1 Timothy 4:5

for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer Rather, through. The -word of God" is most commonly in N.T. -the gospel" generally, Act 4:31, 1 Corinthians 14:36, Col 1:25, 1 Thessalonians 2:2; 1Th 2:8-9; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Revelation 20:4; sometimes more pointedly -the word which God speaksthrough His messengers or immediately in the heart of each man, Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23; Titus 1:3; sometimes still more specifically, the very Son of God Himself, the Word incarnate, Joh 1:1, 1 John 1:1; Revelation 19:13. But it is also the record of God's will and truth as declared by the Old Testament lawgivers and prophets, Mark 7:13; Romans 9:6. And so with Huther, Ellicott, Conybeare, Lightfoot and Alford, we understand it here of O.T. declarations of God's creating and sustaining goodness incorporated in the -invocation." We take it to imply that the thanksgiving was commonly made in some Scriptural words, such as those quoted from a primitive grace before meat (Apostolical Constitutions, vii. 49), which begins -Blessed art thou, O Lord, Who nurturest me from my youth up, Who givest food to all flesh." Compare the Latin Version of Psalms 145:15:

Oculi omnium in Te sperant, Domine,

Et Tu das escam illis in tempore.

The word for -prayer" here is the same as that rendered -intercessions" in 1 Timothy 2:1, where the meaning is discussed. Here perhaps it is chosen as more directly expressing the recognition of God's particular providence; each recipient of -daily bread," after reciting the very words of God speaking to him and giving him every good gift, is to speak in his turn face to face with God and pray with thankful heart for blessings to others, - OurFather, give usour daily bread." The wholelife of a Christian (and therefore everything of which he partakes) is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.

The bearing of this passage on the social and religious question of total abstinence from alcoholic drink is seen in the following note of Fairbairn; all the better because he is evidently not thinking specially of that particular form of abstinence:

-Scripture indeed does not deny that a person may occasionally abstain from certain meats or from marriage, with advantage to his own spiritual life or the good of the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:16-17; Matthew 17:21; Matthew 19:12; 1 Corinthians 7:32-37). But in such cases the alternative is not put as between a relatively pure and perfect state by the one course, and an impure or defective one by the other; but the one is presented merely as affording opportunities or helps for prosecuting more freely and unreservedly the work of faith than can well be done in the other. If temporary fasting should dispose and enable one to fight more successfully against the lusts of the flesh, or if by abstaining from marriage one could in particular spheres of labour, or in certain conjunctures of the Church's history, more effectually serve the interests of the Gospel than otherwise, then the higher principles of that Gospel, the nobler ends of a Christian calling, will undoubtedly justify the restraint or the sacrifice. But to do this is only to subordinate a less to a greater good: it creates no factitious distinctions in respect to the allowable or forbidden, holy or unholy, in the ordinary relationship and circumstances of life; and calls for a rejection of the natural good in these only when it may be conducive as means to a definite spiritual end."