, perhaps, but with greater ostentation, the monks and friars of the Church of Rome: and these have been the principal propagators and defenders of the worship of the dead, both in former and in latter times. Here therefore the apostle hath pointed out two instances of the hypocrisy of the lying teachers, who should enjoin the worship of demons. Under the false pretence of holiness, they should recommend abstinence from marriage to the monks, friars, and nuns; and under the equally false pretence of devotion, they should enjoin abstinence from meats, to some men at all times, and to all men at some times. There is no necessary connection between the worship of demons and abstinence from marriage and meats.

Forbidding to marry: the Greek is, hindering to marry, but that might be by forbidding it by a law under a severe penalty. There are great disputes whom the apostle speaketh of, to find out which it is considerable: 1. That the apostle speaketh of a time that was then to come; 2. Of some who had it in their power to hinder it: which will make the prophecy hardly applicable to any but the Romish synagogue, to be sure, not so applicable; for though there were some persons before them that condemned marriages, yet as they were but a small, inconsiderable party, so they were persons that had no power to hinder marriage by any penal laws, nor any that did it in such hypocrisy under a pretence of piety, when he who runs may read that they do it to maintain the grandeur of their ecclesiastical hierarchy. How applicable therefore soever this might be to the Ebionites, and those that followed Saturninus and Marcion, and the Encratitae, (which the papists contend for), it certainly more nearly concerns the papists themselves, who more universally forbade them to their clergy, and were the first that had a power to hinder them, and fell into much later times than any of the others. And commanding to abstain from meats; to abstain from some meats; and this also they should teach in hypocrisy, i.e. under a pretence of piety. This every whit as well agrees to the Romish synagogue as the other, whose prohibitions of flesh are sufficiently known. Mr.

Mede is very confident that the Holy Ghost doth here describe the popish monks, and those that gave rules to those orders. Which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving; which meats, as well as other, God hath created for the use of man, giving him a liberty to kill and eat, only we ought to receive them with thanksgiving; which confirmeth our religious custom both of begging a blessing upon our meat before we eat, and returning thanks to God when we have eaten, for which also we have our Saviour’s example, Matthew 14:19 15:36 . Of them which believe and know the truth: not that such as believe not and are ignorant of the truth may not eat, but they have not so good and comfortable a right to the creatures as believers, Titus 1:15 ; and they know and understand their liberty to eat of those things, which others deprive themselves of by their superstitious opinions and constitutions.

1 Timothy 4:3 . Κωλυόντων γαμεῖν , ἀπέχεσθαι βρωμάτων , forbidding to marry—to abstain from meats ) The hypocritical appearance of false doctrines, very austere and plausible, which gains a show for all the rest of their dogmas (giving colour to them in the eyes of the dupes), is here expressed: comp. Colossians 2:23 . Explain the sense by analysis thus, commanding, not to marry, to abstain from meats . Κωλύω is the same as I command, that not, not to. To marry and to abstain are construed with commanding; the negative belongs only to the expression, to marry . Pricæus has pointed out examples of this Zeugma, of which examples that of Chrysostom corresponds most nearly to the present instance: Ταῦτα λέγω , οὐ κηδωύειν κωλύων , ἀλλὰ μετὰ συμμετρίας τοῦτο ποιεῖν , “I mention these things, not forbidding you to take care, but desiring you to do this only in due measure.” Paul refutes the more specious error respecting meats . He considers it enough here merely to mention that respecting marriage (unless the ἅ , which , that follows, is to be referred to this also), and he refutes it also below, ch. 1 Timothy 5:14 .— βρωμάτων , meats ) They shall not forbid all kinds of meats (therefore the article is not added); for who would listen to such prohibitions? therefore it is only some kinds that they forbid. Also it is implied here, that he who forbids even one kind does a wrong to his Creator and to believers.

The old heresies are chiefly denoted; but their remains, however, have come down to those who pride themselves on antiquity.— τοῖς ) the Dative, as the Hebrew ל , signifies, so far as concerns believers. For God hath created meats, even for those who are without faith and do not give thanks. Paul turns away from them who are without faith and the ‘knowledge of the truth, and leaves them, as it were, to themselves; he declares that he is speaking of believers.— πιστοῖς καὶ ἐπεγνωκόσι , to them who believe and have known) The words are synonymous. The second synonym, knowing the truth, gives occasion for presently declaring the truth, ὅτι πᾶν , κ . τ . λ ., and forms a more express antithesis to lying, ψωῦδος , which is contained in ψευδολόγων , 1 Timothy 4:2 .— τὴν ἀλήθειαν , the truth) This is explained in the following verse.

Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats (κωλυόντων γαμεῖν, ἀπέχεσθαι βρωμάτων) Κωλύειν, properly to hinder or check. Ἁπέχεσθαι to hold one's self off. In Paul, 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:22; Plm 1:15. Commanding is not expressed, but is implied in forbidding; "Bidding not to marry and (bidding) to abstain from meats." The ascetic tendencies indicated by these prohibitions developed earlier than these Epistles among the Essenes, an ascetic Jewish brotherhood on the shores of the Dead Sea, who repudiated marriage except as a necessity for preserving the race, and allowed it only under protest and under stringent regulations. They also abstained strictly from wine and animal food. This sect was in existence in the lifetime of our Lord. Strong traces of its influence appear in the heresy assailed in Paul's Epistle to the Colossians. The Christian body received large accessions from it after the destruction of Jerusalem (70 a.d.). The prohibitions above named were imposed by the later Gnosticism of the second century. Hath created (ἔκτισεν) A common Pauline word. Only here in the Pastorals. To be received (εἰς μετάλημψιν) Lit. for participation. N.T. olxx. It occurs in Plato and Aristotle. Of them which believe and know the truth (τοῖς πιστοῖς καὶ ἐπεγνωκόσι τὴν ἀλήθειαν) The dative depends on created for participation, and should be rendered; "for them which believe," etc., marking those for whom the food was created.