Does not 1 Timothy 4:1-5 show that the eating of flesh foods is not only permitted, but that it is the work of evil spirits, and a doctrine of devils, to command anyone "to abstain from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving," since "every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused"?
This question has often been asked, and will no doubt frequently be repeated; but it is very easy of explanation, and we shall take pleasure in answering it as often as it comes our way.
In the first place, let it be understood that no person on earth has the right or authority to command any other person or persons to abstain from meats which God has created to be received, or from those which He has not created to be received. No man on earth is of right master of any other man. Every man is answerable directly and solely to God, and God alone has the right to command man to do or to refrain from doing.
Therefore to the question if it is not the work of evil spirits, and a doctrine of devils, to command anyone to abstain from meats to be received with thanksgiving, the answer must be, yes. Nobody has the right to command anything contrary to God's will, nor even contrary to what He has permitted even though it be harmful. "The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Law-giver, the Lord is our King." (Isaiah 33:22)
But although we have no authority to command, we have authority to teach, and to point out the commands of the Lord. Let us therefore study the word together, to see what the will of the Lord is in this matter; and when we have discovered "that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God," (Romans 12:2) let no one say it is the teaching of devils to counsel men to follow it.
Let us repeat, what everybody can learn for himself by consulting a good dictionary that gives the etymology of words, that the word "meat" is generic, and not specific. That is, it means food in general, and has primarily no reference to a particular class of food. In common talk it is now usually understood to mean flesh meat, and the old use of "meat" to indicate food is almost obsolete; but in the Scriptures, which are translated into the English of three hundred years ago, it means food of any kind whatever, and when the flesh of animals is specially referred to, it is called "flesh."
It is evident, therefore, that the word "meats" in 1 Timothy 4:3 does not define anything. In order to know what particular food is meant, we must take into consideration the relative sentence that qualifies it. What meats are they from which some command that we should abstain? Those "meats" which God has created to be received with thanksgiving.
This sends us back to creation, and to the record of that event we turn. The last thing created was man: and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; (Genesis 2:8-9) "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so." (Genesis 1:29-30)
Here we have the original natural use of the word "meat," and we see that it refers solely to the products of the ground: fruits, grains, and vegetables. The fruits and the grains-seeds-are the meats which God created to be received with thanksgiving. He did not create animals to be eaten either by man or by any other animals; but the green herbs themselves--coarse vegetables and grass--were created to be meat for the beasts and the birds and the creeping things.
Flesh is not in the list of "meats" created either for man or for beasts. Thus we see that, according to God's plan for creation, the flesh of animals is not meat--food--at all. It has become meat--food--only in the process of degeneration and departure from God's original plan.
I am not endeavoring to explain to you who are referred to in 1 Timothy 4:1-6, as teaching doctrines of devils, and forbidding to marry, nor how it is that they command to abstain from meats which God created to be received with thanksgiving; I do not think that I could do it if I should try, and that is not what you have asked me to do.
All I am concerned with is to show that those who teach that the produce of the earth--the fruits and the grains--are the best food for man, do not come into the list. They do not "command" anybody to abstain from flesh meats, although the flesh of animals was not "created to be received with thanksgiving." In the creation, flesh was not given even to the beasts, and much less to man. So even though some over-zealous person should command to abstain from flesh, he would not thereby put himself into the list of those against whom the Spirit expressly warns us. "But God permitted man to kill and eat animals!"
He certainly did, and therefore no one would have any right to command anybody not to do so, even though he were authorized to give commands. But please bear in mind that we are not obliged to do everything that God permits. He permitted Balaam to go at the request of Balak to curse Israel, and even plainly told him to go; yet we have only to recall the beginning of the narrative to learn that Balaam ought not to have gone on the errand. He was determined to do it, however, and God gave His consent.
God did not design that Israel should ever have any other king than himself; but when they insisted on having a king, like the heathen round them, He permitted them to have one, and He himself selected their king for them. The subsequent history of Israel shows, however, that it would have been far better if they had adhered to God's plan for them.
Moses, acting under the instruction of the Lord gave laws regulating polygamy and divorce, "but from the beginning it was not so." (Matthew 19:8)
Thus Christ, "who is the Beginning," (Colossians 1:18) refers us back to the beginning for instruction as to what we ought to do.
Do not understand me to say that the eating of flesh is to be classed with polygamy, as a sin; I have referred to this merely to show that the fact that a thing is permitted does not prove that it is the best thing. Remember that the text speaks of meats which God "created to be received," and not to those which He afterwards permitted to be used. "[God] gives us richly all things to enjoy," (1 Timothy 6:17) allowing us to have whatsoever our souls lust after; yet it is exhibiting much more gratitude, and a higher appreciation of His gifts, when we are satisfied with that which His Love provided for us in the beginning. The nearer we come to the beginning, the nearer shall we be to God.--Present Truth, May 30, 1901.