Everything Created by God is Good
Perhaps if you are like me, you have met Christians who seem to take personal piety to another level. They are so intent on living lives of separation and holiness, that they have almost tipped the scales in the other direction so that they are not able to enjoy the good things that God has given to us. To them, doing the holier thing is always doing the harder thing. Sometimes this is called asceticism, which is the intentional denial of pleasure or comfort, typically for religious reasons. This is nothing new, if we rewind the clock 1500 years or so, we see this same thing with the advent of the monastic lifestyle. Men locked themselves away in monasteries because they desired to live lives of purity and holiness, and they thought if they could remove the temptations and allurement of the world (the externals), they would grow in holiness. History however, proves the error in their thinking. As Jesus said, it is not what a man puts into his body that corrupts him (the externals), but what comes from his heart that defiles a man (Matt 15:11). But even further back, in the time of the apostle Paul this was an issue. He warns the church in Colossae that man-made traditions and teachings – like asceticism – had little value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh (Col 2:20-23).
Easy Error?
There is however, another error in both monasticism and asceticism, an error that we can slip into unless we understand the teaching of Scripture. Now you might say, “I don’t think I am in danger of moving to a monastery anytime soon,” but bear with me. The error comes in the form of thinking that what God has created for us and for our enjoyment, is actually bad for us. In an attempt to distance ourselves from the sin that so easily entangles, we sometimes over calibrate and find ourselves rejecting things that God has given to us as good gifts. This also is not a new problem, and Paul again deals with this as he writes to his protégé Timothy. Consider 1 Timothy 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.”
Isn’t it interesting that Paul considers the rejection of what God made for our good a departure from the faith? That is serious! Apparently, there were false teachers who were making the rounds in the early church, inventing their own brand of legalistic “Christianity,” telling people that if they really wanted to be holy, if they really wanted to please God, then they would reject such and such, or abstain from these certain things. Paul does not hide his feelings for this kind of teaching, intensifying his language as he calls this, “The teaching of demons.” Ouch.
Marriage & Food
Paul gives two examples: marriage and food. Both of these things God has created for the enjoyment of his people, and also as a way for us to understand in greater detail his great love and provision for us. So let’s ask the question, what do we lose if we do away with marriage and good food?
In God’s good design, there is much pleasure to be had in marriage. Companionship, sexual intimacy, shared experiences, emotional support, the raising of children, all these things are designed by God to be sources of joy and pleasure for his people. Beyond the physical aspect, there is also the clear picture of Christ and the church, opportunities to practice godly submission and Christ-like headship, spiritual accountability, and covenant keeping, all of which are things God has created for our good. What about food? Have you ever considered food to be a good gift of God’s? He could have created us to survive only on saltine crackers and water, but as a demonstration of his goodness and care, he allows us to enjoy the varied expressions of culinary creativity. A fresh salad made from garden vegetables, a slow-cooked roast with potatoes and carrots, ice-cold lemonade, homemade bread, and on the list could go (notice I didn’t mention seafood!). The point is, God has given us all of these things for our enjoyment! But not as a means of our enjoyment only.
Twice in these five verses Paul says that the good things God has created are meant to be “received with thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving to who? To the chef? To the pastor for performing the marriage ceremony? No! Thanksgiving is to be given to God because he designed these things and gave them to his people as gifts so that when we enjoy them in the way they were designed to be enjoyed, he gets the glory. This happens when, in the enjoyment of these good things, we draw attention to the truth that they come from him.
Now can you see the error that lies in rejecting what God has made? It robs God of glory and recognition and thanksgiving if we turn into functional monks and deprive ourselves of God’s good gifts, because his good gifts are meant to point us to him.
The “How”
Lastly, notice what Paul says in verses 4-5: 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 words “made holy” in verse 5 are a good translation of the Greek word hagiázō which means to separate from the profane and dedicate to God. We could also use the word sanctified. Why would Paul say that these things, which God created and are therefore good, be in need of sanctification? Aren’t they already made holy because God made them? What Paul is acknowledging here is something you and I already know. That in our sinfulness, mankind takes God’s good gifts, the things he has created for our enjoyment, and we distort them. We pervert them. We exploit them in our selfishness.
The institution of marriage has been under fire in our culture for decades now. Things like divorce, pornography addiction, unfaithfulness, polygamy, spousal abuse, neglect, the legalization of same-sex “marriage,” and the wide-spread acceptance of cohabitation have caused many people to minimize the value and glory of marriage. It needs to be taken back. It needs to be sanctified. Much of the same has happened with food. Granted, in Paul’s day there were other issues of food being offered to idols, or used in pagan religious ceremonies, but even today, many of us idolize food. We turn to food when we are depressed or anxious. We promote ourselves as food-snobs who will only eat the highest quality fare. We have turned food into something that says more about us and our preferences, than it says about God and his glory. So for these and other reasons, Paul says that these things need to be sanctified, and he says this will happen through the word of God and prayer.
Here is how this works: when we read the Bible, we come to see that God is a generous and gracious provider. He has created us in his own image and given us appetites and desires for the good things he has made. The scriptures also tell us that sin has corrupted everything, and that in our sin we have turned from worshiping the creator to worshiping created things (like marriage or food). But the Bible also tells us about Jesus, who came and died for us so that he might free us from slavery to our own passions and instead transform those passions into opportunities to honor and glorify God. Prayer then is the language we use to confess our sins to God, to ask him to help us honor him in the enjoyment of his gifts, and to express our thankfulness (1 Tim 4:3,4) to him for being a good and gracious king. This is not an invitation to excess, nor is it permission to throw caution to the wind and indulge your every desire. But as Christians, we need to have a theology of enjoyment. We must understand the world God created for us, and how we can maximize our enjoyment of God by enjoying the things he has made.
“For everything 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”