1 Timothy 4:1

False Teachers mar the Truth of the Incarnate Redeemer

1. Now the Spirit speaketh The connexion is this. The teachers and ministers of the Church must hold her central doctrine. It stands strong and firm a rock pillar; -Christ the Son of the living God," (1) incarnate, (2) redeemer of the world. But there will be, notwithstanding, false teachers, evil heresies, subverting this great mystery of Godliness. See Bp Wordsworth's note. -For example, forbidding to marryis heresy, since by His incarnation the Son of God has married our Nature, has espoused to Himself a Church and so has sanctified marriage. Ephesians 5:23-32. Commanding to abstain from meatsis heresy, since if (as is implied in the command) the flesh was created by the evil principle, and was therefore unclean, God could not have taken human flesh and united it for ever to the Godhead: and it is heresy too, since Christ, the second Adam, recovered for us the free use of all the creatures of God and recovered for them their original benediction."

-The Spirit," as very frequently, put alone for -the Holy Spirit"; where-the Spirit saith expressly" and distinctly that these heresies will arise, is not clear. The words of our Lord (Matthew 26:11), of the prophets in various Christian Churches, of St Paul (2 Thessalonians 2:3) are referred to. But it may be best to take the passage here as itself the new and more explicit utterance by the Spirit in St Paul of what is coming; in a manner similar to St Paul's statement at Miletus of what would befall himself and the Church at Ephesus, -the Holy Ghost testifieth unto me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me … I know that … from among your ownselves shall men arise speaking perverse things." Acts 20:23; Acts 20:29.

expressly The Greek word is postclassical and occurs here only in N.T. As applied to the operation of the Spirit it is very remarkable as implying more than illumination or influences direct communication understood to be such by the recipient.

in the latter times Perhaps as R.V. in later times, as distinguishing this phrase from -the last days," 2 Timothy 3:1. So Huther, -The former points simply to the future, the latter to the last time of the future." But the distinction must not be too much pressed: the -later times" predicted here are surely the -last hour" spoken of by St John (1 John 2:18) some 25 years later, if, as Bp Westcott says of the date of that letter, -this may be fixed with reasonable likelihood in the last decade of the first century." He adds on 1 John 2:18, -the last days are found in each of the seasons of fierce trial which precede the several comings of Christ. The phrase marks a period of critical change."

shall depart from the faith R.V. fall away, as the parent of a word afterwards used still more definitely, -apostate." -The faith" objectively as above.

seducing spirits Here opposed to -the Spirit," as in 1 John 4:6, giving the history of what is here prophecy, we have the cognate substantive: the adjective -deceiving" or -deceiver" occurs Matthew 27:63, -that deceiver said," and 2 Corinthians 4:8, but is used in 2 John 1:7, evidently with reference to the same heresy as here. The substantive has been rendered by A.V. sometimes -deceit," sometimes -error;" by R.V. always -error." These deceiving spirits, as Bp Ellicott says, are the spiritual emissaries of Satan which work in their hearts; cf. Ephesians 6:12. See 1 John 4:3, where the proof of a spirit being -not of God" is the failure to confess the Incarnation. -The many false spirits represent one personal power of falsehood, the prince of the world (John 12:31), the devil, whose "children" the wicked are (1 John 3:10). The many false prophets stand in a relation towards the Spirit like that which the "many Antichrists" occupy towards Christ. Through them evil spiritual powers find expression." Westcott.

doctrines of devils The last sentence seems an exact paraphrase of this clause, the instructions given by the evil spirits to the false teachers used by them as -their organs through whom to speak." -Devils" or -demons" is clearly thus a subjective genitive. The word -demon" in general classical usage signified intermediate beings, the messengers of the Gods to men. The notion of evildemons was due to the later influences of the East, and in LXX. the word is generally used of the heathen idols, Psalms 95:3; cf. 1 Corinthians 10:19-20; but Josephus employs it always of evil spirits, Bell. Jud. vii. 6, § 3. Cf. Acts 19:12-13; James 2:19. From the N.T. we gather certainly that the demons are agents of Satan in his work of evil, probably that they must be the same as -the angels of the devil," Matthew 25:41; Revelation 12:7; Revelation 12:9, -the principalities and powers" against whom we -wrestle." See Bp Barry, Dict. Bib.