So let’s get a little recap.
The Christian Good News, or Gospel, is the message that Jesus Christ died on a cross, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is returning to judge the world and to establish his kingdom forever.
That’s the news part. The response part is faith in Jesus and a seeking to obey his commands.
Everyone who does that, because of what Jesus did, will enter Jesus’ eternal kingdom rather than being judged by it.
As people believed this message, they began to get together to celebrate it. Those gatherings we call ‘churches.’ Churches exist to proclaim that message.
There are people within these churches that will teach things that contradict the Christian Gospel and try to persuade people to leave it – and thus, to ultimately leave their church.
What we learned last time, is that these people are the devil’s instruments. What we’ll see today is what they were teaching in Paul’s day.
(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.
These false teachers forbade marriage and required people to not eat certain foods. You know, like meat on Fridays.
I’m not exactly sure where these people were getting their ideas. It could’ve been partially from Judaism – in which case they were missing the point that the ceremonial laws – the laws that set Jews apart from everyone else – had been fulfilled in the person of Jesus.
It’s perhaps more probable that these teachers got their ideas from an ancient religion called ‘gnosticism’ - which taught that people would be ultimately saved by secret knowledge. Some forms of Gnosticism taught that to gain this knowledge, you had to separate yourself from the physical world – because physical pleasure, they thought, was bad.
Hence, marriage – more accurately, sex - was bad. Good food was bad.
The problem with this thinking is that God created the world. And he created it to be good and to be enjoyed. And he deserves to be thanked for it! He is good and the giver of good gifts – and he deserves thanks. To rob God of thanks is to blaspheme his name.
Now, obviously, all good things can be perverted. Sex and food can be used for sin. But that doesn’t mean they’re bad. They’re good, and God deserves to be honored with and for them.
Furthermore, making physical pleasure forbidden contradicts the Gospel of Christ. The Good News is that we’re not saved by attaining secret knowledge – but simply by trusting Jesus Christ. If we are trying to cut ourselves off from pleasure to save ourselves, we blaspheme Jesus. Not good.
Paul next gives some rationale for his argument – that these things are to be thankfully received.
(4) For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving…
That should sound familiar. God created this world – and it’s good. Sure, it’s affected by sin – but ultimately, it isn’t sinful. It’s good. So to knock God’s world is to knock God. If you’re doing so, knock it off.
By the way, some people use this verse to justify drug use. First, ‘mishandling’ God’s world has already been covered here. You can’t genuinely thank God for giving you something your use of which results in your disobeying God. So don’t be stupid. The idea is that you shouldn’t reject things on the basis of their being enjoyable. God is enjoyable. So don’t dishonor God by saying he made bad things.
(5) for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
There’s another reason we are to not reject physical things that are pleasurable on the basis of their being pleasurable: God has set that thing apart for use to honor himself. That’s what the apostle means when he says that that thing has been made holy.
How does it get made holy? By God’s word and prayer. What does that mean? Perhaps John 17:17 sheds some light on this: Jesus prayed for his disciples – he prayed that God would set them apart, make them holy, by means of the word, the truth.
God has given us a book. That book contains words, and those words point to a singular message – the Gospel. See above. Jesus was praying that God would set us apart to serve him, to honor him. The means that God uses to do that is his word. And prayer – note that Jesus is praying in John 17.
So as Christians hold fast to the word of God and pray for God’s strength to be set apart for his glory, God will cause them to do so – even with regard to things on this world that are pleasurable.
Summary:
1) Satan’s human messengers were making up rules that weren’t in the Bible.
2) Their doing so made God evil and contradicted the Gospel.
3) We’re to treat this world by setting things apart, trusting in the Gospel, and through prayer.
4) We’re to also thank God for good things. He is to get glory by how we use his world and glory for being good to us.
5) We must beware people who would teach false things!
Prayer:
God, you’re so good to us. You’ve given us all we need on this earth – and so much to enjoy besides. And more than that, you’ve given us your Kingdom through Jesus. Thank you! Cause us to use this world for your glory and to be thankful. You deserve it – and we desire your gracious presence. In Christ I pray- amen.
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