ntItimothy4

Caution to students of God's Word - Please remember two things when using our studies: #1. Our commentary is not God's Word. It is only our interpretation or understanding of "His Word" and even though we try our best to be accurate we may or may not be correct. #2. The King James translation, or any other translation, of the original Hebrew text has some words which were given different translations at different places probably because of the interpreters preconceived ideas of what they think God meant to say. For example: According to the notes in the "Drake's Annotated Reference Bible" the Hebrew word hayah in the KJV is Trans. (became) 67 times, (becamest or came to pass) 505 times, (become) 66 times, and (come to pass) 131 times, but for some reason in Genesis 1:2 it is translated (was)! That sure changes the way a person perceives the original creation of the earth, doesn't it? Gen. 1:2 And the earth was (became) without form, ... Having said that, let us continue with our "Key Knowledge" lessons. These are pamphlets containing knowledge, we believe, you must have to fully and accurately unlock and understand the Word of God.

John 15:26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:13-14
[13] Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. [14] He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

This Bible Study was originally written by Roger Christopherson,
published at http://www.theseason.org/

Without the leading by the Holy Spirit, there is no understanding of the truths, for all the truth of the Scriptures are revealed to us by God's Spirit.

"The Mystery of Iniquity."
"Its Characteristics [1-5]."
"Its Requirements [6-12]."
"Defense Against [13-16]."

Many times in the Old Testament God compared Beth-el with the Beth-aven, which is to say, the "house of God", with the "house of nothing, or emptiness". He did this to wake us up to the fact that His Word was not taught there, but that which was taught was man's thoughts and doctrines. These doctrinal books let us know what we should expect by attending a house of God, and it allows us to gage for ourselves whether we are blessed by God, or being robbed by man. It is easy to satisfy in your own mind which applies to your situation, and we do this by listening to the teaching and observing what happens in that church to see whether it aligns with God's Word. If you are being robbed, you will know it. If you have a good church than thank God for it.

The fourth chapter gives us part of that standard whereby we can grade our church to see where we stand in light of the Word of God. Certainly no one is perfect, however it lets us know what we are to do in bringing forth the service in the church body itself.

I Timothy 4:1 "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, hiving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;"

Paul is addressing here what the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit is speaking of specifically, and he is talking about the "latter times"; the times that we are living in today. Evil spirits have a way for bringing their doctrines into a church, and those doctrines of evil spirits enter in the form of a thing that sounds so innocent, yet they have a form that binds you. They start by placing dos and don't that are not in the scripture, but sound so insignificant. Sometimes, they even sound comical when they are first brought up, and at first they appear in a manner that even sounds right, or organized.

This is the way that traditions happen over a long period of time, and in time they are accepted to be of God, when in fact they are entered by a spirit of Satan, and the saints submit to them in innocence. We are living in the latter days and Paul is telling you and I to take a close look at what is being accepted in our houses of God, to see how they have entered into our church and why they are being accepted. Did they come for God, or from one of Satan's seducing spirits. If it came from God, then God's Word through the Prophets, and His disciples, as well as Jesus Himself will endorse and verify that doctrine, or teaching and the things that are accepted as being of God.

We know that we are living in the latter days, since the fig tree was established way back in 1948. That is when the Jews, the people of the tribe of Judah, along with the Kenites that intermixed with them, returned to Palestine and set up that tiny nation called Israel. Jesus established this time in Matthew 24:32 as being the time that the things of the final generation would take place.

Matthew 24:32 "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:"

To be able to understand the parable of the fig tree, you must know what is being talked about in the parable, What the fig tree is, and who the figs are that come from that tree. There are both good and bad figs, and Jeremiah talks about the return of these figs, both the good and the bad figs in Jeremiah 24. The good figs are brother Judah, the offspring of Judah the son of Israel. While the bad figs are thoseKenites that intermingled with the tribe of Judah, took over the duties of the scribes, and priests, and represent themselves as being of Judah, when in fact they lie and are of the synagogue of Satan. The Kenites are the tares of Matthew 13, and the offspring of the house of Rechab, and not of the house of Israel.

I Chronicles 2:55 "And the families of the scribes which dwelt at Jabez [Jerusalem in its unclean state], the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hamath, the father of the house of Rechab."

The Kenites are the bad figs while the brothers of the house of Judah are the good figs, and if you don't know the difference don't worry about it, for God said it is not for us to judge. The angels will do the judging when this earth age is over. But, If one desires to know more, with prayer and supplication, God's Word can reveal it to you.

Matthew 13:39 "The enemy that soweth them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels."

Mathew 13:40 "As therefore the tares are gather and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world [age]."

This is what is going to happen to those tares or Kenites, the offspring of Satan.

Matthew 13:41 "The son of man [Jesus Christ] shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;"

The time of His kingdom, Jesus' kingdom is the end of the Millennium age, which starts at the sounding of the seventh trumpet and ends one thousand years later. That is when the gathering of the tares or Kenites take place. Until that time, the Kenites will continue to be the negative part of the plan of God.

Matthew 13:42 "And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

Matthew 13:43 "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

This is not a discription of the Millennium age but the eternal kingdom, after the Great White Throne of Judgment, for the tares will be gone, cast into the Lake of Fire, and even the memory of them will be erased from our minds.

Back in Matthew 24 however, we are reading about another time frame, a time at the end of this earth age of the flesh and the start of the Millennium, where the last generation will witness these things spoken of about the parable of the fig tree.

Matthew 24:33 "So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors."

"It is near, even at the doors", should read, "He is near, even at the doors." When you see the Antichrist stand, and proclaim himself to be God, and you are still in your flesh body, and the sun, moon and stars are still in the sky, know that the coming of the true Christ is very near, and a matter of days.

Matthew 24:34 "Verily I [Jesus] say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."

We are in the season, and in the last generation for the time stated in I Timothy 4:1 as "the latter days" started when the good and bad figs went back to establish their homeland. Paul is addressing our generation to be aware of what he is going to say in this chapter.

I Timothy 4:2 "Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;"

"Hypocrisy" is the claiming something to be very religious and of God, when in fact it goes completely against God's Word. The one that holds that "hot iron" is Satan, and he though his seducing spirits and doctrines of devils will catch the unsuspecting minds of God's people, and sear the conscience of their minds to where they can't tell the difference between what is from God, and what is of the devil Satan.

When someone was wounded, you sear their wound over with a hot iron, and it sterilizes and prevent impurities from entering the wound. When Satan seared with his hot iron, just the opposite happens; it seals the wound of their mind, and prevents the truth with understanding from entering into their conscience mind. It causes the Christian that has been seared from understanding the truth, and they accept the lies of Satan's seducing spirits, and those doctrines of devils and think that it is truth. The searing over by the hot iron leaves a scar to where the wound is not as sensitive. When that hot iron hits your conscience mind, then your mind is not as sensitive to leading of the Holy Spirit of God as well.

Each time you feed your children with the trash from television, it causes their minds to be less sensitive to the point that many times they have trouble separating what is right from wrong, what is truth from what is a lie, and reality from fiction. What happens to your children and yourself when you allow this to happen, is that they become branded in their minds, they take on a brand or seal, which is also a mark in their minds of Satan who controls the beast of these latter days.

This is why we should train ourselves to hold a thought, watch a subject and object that is being taught in God's Word, whereby we can judge man's doing by it. Therefore we can know if we are getting involved with someone that has been listening to seducing spirits or not.

I Timothy 4:3 "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."

The most important part of this verse is the very part that most Christians, pastors included, skip right over. That part is, "which God hath created to be received..." First lets fix the fact that with thanksgiving, all those things that are stated in God's Word that are able to be received, can be eaten by those that believe and know the truth. Do you know the truth? Do you know those things that are written in God's health laws that are good to be eaten, from those things that are not to be eaten? If you do not know those health laws, it is no wonder that you are poor in health. God did not intent for you to eat garbage cans, and vacuum sweepers. That is what He created certain animals for, to be the garbage cans and vacuum sweepers of the earth. They are the ones that can hold, store and live of the putrefied things on the earth. Your body was not created to do so.

The truth is in God's Word. Preachers are teaching that we can partake of any and everything that we want to, and they say this the their documentation for saying such a thing. They teach that as long as you give thanks for what you eat, you can eat anything. However if that is what you derive from that, you have a problem, you have the hot iron of deception and doctrines of devils that have seared your mind. You are just not paying attention to what God's Word has to say. God's Word doesn't say you may partake of any meat that there is.

Quite the contrary, it says "WHICH GOD HATH CREATED TO BE RECEIVED..." This means that there is a condition applied to what is being said. What conditions then is all the meats that God has said that He created as food as stated in God's Word, those are the ones that we are to eat with thanksgiving. God also created may creatures that are not for consumption, and he listed them in his health laws. The warning is by God that you can't eat those without suffering the consequences, when one shows up in poor heath. Each animal has its own purpose, some are for food while others are not. If you don't pay attention to God's health laws, you are going to be sick, your kids are going to be sick, and you will pay the consequences.

Some of the seducing spirits would have you believe it is alright to pump filth into your veins, and run poisons through your heart, but you are going to suffer for listening to their advice. Then those that listen to that advice are the very ones that blame God when they get sick, when it could have been their own ignorance in the first place. Our Heavenly Father created these bodies, and He gave us a manual for taking care of them and living in good health. That health manual is the health laws, and we have to learn to do it God's Way, otherwise don't complain to Him when sickness comes.

Many times people will pray for healing, and God touches them and gives them good health, and then what do they do right away? They go right back to eating the same filthy scavengers, like pork, shrimp and so on that got them sick in the first place. What did they do, but blame God, and say stupid things like, "I guess the healing did not work, it just didn't take." The healing did take place, but your mind is so seared over that you ran back to the same garbage pit that you were eating of before the healing, and of course the sickness will come back just as it did before.

For an example of this, let's take one of the most popular foods of today, pork. The pig we are told is one of those things that we are not to eat. Why? The pig like many of animals like it, does not have sweat glands. So every thing that they eat that is poison to us is stored in their fat glands and in their fat. What are the things that the farmers feed the pigs? All the garbage that they can get their hands on, that will produce the fat, and gain the weight. That is where the profit is, and that is where bacon, the ribs and all those other choice parts that men cherish so much comes from. A hog doesn't question any food that is set before them, they like getting right down in the mud, and eating the filth that is set before them. That is what they were created for, and that is what they do well.

I hope you get what I am trying to point out here. We do not eat those things, and keep a healthy body. The pig keeps its poisons and stores them up in its fat, and that is what many people eat today that causes their illness. This same problem applies to all those creatures that are named in God's health laws, and when you violate those laws, it may not be a sin, but you surely will pay a price for your ignorance though your health, and that of your family. The cost is what you pay in your medical bills. This is why God said we are not to eat the fat for it "belongs to Me".

Leviticus 7:23 "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, 'Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat."

Leviticus 7:24 "And of the fat of the best that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it."

In these verses, God is instructing Moses to inform His children of the health laws, to learn the truths and to take care of your physical health, just as Paul has again emphasized in 1 Timothy 4:3. God laid out the manner in which our food was to be prepared, as well as how blood was also not to be taken as food. Yet in these latter days, seducing spirits have blinded these teachings in the church houses, and in many churches God's health laws are considered done away with. Satan's seducing spirits are planting those thoughts in your mind, because he would rather that you be sick and blaming God for the fact that you are sick. When you are sick, you lose the blessings of wealth by wage, and people just don't like to around someone that is sick. What good are you for witnessing to others while your down on your back?

This sin has nothing to do with your salvation, but is directed to the health of your physical body.

I Timothy 4:3 "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."

The first part of this verse deals with "forbidding to marry", and this is not concerning celibacy, and the not taking of a wife, as learned from the manuscripts. It has to do with widowhood. Paul talked about this in I Corinthians 7, concerning marriage: If you are going to teach God's Word I would rather that you stayed single as I am, than to see you burn with desire, for it is better then that you marry. The burning isn't referring to burning in hell, but burning with passion for the one that you love. There are churches today that forbid their people to marry when they are divorced, and they have allowed this beauty of God's Word to be used as their hammer over those people. They use the doctrine of seducing spirits to take the freedom that we have in Christ and cover over that price that Jesus Christ paid on the cross. They hide the fact that when one repents of whatever sin that was committed it is forgiven, it is gone and done away with. That frees the person to remarry when another person enters their life, and passion burns within them.

Christianity brings freedom for all sin when those sins are forgiven, and divorce in not an unforgivable sin. When you have repented of whatever sin cause the divorced, then be done with it, put it out of your mind and realize that what ever spirit that causes condemnation of you after repentance is not of God, but of Satan. It is a seducing spirit and if it is a pastor or church board that is throwing it back in your face, be aware that they are open to Satan and his doctrines of devils. Just don't stick around, but seek out those Christians that are open fully to God's Word, and the love and forgiveness that we have in Christ.

There is one other point to bring out here. If a meat is one that God created to be received as food, such as the chicken, beef and so on, then don't allow anyone to tell you that food which was offered to idols is a sin to partake of. Food to be received as God's Word lays out in Leviticus, to those that believe in their heart that Jesus Christ is The Son of God, and have received His sacrifice for their sins, are not partaking of food offered to idols. You are free from all idols because you know that they are nothing but a stick or the raw materials that they are made of.

I Timothy 4:4 "For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:"

"For every creature of God is good," This is a statement, and it is true. All creatures are good and they live and exist exactly as God has purposed that they should live. This is written to those that believe and know the truth, as was stated in the prior verse. Those that believe and know the truth know that God has given us His health laws, and that those laws are to be abided by. This word "creature" as stated here, in the Greek manuscripts is "Ktisma", and it means, "the original formation". So what is this verse really saying? Every thing that God created in its original formation is good. God didn't create any thing bad. The pig is good and the vulture is good for the purpose that they were created for, for the cleaning up of the earth's surface. They are not good to eat but they are for the purpose for which God created them for. All creatures are created for the purpose of keeping an even balance to the environment and the forces of nature.

That is why God set His law, to set the limits as to what is good and what is not good to eat. When you violate the laws of gravity, you could get hurt in a fall; and when you violate the health laws of God, there is also a price to pay, and that is reflected in your health. If you went out and killed all those things that you can't eat, there would be no scavengers to clean up the poisons and toxins, and in time this would cause great physical harm.

However, politically today wicked men are using God's health laws of protection for these rare species for the sake of their own evil and wicked ends. But regardless of the environmentalist's intensions, it is good that those scavengers be protected for they clean up the toxins and the rivers and streams, the dead carcasses on the land, and they make life more bearable for human beings. However, for some things like the mosquito, and the fly it is hard to see the good that they provide, but if God created them, and He said they are good, than they are good in their original formation.

Genesis 1:25 "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good."

It should be no surprise that there are so many errors in the churches of today, for Jesus, Paul and Even Amos has told us that there would be these false doctrines in the latter days.

Amos 8:11 "Behold, the days shall come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:"

Things are being taught which are putting Christians in bondage, rather than keeping them healthy through the truth of God's laws and allowing them to be normal.

Truth brings us into knowledge and allows us to know exactly what we are to eat and what is not to be eaten. Truth is sanctified or made known to us by the Word of God, and through His Spirit when we pray and ask God for His leading and wisdom. It not only instructs us as to our eating habits and health, but also in the times when we should and can marry and when it is not right. Things that are natural with the manner that He has created them for, are to be received and allowed. If something is perverse and against God's ways, such as sodomy, eating of pork and any other thing that God's Word instructs us against, then it is also perverse with God. So we are not to eat, do or talk in a manner that goes against God's Ways. When you marry in God's way, you will be happy and contented. We are to apply God's ways from His Word to whatever we do.

I Timothy 4:6 "If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith, and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained."

When you are in Christ, it is your responsibility to put the brethren in remembrance of all of those things that Paul is bringing up. If you are a minister of Jesus Christ, you don't necessarily have to be behind the pulpit, for we are to be good ministers on our job, in our families, or wherever we may be. We are nourished up by the Words of faith from the Scriptures, and the doctrines that are supported completely within the Word of God. The "good doctrine" is the truth that is put forth, keeping the subject and the object in focus by the Holy Spirit, in the mouth of the writer and directed to the person that it is written to.

What good is it to study God's Word unless it nourishes you? Just like your physical body needs nourishment, so also your soul and spirit need spiritual nourishment. If your soul does not have that nourishment of the truth, you will fall away form God's ways. When you are biblically illiterate, you don't know if a pastor is feeding you from the Word of God, or some fairy-tale from the minds of men. Though you may be well educated in the ways of the world, you do not have the ability to know if someone is feeding you doctrines from Satan or God. This is the frightening thing, that well educated people are unable to look up simple words in Strong's Hebrew and Greek dictionaries to see what words mean, to see if they are being lied to or not. But even more frightening is when Christians are willing to accept a lie, even when the truth is right there before them.

Pastors today most of the time just don't know the difference between the subject and the object of what is being said, and they would rather drift off into their own little dream world. God has told us that their minds have been seared over with the hot iron of Satan's lies and false doctrines. They enjoy being lied to, and they could care less which way they are going. Most Christians today don't care what God's Word says, but they only listen to what the preacher says. Biblical illiteracy does many things that are harmful to both our physical and our spiritual well being.

Truth will nourish you on a solid foundation to where you will know the difference between yes and no, yea, and nay, and you know which is which, because your yea lines up with the Word of God.

I Timothy 4:7 "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto goodliness."

You know how to exercise, for it is when you do the same thing over and over. It could be walking, push-ups, swimming or shooting a basket ball. You do the same thing over and over. We are to also exercise in the Word of God, and we do that when we study His Word and keep those truths fresh in our minds. We may study the same thing many times, yet each time the Holy Spirit gives us something new and fresh to focus our minds upon.

When you exercise in the truth, you focus in on the "ifs", the "which", and all other words that have place a condition to what is being said. That is how you get in good spiritual condition, and ready to do spiritual battle in these latter days. Believe me, if you miss a condition to a promise in God's Word, you may be looking for something that is not coming to you.

"Profane and wives' fables" in the manuscripts has nothing to do with the wife, but it means silly talk. Old men's tales are just as common as old wives tales in doing silly talk, however when a man tells his tales they always seem to stretch a little more when they are retold. The wives' tales pretty much stay the same as the years go by. There is no gender intended in this verse, but Paul is telling us that the truth is truth, and we are to exercise in searching after the truth in all our studying. "Fables" as used here is using non-liturgical meanings and sayings, and counting them as being of God. They say certain things are religious, when in fact it is just silly.

Remember that the purpose of this chapter so that we can compare our churches and what is being taught there with what Christ taught. Paul is calling our attention to some of those things that we are to use in our comparisons, such as food and what we eat, marriage and what is taught about it, and all those other things that is used to bind you by those doctrines and sayings that just aren't in the Word of God. Know them for what they are, just old wives' fables, and pure silliness.

I Timothy 4:8 "For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

This loses a little in the translation. The word "little" as it is used here is in respect for a "little while". When you do physical exercising and get your muscle tone in good shape, it will help you for a little while but if you stop your exercising, it doesn't take long for the flab to come right back. Then in time the short wind comes back, and your blood pressure comes right back up like it was before you exercised in the first place.

Paul is trying to separate your understanding of the flesh from your spirit, and that you exercising your spiritual mind will last a lot longer. Your concentration on the spiritual things of God's Word and using your mind will profit you forever, into the eternity. It profits you because it gives you direction to enter into the eternity, as to what is required of you. The richness of spiritual exercising comes in the wealth of your inheritance that will come to you in the eternity. That wealth can come in this earth age also, for God will add His blessings to you, and for all those that rightly divide the Word and apply it to their lives.

Anytime something that is taught to you sounds complicated or is too far fetched to be true, you are probably being taught incorrectly. The instructor has caused confusion over the Word of God. Therefore, it is time to go back and search it out for yourself, and that is why the Companion Bible (KJV Version ) is so good, for it will break down those terms and idioms, and put it in terms that are understandable. That is also why the scholar student must also have a Strong's numbered Concordance locked in with the numbered Hebrew and Greek dictionary, for it takes you back to the Massorah manuscripts and gives you the meaning that it was intended for. Most people cannot get into the manuscripts today, and even if they could, they just could not understand them. However, these tools of the Bible unlock the hidden meanings for the student, and it gives us spiritual insight.

We are to lock in by outline the subject and the object of each verse or sentence and it gives us the thought that is being carried through. This allows us to pay attention to what we are reading and allows us to rightly divide the Word of God. Then when the "theys" and the "its" are mentioned we know exactly who is being talked about, and what is being said of that subject. So if something doesn't make sense, it means that the teacher or the one reading does not understand the simplicity of the Word in which Christ taught. God's Word is always filled with love and common sense.

I Timothy 4:10 "For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, Who is the Savior of all men specially of those that believe."

It is that "belief" that brings about salvation and the forgiveness of sin, and it straightens your life out to give you peace of mind. It is through that trust that we have in the living God and His Word, that matures us to where strife and confusion is set aside and brings the family together.

Paul is saying that it is important that you learn and teach these things to those around you. It is important that you tell others of the foods to look out for, and what people are to look out for in their instruction of forbidding people to marry. Paul wants us to be able to know those silly fables from the truth when they are spoken, and to be able to draw other attention to the fact that they are just silly fables. Silly fables are running wild in our generation, and the silliness that is being taught today hides itself under the names of denominations, and church doctrines. They cannot be attacked because they have been specially tagged as religious and holy, when in fact they are nothing but garbage.

Today we have laughing churches, we have positive thinking churches, and we have churches that promote just about everything and anything that you can imagine. We even have churches that love their Sodomites, and find room for entertaining the very things that God says that He hates, and it is all done in the name of God and religion. My friend, these are the end times, and we should expect anything, because if men can think of it today, they will make it become a reality to them. I expect some day that someone will start a burping church, after all the church of Satan is already common here today. As a student of God's Word, you have to see these things happening, and it is a mystery as to what some people will do to attract attention, yet many people will listen to those crackpots.

I Timothy 4:12 "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

This letter was written to Timothy, and he was very young at the time of this writing. Paul is telling Timothy not to let the elders put him down because of his age. Because of Timothy's mother and grandmother, Timothy was well grounded in the Word of God. Eunice and her daughter, Timothy's grandmother and mother would not allow Timothy to get away with anything worldly. They both knew the scriptures quite well. Paul is telling Timothy to use those things that he was taught as a child, in the words that he was taught to say, and in the conversation that he used. His mother and grandmother were very generous in love, and they knew and had respect for God, and allowed His Spirit to lead them.

I Timothy 4:13 "Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine."

This is in reference to publicly reading the Word of God, so it would not be Timothy's words, but God's Word which would be read. We are to read and teach this Word, and the doctrines that are in the Scriptures. We are to draw it out clearly with understanding, and the common sense that God has placed within us. That is the way that Christ taught it, and we should base all of our instructions on the Word of God, and in addition, never apologize for the truth you are teaching.

I Timothy 4:14 "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery."

This is referring to the time when the elders or the leaders of a church lay their hands on an person for the sake of ordaining them to a ministry. The gift of teaching and ministering was given by God, just as the right to administering the anointing by the presbytery was also given by God, and when God gives a gift it is without recall. Therefore we are to exercise it when it is done.

I Timothy 4:15 "Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all."

Paul is telling Timothy, as well as you and me living in the latter times, to stop and think on the things that he has just said. If you are going to teach then do it all the way, so that the progress of God's Word may appear to all.

I Timothy 4:16 "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee."

At any time, it is "thyself" that is the hardest to "take heed". The "doctrine" is the teaching that comes from the Word of God. It is the instructions and prophecies from the prophets, and disciples that are laid out in a manner that they can be understood. It is a true honor when you are given a gift of understanding the simple truths that are in God's Word. Of knowing the hidden mysteries that confound the religious leaders, and being able to see the prophecies of God's Word that we can identify with our lives and what is going on around us.

When we get to the point of understanding God's Word for ourselves, then when we are to pass that doctrine or teaching on to others, and their lives are blessed just as you and I are in our understanding of those truths. We are to be grounded in the common sense that Jesus taught, for it is not dead to those with eyes to see and ears to hear the Word of God. It lives in our minds, and even though you suffer a little teasing. When you understand the full meaning of what is going on and the wider scope of things, it just doesn't matter.

When you know what a certain truth means, and you state it to another and they are offended by it, it doesn't mean that you apologize for the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts, and that is life. If those people can be pulled from the fire that is drawing them by their ignorance, by philosophers, and seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, then they need to know the truth. This will give them peace of mind, and they will know that it is God that brings sound doctrine and not the confusion as is going on today. Let the ignorant remain ignorant, but understand the truth that you have received, and enjoy the blessing that only God can give to you.

Our Father is in control of all that is happening, and if there is confusion and misunderstanding, God is allowing it to happen. God provides for His own, and that is why God stated that we are not to take a begging bag with us when we go out to teach. God blesses us through those that have common sense through His Word.

To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals. We pray that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you accomplish both.

doctrine of many of our Christian churches, (The Man on a White Horse)
political direction of our country, (The Man on a Red Horse)
economic direction our country has taken, (The Man on a Black Horse)
and teaching of our schools and media, (The Man on a Pale Horse)

The Four Hidden Dynasties of the New World Order Revelation 6:1-8
"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"
Did you know all four are being ridden by Satan?