Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 1 Timothy 4:3
I remember a message I heard in my early teens about the great whore described in Revelation 17. The man delivering the message identified the great whore as the Roman Catholic church. These many years later, I still believe he was correct. Although the sins described in that chapter refer primarily to spiritual harlotry, the revelations in recent years have proved that Rome is beyond doubt one of the most immoral and corrupt organizations on earth. Proven allegations of sexual predatory behaviour by priests and other papist officials have uncovered widespread abuse that has disgusted and shocked the world. If this behaviour has been so prevalent in our day, it has surely been prevalent throughout the many hundreds of years since Catholicism first came up with its abominable practice of forbidding its priests to marry.
Our text speaks of two crimes of those who oppose the truth of God: forbidding to marry and insisting on vegetarianism. Our text makes it clear that those who believe and know the truth will receive both marriage and meat with thanksgiving. It does not require much effort to uncover the great harm caused by prohibiting these. With Rome, for example, their prohibition of marriage for priests is the direct cause of most of the sexual abuse that is so rampant among them. Those priests, deprived of the natural environment of marriage, have turned their lusts toward those who have been in their charge. We cannot imagine the extend of this great tragedy, nor can we expect it to cease as long as marriage is forbidden by Rome. The prohibition against meat is a more subtle crime with a two-pronged impact. It is a prohibition against God’s provision of animals for our food, denying His purpose in including meat in our diet. It is also a challenge to God’s order by those who would place the lives of animals above the lives of human beings, as the so-called animal rights organizations would teach. All of these things show how deeply depraved humanity can become when any of the truths of the Word of God are set aside.
We ignore any part of the Scriptures at our peril. And we include all of the Scriptures for our blessing. We must never forget that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17). If we believe and receive all of the Word of God, we will not fall into error and sin. -Jim MacIntosh