While Paul the
apostle continued to share with Timothy, the pastor and overseer of
the church in Ephesus, he warned him concerning people who would
“depart from the faith”. These apostate ones would speak
“lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot
iron;”, and because of this they would forbid those who “know
and believe the truth” from“marriage” and tell
people to “abstain from meats”. Paul
declared that “God has created” “meats”
“to be received with thanksgiving”,
and in chapter four and verse four of his letter to Timothy he added:
The verse begins, “For
every creature of God is
good, and nothing to be refused,...”
Paul began, “For”
which means “because, since or on account of” “every
creature”
or “all things founded or created” “of
God” which
refers to “the Godhead, trinity, God the
Father, the first person in the trinity, Christ, the second person of
the trinity and the Holy Spirit, the third person in the trinity who
is the one and only true God” “is good”
which means “beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice,
surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable and admirable”.
Paul continued, “and nothing”
or “none and not even one” “to be
refused” which means “thrown away, to be
thrown away, rejected, despised, abominated or as unclean”. In
other words, there was no meat which was to be rejected by those who
“know and believe the truth”
because God created them and they are “good”.
The
verse continues, “... if it be received with
thanksgiving:” Paul included a
condition to eating “meats”
“if it be received”
or “taken, gained and obtained” “with thanksgiving”
which means “actively grateful, appreciated and giving of thanks”.
As long as a person demonstrates gratitude and thankfulness to God
for the meat they are about to eat, “nothing is to be
refused” because it was all
created “good” by
Him.
As
we think through these words of Paul, perhaps there are those who
have thought of the dietary laws given by God in the Old Testament.
Many of these laws can be found in the books of Leviticus and
Deuteronomy. There are some meats mentioned in those books we might
not be inclined to eat anyway such as “bat, swans or pelicans”,
but many “meats”
have come into question today. The problem with this doctrine was
that it was being pontificated by those who had departed from faith
in the Lord Jesus, and because they had, they were teaching and
preaching false doctrine. Their idea was that a person who ate
“meats” was not
righteous, and they obviously didn't adhere to or follow Paul's
words as recorded in the book of First Corinthians in chapter six and
verse thirteen:
Meats for
the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and
them.
Let
us ever be mindful of the temporal nature of “meats” and
the consumption of them, and may the Lord Jesus always keep us as
those who “know and believe the truth”.
Next
time Paul talks about how the food is sanctified, so read ahead, and
we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow…there is more…
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be
Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the
Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com
; http://www.barnesandnobles.com
; download to e-books, and find it locally at
http://www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.
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