1 Timothy chapter 4

vs 1

Paul obviously didn't end his letter in chapter 3, even though it sounded like he was going to. Paul has finished his section on the worthiness of good teaching and good leadership, and now he goes onto a section about the dangers of false teaching and bad leaders. He starts with what sounds like a fairly pragmatic statement "people are always going to leave the faith" - and yet to him it isn't simply pragmatism, because the Spirit (and most probably the OT too) have clearly stated that some will abandon God to follow demons.

vs 2

The way they do this is through false teaching. Just think of Israel in the wilderness, and Aaron building Mooby the golden calf. Or the countless times they turn from the teachings of God to listen to the peoples aroun them. That is how people fall away. People start listening to the society around them, which now doesn't tell them to worship Balaak, it tells them to worship money or reason or status or prestige or security. If we saw them as false gods, would we respect them so much?

I'm not 100% sure whether your conscience being seared with a hot iron means that you've had it burned away, or that it's now so sensitive that you pick up lots of little things. The things Paul names them as doing are not necessarily bad things - Paul might have called the disputable matters in Romans 14 - but the teaching of these things as God's word is what Paul is against. Perhaps that is why they are hypocritical, because in most cases these people with sensitive consciences are usually overly sensitive about one thing, but not nearly as sensitive about another, perhaps more important issue. It's a lot easier to be fervent about a small issue, like "We should only use the KJV because all other Bibles are Satan!" than to keep up fanaticism for "My whole life is there to serve Jesus", because one has a very small perview, and the other is very wide ranging.

vs 3

Does the creation here refer both to the marriage and the foods, in that both are created for us to receive with thanksgiving? I think so. Its an interesting idea that they are created for the enjoyment of those who believe and know the truth. So everyone else who gets to enjoy them is just one more little injustice? No, I think more likely that those who know the truth can enjoy them, while those who are hypocritical liars cannot enjoy them because of their stupid teachings. There is also a question on how much you can really enjoy something if you don't give thanks to God for it, because those who don't put these things in their proper place (especially marriage, but things like food too) can then elevate the things to a false value, instead of accepting them for what they are (gifts from God for our enjoyment) and valuing them as such.

vs 4

The word ktisma means "created thing". So this verse does not just refer to food. Anything that God has created (including animals and plants that we eat) is good. And if you can receive it with thanksgiving, then you don't need to reject it. That doesn't mean we need to eat poisoned berries or enjoy having spiders in the house. But it does mean that there are very few things that are by nature "evil". There are some things that are evil (against God's will) and Paul gives a great guidance on how to tell them apart straight away!

vs 5

However, notice that Paul is not giving us a carte-blanche to go nuts and fulfil any mad desires we might have. You can't just go out and have sex with everything that moves. It's got to have been sanctified by a word of God and with prayer. Now when it comes to me eating cereal, I don't feel the need to open my Bible and see what it says. But when I became a Christian and I started wondering about whether I should keep roleplaying, then I did need to take a good strong look at that. Sex is fine, but only in the ways defined by God - in a marriage relationship between a man and a woman.

vs 6

It is a worthy service to the people of God to teach them about these things. Minister is literally deaconos, so I wonder if Timothy was a deacon? If Timothy, as a deacon, is meant to be teaching these things to people, then have we got our roles of eldership and deaconhood a little too defined? Probably not - when you use a function word like "minister" or "servant" as a title, you're going to get into these situations where you have to use them to denote fuction and people might get confused and think you're talking about a title. Such is life.

But all this stuff that Paul is saying Timothy should already know, because it is a heritage of the faith he has and the teaching in that faith he has received. But knowing it isn't enough - he's also got to be serving the church by teaching it.

vs 7

There are so many godless myths and old wives' tales we know, and even if we don't follow them, we let them infiltrate our langauge and that means that eventually they will infiltrate our thinking, even if only subconsciously. This is a problem in the church, especially in a society where we value culture and heritage, and people get very defensive about these things that their grandmothers may have said.

vs 8

Yes, lifting weights and going for long runs is of some value, but Paul's comparison to godliness shows just how limited it's value is. Your physical fitness will only be of value in this world, and will be of no value to you or anyone else for eternity.