1 Timothy 4.1-5 – Weigh, Test, Take

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, ² through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, ³ who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, ⁵ for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

Paul here gives Timothy a warning of the kinds of false teaching that will sadly come into the church. This kind of stuff is, also sadly, still present in our twenty-first century Christianity, and is therefore something we need to be ready to identify and take a stand against.

The deceitful spirits and teaching of demons comes in many shapes and forms, but Paul here says that they generally come through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared…False teaching then comes from those with an agenda, their conscience having being seared to the truth, they seek to exploit you for their own gain (more on that in chapter 6). Their lifestyle will not match their words, there will be a big disconnect between words and works in those whose conscience has been seared. 

Often this will result in you being told that you must adhere to their personal brand of legalism; reject this, don’t do that, do this (vv.2-3). They don’t understand that the heart of the matter of Godly living is a matter of the heart (vv.4-5, Acts 10.9-16, Genesis 9.3 cf. 1 Corinthians 8), and that by legalistically instructing others on what to do and not do rather than simply show them to Jesus, they have become a modern-day Pharisee.

Friends, do not be caught out by false teachers with an agenda. Weigh everything you hear against the full counsel of the Word of God (Acts 17.11), test everything to see if it exalts the Lord Jesus (1 John 4.1-3), and thereby take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.