S152P4 – Our saintly duty: watch for fulfillment
1 Tim. 4:1-5
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, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
The last session of law school orientation was about substance abuse. We were presented with the testimony of a young woman who did very well in school and in her professional work but who had kept a secret for many years. The stress of success both in school and in her work was more than she knew how to handle. She turned to prescription drugs to give herself the extra edge and energy she needed to compete, and it eventually caught up with her. While we listened to her, many of us probably did not believe that her warning was for us. That perspective, however, is exactly what helped lead this woman to her addiction. She believed things like this could happen but just not to her.
Paul begins this letter by calling Timothy his true child in the faith. He is counseling this young man the way a father would counsel his son. Paul is sharing what the Spirit has spoken, which is that there will be a turning of some hearts away from the Lord. This turning will be the result of deceitful beliefs that are clearly not of God. This passage does not give us an explicit command but an implicit one. Paul says this because Timothy must be on the lookout for these things. We also must be on the lookout for these things. This vigilance is to make sure that we are not deceived by the deceivers. We also cannot be blindsided when we see this happen to our brothers and sisters before our very eyes.
When we read about prohibitions regarding marriage and the foods we eat, I think we can see this being a very real issue in our world today. This is not a description of some dystopia in the remote future. When we encounter progressive ideology that seems strange at a minimum and downright disturbing at a maximum, we cannot forget that these things have been foretold. It is for us to heed the warning, watch for the signs and measure everything against God’s truth. This is for the preservation of the faith of not just the individual but of the saints. Father, thank You for a Spirit who teaches and cautions us about the ways of this world and how we can prevail against them.