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TIMOTHY GIVES THANKS FOR ALL THAT GOD HAS CREATED!

      A number of years ago the Chandler School District flew in a Public Relations
Specialist to give us some insights on how to improve the district's image within the
community.  Seeing how she was from Dallas, Texas the district evidently felt that she
was well qualified to instruct others in the art of bragging.
      At any rate, during the course of her presentation she told of a lawyer, an
engineer, and a teacher all of whom had been killed in a tragic car accident.  As the
three stood nervously at the gates of heaven they were informed that before they could
gain entrance into heaven they would have to pass a spelling test. 
      The lawyer was motioned to come to the bench and he was asked to spell the
word "judge."  Hearing the word that the lawyer had been given the engineer relaxed a
little and was then called forward.  He was asked to spell the word "bridge."  The
teacher, by this time feeling quite confident, was then asked to step forward and was
asked to spell the word "chrysanthemum."
      Now I've forgotten the point the speaker was trying to make with this joke.  And
I've long since forgotten how I reacted to it.  But today, I'd classify this joke as being
dangerously close to a dirty joke.  For it rest on some really bad theology.   Some
obviously bad theology for anyone who has some idea of what the Bible says about
Jesus being our Savior.  After all, as evangelicals we have a pretty solid doctrine of
redemption tucked away in the recesses of our memory banks.
      But consider the following scenario.  You're at a dinner party, perhaps with other
members within the class, or perhaps you're enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner with
family and friends.  As you set down to eat one of the guest comments to the host, "It
looks so good that it is almost sinful."  And then someone else pops up with the tired
cliché, "Everything in life that is good is either fattening, illegal, or immoral."  Everyone
chuckles, the host says grace, and you spend the next hour over a good meal and
pleasant conversation.
      Now if Paul had been a guest at that same dinner party, how would he have
reacted to the above quoted remarks?  I suspect that he may have felt that they rested
on some really bad theology.  Some obviously bad theology for anyone who has
worked out a doctrine of creation such as Paul had worked out in his doctrinal studies
under Gamaliel, a scholar who was honored by all in Israel.
      But most of us would've simply chuckled and not thought anymore about the
remarks.  It is perhaps for this reason that Paul addressed some remarks about
"thanksgiving" to his young friend Timothy in the letter we know as I Timothy.  As we
read it, we need to remember that Paul wrote this letter so that Christians would know
how to conduct themselves in the household of God.   In I Timothy 4:1 - 9 we read:  
      Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will
turn away from what we believe; they will follow lying spirits and
teachings that come from demons.  2 These teachers are hypocrites and
liars. They pretend to be religious, but their consciences are dead.
      They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain
foods. But God created those foods to be eaten with thanksgiving by
people who know and believe the truth.  4 Since everything God created is
good, we should not reject any of it. We may receive it gladly, with
thankful hearts.  5 For we know it is made holy by the word of God and
prayer.
      If you explain this to the brothers and sisters, you will be doing
your duty as a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is fed by the
message of faith and the true teaching you have followed.  7 Do not waste
time arguing over godless ideas and old wives' tales. Spend your time and
energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness.  8 Physical exercise has
some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises
a reward in both this life and the next.  9 This is true, and everyone should
accept it.
      The expression "In the last times" probably isn't as strong as the phrase "in the
last days" as found elsewhere in the Bible (see II Tim. 3:1).  Although both probably
refer to the Christian era, the former was already being experienced by Timothy in
Ephesus.  For false teachers had infiltrated the church and with their very plausible
arguments had already enticed some to "abandon the faith."
      These wolves in sheep's clothing did not, in all likelihood, deny the virgin birth. 
They didn't stand on a soap box and ridicule the deity of Christ.  Nor did they use the
media (or grapevine) to smear the notion that all of Scripture was inspired.  That is,
their teaching wasn't blatantly false.  It wasn't something that anyone of us could put
our finger on and say that it was flat-out wrong.  Unless, of course, we had the mind of
Paul.  Or even better, the mind of Christ!
      Instead they minimized things associated with the body and in the name of
holiness, in the name of true spirituality, said it was "wrong to be married and wrong to
eat certain foods."  They argued that the two basic appetites of the human condition -
sex and hunger were essentially unclean; i.e. dirty.  Unclean for they had the nasty habit
of degenerating into lust and gluttony or greed.  Hence, the spiritual thing for all good
sheep was to renounce marriage and to at least chuck the eating of meat, since eating
itself couldn't be scraped altogether.
      In short, to "eat, drink, and be merry" was wrong.  Even today, most of us are
not quite comfortable with the notion that it is okay to "eat, drink, and be merry."  After
all, isn't that the point of the Parable of the Rich Fool as found in Luke 12:13 - 21?  No,
not really.  The point of that parable is that we're not to worry about life or party so
much that we forget about cultivating a close relationship with God.
      You see, the false teachers argued somewhat persuasively that "good" sheep
ought not give way to the joy of life by romping across the pasture.  Instead, they ought
to put their heads down, eat selectively, and remember that staying single is always
higher and holier than marriage. 
      But this, in general, is not how we should conduct ourselves within the
household of God.  In the household of God we should receive with thanksgiving all
that God has created for us.  Paul may have had in mind an inward spirit of
thanksgiving in general, but it is more likely that he was saying that we ought to openly
express our thanks before meals. 
      Thus marriage and food, and all of God's other gifts of creation are sanctified
twice over.  First they are consecrated objectively since God brought them into being for
our health and enjoyment.  Second, they are subjectively seen as sacred when we
acknowledge their divine origin and receive them from God with a spirit of
thanksgiving.
      But even within our church asceticism has a hold on us for in our spirituality we
tend to solely look forward to an ethereal heaven, forgetting the promise of a new earth. 
That is, we tend to have a better doctrine of redemption than of creation.  Therefore we
are more grateful for the blessings of grace than the blessings of nature and art. 
Perhaps G. K. Chesterton can put us right with these words:
You say grace before meals.
All right.
But I say grace before the play and the opera,
And grace before the concert and pantomime,
And grace before I open a book,
And grace before sketching, painting,
Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing;
And grace before I dip the pen in the ink. 
      Or as John Stott puts it in his book on I Timothy:
"We should determine, then, to recognize and acknowledge, appreciate
and celebrate, all the gifts of the Creator: the glory of the heavens and of
the earth, of mountain, river and sea, of forest and flowers, of birds, beasts
and butterflies, and of the intricate balance of the natural environment; the
unique privileges of our humanness as we were created in God's image
and appointed his stewards; the joys of gender, marriage, sex, children,
parenthood and family life, and of our extended family and friends; the
rhythm of work and rest, of daily work as a means to cooperate with God
and serve the common good, and of the Lord's day when we exchange
work for worship; the blessings of peace, freedom, justice, and good
government, and of food and drink, clothing and shelter; and our human
creativity expressed in music, literature, painting, sculpture and drama,
and in the skills and strengths displayed in sport.
      "To reject these things is to abandon the faith, since it insults the
Creator.  To receive them thankfully and celebrate them joyfully is to
glorify God, 'who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.'
(I Timothy 6:17b)" 
      Or as someone has succinctly put it, "When I was four, God's goodness was
everywhere.  I hope as I grow older and wiser, that I learn that again."   Or as E. F. Scott
put it "The question at stake is our whole concept of God, are we to think of him as
grudging us our earthly life?  Or are we to find in it a continual proof of his presence
and goodness?"
      Obviously, as a good minister of Christ Jesus, Timothy was to warn the flock of
the coming danger, a danger that to some degree was already at work within the
church, and he was to see to it that they were well grounded in this matter of being
thankful for all that God has created.
      Then on a more personal note to Timothy, and us, Paul encouraged him to stay
away from junk food, pay some attention to remaining physically fit for there is some
value in doing do, but to major in staying spiritually fit.       
     
      In saying this I am not forgetting that God has certainly called some to remain single.  Nor am I
forgetting that Paul, in I Corinthians 7, suggested that singleness does have its advantageous.  But this is
not the general will of God for most of us.  Also, as you well know, fasting has a place within the
Christian life as it allows us to focus on something in our lives which, for whatever reasons, is at the
moment more important than eating.
      It should be noted that not "everything is good," but that "everything created by God is good." 
For creation was followed by the fall which introduced evil into the world and spoiled much of creation. 
Currently, a misuse of the doctrine of creation is the claim by some that homosexuality is good since that
is the way God created some individuals.  It is not uncommon to hear someone say, "I'm gay because
God made me that way, and so I intend to celebrate my homosexuality."  No!   God created male and
female with heterosexual marriage as the intended, and logical, consequence.  Homosexuality is a
disordering of the created order and is sin - i.e. it misses the intended mark of creation. 
      Quoted in Dudley Barker, G. K. Chesterton, A Biography (Constable, 1973), p. 65.
      John Stott, Guard The Truth The Message of I Timothy and Titus, InterVarsity Press, Downers
Grove, IL, 1996, p. 115.

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