Demonic Influence
1 Now the Spirit n explicitly says that in later times o some will depart from the faith, p paying attention to deceitful spirits q and the teachings of demons, r 2 through the hypocrisy s of liars whose consciences t are seared. 3 They forbid marriage u and demand abstinence v from foods that God created w to be received with gratitude by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, x and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, y 5 since it is sanctified by the word of God z and by prayer.
A Good Servant of Jesus Christ
6 If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of the faith a and the good teaching that you have followed. b 7 But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths. c Rather, train yourself in godliness. d 8 For the training of the body has limited benefit, e but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. f 9 This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance. g 10 For this reason we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, h who is the Savior i of all people, j especially of those who believe.
Instructions for Ministry
11 Command and teach these things. 12 Don’t let anyone despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, k in conduct, l in love, ,m in faith, and in purity. n 13 Until I come, o give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching. 14 Don’t neglect the gift that is in you; it was given to you through prophecy, p with the laying on of hands q by the council of elders. 15 Practice these things; be committed to them, so that your progress may be evident to all. 16 Pay close attention to your life and your teaching; persevere in these things, for in doing this you will save r both yourself and your hearers. s
4:1. Verses 1–5 take their place within the drama Paul sees in Christ’s coming in the middle of time to effect redemption at Satan’s expense (esp. Gl 1:1–4; Col 2:15; Eph 1:3–23; 2:1–10; 3:7–10; 6:12–20). This redemption has prompted an ultimately doomed response by Satan: the unleashing of a “mystery of lawlessness” (2 Th 2:7), masked, ironically, by teachers who promote phony lawfulness, a piety-pretending denial with respect to food and sex (the situation finds a parallel in Col 2:8–23). Paul sets the opponents’ theology and practice within a specific framework: Satan’s rebellion “in later times” against the reconciliation of all things in Christ.
4:2–5. Paul responds to the false teachers by pointing to the teaching in Gn 1 that creation is good (4:4). Evil lies not in a thing itself but in its misuse. Evil is an intrusion into creation, not a part of creation itself. It is not sexual activity that must be avoided but its corrupt misuse. The problem is not food but rather the evil disordering of appetite. Part of what is restored in Christ is a prudence that allows believers to receive things for what they are, gifts God intended to be “received with thanksgiving” (4:3–4).
C. Timothy’s responsibility for true religion (4:6–5:2). 4:6–10. Paul compares the false teachers’ asceticism with a long-standing teaching offered by Greek moralists about the moral virtue that comes from athletic training. It is not noble philosophizing, counters Paul, but “pointless and silly myths” that promote physical discipline as being the key to inner balance (4:7). The point of Paul’s statement that “the training of the body has limited benefit” is that such training is of little benefit when compared with “godliness” that “is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (4:8). What is really worth the effort (see 4:10, “we labor and strive,” both athletic terms) is the process Paul puts before Timothy, a set of disciplines that will lead to his salvation and that of those in his care.
4:11–5:2. The pursuit of godliness has as its aim the salvation of all, not a select minority of the selfishly motivated hyperdisciplined. For Paul, salvation is a full restoration of what it is to be human. Paul notes that the source of the gospel’s life-giving power does not lie down the path of external conformity to the law (1 Tm 1:8–11) or down the path of what is, in reality, ungodly self-denial (4:1–5). It is, in sum, the life of faith that Paul referred to in 1:4.