Homily 12 — First Timothy 4, verses 1 to 10

“Now the Spirit says expressly that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding marriage and commanding people to abstain from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” [a]

Those who hold fast to the faith are moored to a safe anchor. But those who fall away from the faith can find rest nowhere; after much wandering back and forth, they are carried at last into the very pit of destruction. He had shown this already when he said that some had “already made shipwreck of their faith,” and now he says, “Now the Spirit says expressly that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceiving spirits.” This is said of the Manichaeans, the Encratites and the Marcionites, and their whole tribe: that they would one day depart from the faith. Do you see that this departure from the faith is the cause of all the evils that follow?

But what does “expressly” mean? Plainly, clearly, beyond any doubt. Do not be surprised, he says, if some who have left the faith still cling to Judaism. [c]

A time will come when even those who have shared in the faith will fall into a worse error, not only about foods but about marriage and other such things, bringing in the most harmful notions. This refers not to the Jews — for “the latter times” and “a departure from the faith” do not fit them — but to the Manichaeans and the founders of these sects. And he is quite right to call them “deceiving spirits,” since it was by these spirits that they were driven to say such things. “Speaking lies in hypocrisy”: this means that they tell these falsehoods not out of ignorance and without knowing better, but as actors playing a part. They know the truth, but they have “their conscience seared” — that is, they are men of evil lives.

But why does he speak only of these heretics? Christ had said before, “Stumbling blocks must come” (Matthew 18, verse 7), and he had foretold the same thing in his parable of the sower, and of the weeds springing up. But here, admire with me the prophetic gift of Paul: before the times in which they were to appear, he names the very time. It is as if he had said: “Do not be surprised if, at the very beginning of the faith, some try to bring in these harmful teachings, since, after it has been established for a long time, many will depart from the faith.” “Forbidding marriage and commanding people to abstain from foods.” Why, then, has he mentioned no other heresies? Though they are not named one by one, they are implied in the words “deceiving spirits and teachings of demons.” But he did not want to plant these things in people’s minds before their time; the matter of foods, which had already begun, he names. “Which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” Why did he not say, “by the unbelievers too”? How could he say it of the unbelievers, when they shut themselves out from these foods by their own rules?

But is luxury not forbidden? Certainly it is. But why, if good things are created to be received? Because he created bread, and yet too much of it is forbidden; and wine too, and yet excess is forbidden. We are not commanded to avoid delicacies as though they were unclean in themselves, but because they corrupt the soul when taken to excess. [d]

Verse 4: “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving.”

If it is God’s creation, it is good. For “all things,” Scripture says, “were very good” (Genesis 1, verse 31). By speaking this way of the things we eat, he strikes in advance at the heresy of those who bring in an uncreated matter and claim that these things come from it. But if it is good, why is it “sanctified by the word of God and prayers”? Must it not be unclean, if it has to be sanctified? No. Here he is speaking to those who thought some of these things were common. So he lays down two points: first, that nothing God created is unclean; second, that if it had become so, you have a remedy. Seal it, give thanks, and glorify God, and all the uncleanness passes away.

Can we, then, cleanse in the same way what has been offered to an idol? Yes, if you do not know it was offered. But if you know it and still eat of it, you will be unclean — not because it was offered to an idol, but because, against an express command, you are sharing in fellowship with demons. So it is not unclean by nature, but becomes unclean through your deliberate disobedience. What, then, is pork not unclean? Not at all, when it is received with thanksgiving and with the seal; and neither is anything else. It is your ungrateful attitude toward God that is unclean.

Verse 6: “If you remind the brothers and sisters of these things, you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have attained.” [f]

What are the things he means here? The same ones he mentioned before: that “great is the mystery”; that abstaining from foods is a teaching of demons; that foods are “cleansed by the word of God and prayer.”

Verse 7: “But refuse profane old wives’ tales, and train yourself rather for godliness.”

“Reminding them,” he says. Notice that there is no show of authority here; it is all stooping down to meet them. He does not say “commanding” or “ordering,” but reminding them: that is, put these things to them as advice, and in that way talk with them about the faith. “Nourished,” he says, meaning that he should keep steadily at these things.

For just as we set this bodily food before ourselves day by day, so, he means, let us continually take in teaching about the faith and always be nourished by it. What does “being nourished” mean? Chewing these things over, attending always to the same things and practicing always the same things; for the nourishment they give is no ordinary nourishment.

“But refuse profane old wives’ tales.” By these he means the Jewish traditions. He calls them “tales” either because they are false or because they are out of season. For what is in season is useful, but what is out of season is not only useless but harmful. Suppose a grown man were nursed by a wet nurse: would he not be ridiculous, because it is out of season? He calls them “profane old wives’ tales” partly because they are out of date and partly because they stand in the way of faith. For to bring souls that have risen above these things back under fear is an ungodly command. “Train yourself for godliness”: that is, for a pure faith and an upright life, for this is godliness. So we do need “training.”

Verse 8: “For bodily training is of little profit.”

Some have taken this to refer to fasting. But far from it! Fasting is not a bodily training but a spiritual one. If it were bodily, it would nourish the body; but it wastes the body and makes it lean, so it is not bodily. So he is not speaking of the discipline of the body. What we need, then, is the training of the soul. For the training of the body brings no profit, though it may benefit the body a little; but the training of godliness yields fruit and benefit both here and hereafter.

“This saying is trustworthy”: that is, it is true that godliness is profitable both here and hereafter. Notice how everywhere he brings this in: he needs no proof, but simply declares it, since he was writing to Timothy. [g]

Do we, then, have good hopes even here? For the one whose conscience accuses him of no evil, and who has been fruitful in good, rejoices even here, just as the wicked man, on the other hand, is punished here as well as hereafter. He lives in constant fear; he cannot look anyone in the face with confidence; he is pale, trembling, full of anxiety. Is it not so with swindlers and thieves, who take no pleasure even in what they have? Is not the life of murderers and adulterers utterly miserable, when they look on the sun itself with suspicion? Is this to be called life? No; it is rather a horrible death!

Verse 10: “For this is why we both labor and suffer reproach: because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.”

What he is saying amounts to this: “Why do we deny ourselves so severely, unless we expect blessings to come? Have we endured so many evils, submitted to so many reproaches, suffered such insults and slanders and so many disasters, all for nothing? For if we did not trust in the living God, why would we have submitted to these things?” But if God is the Savior of the unbelieving here, much more is he the Savior of the faithful hereafter. What salvation does he mean? The one to come? “Who is the Savior,” he says, “of all people, especially of those who believe.” For the present he is speaking of salvation here. But how is he the Savior of the faithful? If he were not, they would long since have been destroyed, for everyone has made war on them. Here he is calling Timothy to face dangers, so that, having God for his Savior, he may not lose heart or need help from anyone else, but may endure everything willingly and with courage. Even those who grab eagerly at the advantages of this world take on hard undertakings cheerfully, held up by the hope of gain.

So it is now the last time. For “in the latter times,” he says, “some will depart from the faith.” “Forbidding marriage.” But do we not forbid marriage? Far from it! We do not forbid those who wish to marry; but those who do not wish to marry we urge toward virginity. It is one thing to forbid, and another to leave a person to his own free choice. The one who forbids does it once for all; but the one who recommends virginity as a higher state does not forbid marriage by preferring virginity. [h]

“Forbidding marriage,” he says, “and commanding people to abstain from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” “Who know the truth” is well said. So the earlier rules were a type. For nothing is unclean by nature; it becomes unclean through the conscience of the one who eats it. Then what was the purpose of forbidding so many foods? To curb excessive luxury. But if it had been said, “Do not eat for the sake of luxury,” they would not have put up with it. So they were shut up under the compulsion of the law, so that they might abstain out of the stronger motive of fear. Fish was not forbidden, though it is plainly more unclean than the pig.

Yet they could have learned how ruinous luxury is from that saying of Moses: “Jeshurun grew fat and kicked” (Deuteronomy 32, verse 15). [i]

Another reason for these prohibitions may have been this: that, being short of other food, they would be driven to slaughter sheep and oxen. So he held them back from other things because of Apis and the calf, which was an abomination, a thing of ingratitude, polluted and profane.

“Remind them of these things; meditate on these things.” For the words “nourished in the words of faith and sound teaching” imply that he should not only commend these things to others but practice them himself. For he says, “Nourished in the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have attained. But refuse profane old wives’ tales.” Why does he not say “abstain from them,” but “refuse”? He is hinting that they must be rejected outright.

What he means is that Timothy should not get into any dispute with those who teach them, but should commend to his own people the things laid down above. For nothing is gained by arguing with perverse people — except where it would do harm if we were thought to avoid arguing with them out of weakness.

“But train yourself for godliness”: that is, for a pure life and the most virtuous way of life. The one who is in training acts at all times as though he were competing, even when it is not the season for a contest. He practices self-denial, bears every hardship, is always anxious, and endures much toil. [j]

“Train yourself,” he says, “for godliness; for bodily training is of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, holding promise for the life that now is and for the life to come.” But someone may ask: “And why does he mention this bodily training at all?” To show by comparison how much better the other is: the first brings no solid benefit, though it takes a great deal of toil, while the second brings a lasting and abundant good.

It is like the place where he tells women to adorn themselves “not with braided hair, or gold, or costly clothing, but, as is fitting for women who profess godliness, with good works” (First Timothy 2, verses 9 and 10).

“This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For this is why we both labor and suffer reproach.” Did Paul suffer reproach, and are you impatient? Did Paul labor, and do you want to live in luxury? If he had lived in luxury, he would never have gained such great blessings. For if the goods of this world, which are uncertain and perishable, are never gained by anyone without labor and pains, much less are spiritual goods.

Someone says: “Yes, but some people inherit them.” Yet even when they are inherited, they are not guarded and kept without labor and care and trouble, any less than by those who earned them. And I need not tell you that many who have toiled and endured hardship have been disappointed at the very mouth of the harbor: a contrary wind wrecked their hopes just as they were about to take possession. But with us there is nothing like this. For it is God who has promised, and “hope does not put us to shame” (Romans 5, verse 5). You who are familiar with the affairs of this world, do you not know how many people, after endless toil, have never enjoyed the fruit of their labors? Some were cut off by death first; others were overtaken by misfortune, or struck by disease, or ruined by false accusers, or brought down by some other cause among all the many mishaps of human life, and were forced to go away empty-handed.

“But don’t you see those lucky people who gain the good things of life with little labor?” What good things? Money, houses, so many acres of land, trains of servants, heaps of gold and silver? Can you call these good things and not hide your face for shame? A man called to the pursuit of heavenly wisdom, gaping after the things of this world, and calling things of no value “goods”! If these things are good, then those who own them must be called good. For is not the one who possesses what is good himself good? But when the owners of these things are guilty of fraud and plunder, are we to call them good? For if wealth is a good, and it grows by greed, then the more it grows, the better its owner will be thought. Is the greedy man good, then? Yet if wealth is good and increases through greed, the more a man grabs, the better he must be. Is this not plainly a contradiction? [k]

“But suppose the wealth was not gained wrongfully.” And how could that be? Greed is so destructive a passion that it is impossible to grow rich without injustice. Christ declared this when he said, “Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness” (Luke 16, verse 9). “But what if he inherited his father’s estate?” Then he received what had been gathered by injustice. For his ancestor did not inherit riches from Adam; of the many who came before him, someone in all likelihood unjustly took and enjoyed the goods of others.

“What then? Did Abraham hold unrighteous wealth? And Job, that blameless, righteous and faithful man, who ‘feared God and turned away from evil’?” Theirs was a wealth that consisted not in gold and silver, nor in houses, but in livestock. Besides this, he was made rich by God. And the author of that book, telling what happened to that blessed man, mentions the loss of his camels, his mares and his donkeys, but says nothing of treasures of gold or silver being taken away. Abraham’s riches, too, were his household servants. “What then? Did he not buy them?” No. That is the very point Scripture makes when it says that the three hundred and eighteen were born in his house (Genesis 14, verse 14). He also had sheep and oxen. “Then where did he get the gold he sent to Rebekah?” (Genesis 24, verse 22, and 12, verse 16)

From the gifts he received from Egypt, without violence or wrong. [m]

Tell me, then: where do your riches come from? From whom did you receive them, and from whom did the one who passed them on to you receive them? “From his father and his grandfather.” But can you go back through many generations and show that the getting of it was just? You cannot. Its root and origin must have been injustice. Why? Because in the beginning God did not make one person rich and another poor. Nor did he afterward take one and show him treasures of gold, and deny the other the right to search for it. He left the earth free to all alike. Why, then, if it is common, do you have so many acres of land, while your neighbor has not a scrap of it? “It was passed down to me by my father.” And to him, by whom? “By his forefathers.” But you must go back and find the original owner. Jacob had wealth, but he earned it as the wages of his labor.

But I will not press this argument too hard. Let your riches be justly gained, without plunder. For you are not answerable for your father’s greedy acts. Your wealth may come from plunder, but you were not the plunderer. Or grant that he did not get it by robbery either, that his gold was cast up out of the earth somewhere. What then? Is wealth therefore good? By no means. “Still, it is not bad, if the one who has it is not greedy.” It is not bad if it is given away to the poor; otherwise it is bad, it is a snare. “But if he does no evil, even though he does no good, it is not bad.” True. But is this not an evil, that you alone should have the Lord’s property, that you alone should enjoy what is common? Is not “the earth God’s, and everything that fills it”? If, then, our possessions belong to one common Lord, they belong also to our fellow servants. What belongs to one Lord is all held in common. Do we not see this as the settled rule in great households? Everyone is given an equal share of provisions, for it comes from their master’s stores. And the master’s house is open to all. The king’s possessions are all common: cities, marketplaces, public walkways. We all share them equally.

Notice God’s wise arrangement. To put humankind to shame, he has made certain things common — the sun, the air, the earth and the water, the sky, the sea, the light, the stars — and their benefits are shared out equally to all, as to brothers and sisters. We are all formed with the same eyes, the same body, the same soul, the same structure in every respect; all things come from the earth, all people from one man, and all live in the same dwelling. But these things are not enough to shame us. So he has made other things common too, as we have said: baths, cities, marketplaces, walkways. [n]

And notice that over things that are common there is no quarrel; all is peaceful. But when someone tries to take possession of something and make it his own, then quarreling comes in — as though nature herself were indignant that, when God is bringing us together in every way, we are eager to divide and separate ourselves by claiming things for our own, and by using those cold words “mine” and “yours.” Then come quarrels and unrest. But where this is not, no strife or quarrel arises. This state, then, is more truly our inheritance, and more in keeping with nature. Why is there never a dispute about a marketplace? Is it not because it belongs to everyone?

But over a house and over property people are always quarreling. The necessities of life are set before us in common; yet even in the least things we do not keep to sharing. And he has opened those greater things freely to all so that we might learn from them to hold these lesser things in common. Yet for all this, we do not learn. [o]

But, as I said, how can a rich man be good? When he gives his riches away, he is good. So he is good when he has stopped having it, when he gives it to others; but as long as he keeps it for himself, he is not good.

How, then, can something be a good, when keeping it makes people evil and parting with it makes them good? So it is not having wealth, but not having it, that makes a person appear good. Wealth, therefore, is not a good. And if, when you could receive it, you do not receive it, again you are good.

If, then, we are good when we have it and give it away to others, or when it is offered to us and we refuse it, and we are not good when we receive it or gain it, how can it be a good thing in itself? So do not call it a good. You do not have it because you think it a good, because you are eager to possess it. Cleanse your mind and set your judgment right, and then you will be good. Learn what the real goods are. What are they? Virtue and goodwill. These are truly good, not that. By this rule, the more generous you are, the better you will be counted. But if you are rich, you are no longer good. Let us therefore become good in this way, so that we may be truly good and may obtain the good things to come in Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, and honor, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.