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4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. ~ 1 Timothy 4:4-5
Today's text comes on the heels of Paul's warning in 1 Timothy 4:1 which reads, "in later times some will abandon the faith." The faith is simply God's definitions of all things. All things find their meaning only in their created origin or God's definition and design of all things.
Now, 1 Timothy 4:1 comes on the heels of the apostle's words in 1 Timothy 3:16 which reads, "Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great."
The Lord Jesus is the mystery from which true godliness springs. He is the believer's righteousness which becomes for the believer the compass to not only knowing God but also making Him known. And, the central focus of all false teaching is to make for themselves a form of the Lord Jesus made in their image as someone different than the description of Him in the Scriptures.
To discover true Christianity, we must ask one question: "What is being taught about the Lord Jesus? Is He the God-Man who shed His blood to redeem mankind back to Himself?" All teaching must be measured by the plumb line of the Scriptures presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This is the context within which the Apostle Paul writes today's text.
In v.4 we read, "For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving."
The false teachers in Ephesus were forbidding marriage and the eating of certain foods. They had combined Jewish legalism with Eastern asceticism to make up their own religion. They loved using the word "forbidding." In keeping with Lucifer's approach to all things, false teaching always puts the spotlight on man and his accomplishments, whereas biblical Christianity will always place the spotlight on the Lord Jesus and His accomplishments.
Now, the Apostle Paul answers these teachers by going back to the doctrine of creation. He writes, "For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving."
Here, the Apostle is cultivating in us the habit of gratitude. If we do not adopt the posture of seeing that everything comes to us as a gift from God, we will most likely be duped by the deceptive artistry of the evil one and miss out on the transcendent perspective born out of grace.
In James 1:17 we read, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
In context James is explaining how we are led from a meaningful and personal relationship with God to a life of rebellion against Him. The first step away from God comes on the loss of our recognition of His goodness.
Thanksgiving is the recognition that everything comes as a gift from the loving God of all creation. When we receive everything as a gift from Him, humility, which is so essential to the depth of any relationship, will garrison our souls into a loving interaction with our Creator. And, it is then that we are reminded that we are not the kings on the thrones of our existences. It was G.K. Chesterton who once said, "gratitude is the highest form of thought, it is happiness doubled by wonder."
False teachers always present the God of the Bible as more strict than He really is. The serpent in the Garden also did this when he said to Eve in Genesis 3:1-3, "1 Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die." Satan smuggles in the idea that God is a liar, and he also gets Eve to misquote God when she said, "You shall not touch it."
In v.5 we read, "because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer." When we allow the enemy to slither into our thinking that we can be on par with God, we will discover derailment before we arrive at the station of our lives. But, when we put all things through the colander of God's word and prayer, we will arrive upon the biblical definition of all things. The remedy for wayward and unbiblical thinking is recognizing that we are the created who must not deviate from being defined by God. Thus, it will be out of this posture that we will be framed up by this God who brushes up gratitude from within our redeemed souls. And, that is good!
