1 Timothy 4:3

1 Timothy 4:3 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)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.
• New International Version (NIV)They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.
• English Standard Version (ESV)who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
• New King James Version (NKJV)forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

Context of 1 Timothy 4:3

1God's Spirit tells us clearly that, in later times, some people will stop believing the message about Jesus Christ. Instead, they will listen to bad spirits who want people to believe wrong things. They will listen to the message that comes from demons. 2The people who teach those false things are hypocrites. They no longer understand that what they teach is wrong. They say that it is wrong for anyone to marry. They tell people not to eat certain kinds of food. But God made those foods for people to eat! We should understand God's true message and trust him. Then we will receive the food that he has given us and we will thank him for it. 4Everything that God has made is good. So we should not refuse anything that he has made. Instead, we should receive it and thank God for it. 5God has said that it is good. We should pray that he will bless it. Because of that, it becomes good and clean for us to eat.

1 Timothy 4:3 word by word

κωλυόντων γαμεῖν, ἀπέχεσθαι βρωμάτων ἃ ὁ θεὸς ἔκτισεν εἰς μετάλημψιν μετὰ εὐχαριστίας τοῖς πιστοῖς καὶ ἐπεγνωκόσιν τὴν ἀλήθειαν.Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• ·ὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588
• Forbiddingκωλύωkōluō · to preventG2967
• to marryγαμέωgameō · to marryG1060
• to abstain fromἀπέχωapechō · to have in fullG568
• meatsβρῶμαbrōma · foodG1033
• whichὅςhos hē ho · whichG3739
• Godθεόςtheos · GodG2316
• hath createdκτίζωktizō · to createG2936
• toεἰςeis · towardG1519
• be receivedμετάληψιςmetalēpsis · partaking ofG3336
• withμετάmeta · with/afterG3326
• thanksgivingεὐχαριστίαeucharistia · thankfulnessG2169
• of them which believeπιστόςpistos · faithfulG4103
• andκαίkai · andG2532
• knowἐπιγινώσκωepiginōskō · to come to knowG1921
• the truthἀλήθειαalētheia · truthG225

Cross-references for 1 Timothy 4:3

• Daniel 11:37This king will not respect the gods that his ancestors worshipped. He will not even respect the god that women love. He will not respect any god. He will think that he is greater than all the gods.
• 1 Corinthians 7:28But if you do marry, that is not wrong. And if a young woman marries, that is not wrong. But people who marry will have many troubles during their life together. I want to save you from problems like that.
• Hebrews 13:4When a man and a woman have married each other, they must each respect the marriage. Husbands and wives must only have sex with each other. God will punish anyone who has sex with another person's husband or wife. He will punish anyone who has sex in a wrong way.
• Romans 14:3People who eat anything must not think that they are better than people who eat only vegetables. Also, people who eat only vegetables must not judge other people who eat anything. They are not doing anything wrong, because God himself has accepted them.
• 1 Corinthians 8:8But the food that we eat will not help us to please God. If we do not eat certain food, that will not make us worse. If we do eat that food, it will not make us better.
• Colossians 2:20Remember that your old nature has died with Christ. So the powerful spirits that rule this world no longer have any authority over you. You do not need to serve them, because you do not belong to this world now. You do not need to obey their rules.
• Hebrews 13:9Some people teach all kinds of strange new things. Do not let them lead you away from God's true message. It is good that God is very kind to us. That is what makes us strong inside ourselves. Rules about what foods we should eat do not make us strong like that. Those rules have never helped the people who tried to obey them.
• Genesis 1:29Then God said, ‘Listen! I now give to you every plant on the earth as your food. I give you every plant that has seeds in it. I give you every tree that has fruit with a seed in it. I give them to you for your food.
• Genesis 9:3You may now eat anything that lives and moves. Before, I gave you the green plants to eat. Now I give you everything to eat as your food.
• Ecclesiastes 5:18But I realized that there is one good thing for people to do. We should be happy to eat and to drink. And we should enjoy the hard work that we do on the earth. That is what God wants us to do during the short time that he has given us on this earth.
• Acts 10:13Then Peter heard a voice that said to him, ‘Peter, stand up and kill some of these animals. Then you can cook them and eat the meat.’
• 1 Corinthians 6:13Some of you may say, ‘God made food to feed our bodies. That is why people have stomachs. But one day God will destroy both stomachs and food.’ Yes, but the Lord gave our bodies to us. Our bodies belong to the Lord. So you should not use your bodies to have sex in a wrong way.
• 1 Timothy 4:4Everything that God has made is good. So we should not refuse anything that he has made. Instead, we should receive it and thank God for it.
• 1 Samuel 9:13When you go into the town, you will find him before he goes up there. The people will not start to eat until he comes. First, he must bless the sacrifice. Then he will eat with the people who are there. Go up into the town now and you will find him.’
• Matthew 14:19Then he said to the large crowd, ‘Sit down on the grass.’ He took the five loaves of bread and the two fish. He looked up to heaven and he thanked God for the bread and the fish. Then he broke the bread into pieces. He gave the pieces of bread to his disciples, and they gave them to the crowd.
• Matthew 15:36Then he took the seven loaves and the fish in his hands and he thanked God for them. Then he broke the bread and the fish into pieces and he gave the food to his disciples. The disciples gave the food to the people.

Commentaries on 1 Timothy 4:3

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 3Forbidding to marry - These hypocritical priests pretending that a single life was much more favorable to devotion, and to the perfection of the Christian life. This sentiment was held by the Essenes, a religious sect among the Jews; and we know that it is a favourite opinion among the Romanists, who oblige all their clergy to live a single life by a vow of continency. To abstain from meats - Both among the heathens, Jews, and Romanists, certain meats…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 3Forbidding to marry - That is, “They will depart from the faith through the hypocritical teaching - of those who forbid to marry;” see notes on 1 Timothy 4:2. This does not necessarily mean that they would prohibit marriage altogether, but that it would be a characteristic of their teaching that marriage would “be forbidden,” whether of one class of persons or many. They would “commend” and “enjoin” celibacy and virginity. They would regard such a state…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-5Paul’s plain teaching contrasts with the false teachings he criticizes (3:16).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 33. Sensuality leads to false spiritualism. Their own inward impurity is reflected in their eyes in the world without them, and hence their asceticism (Tit 1:14, 15) [Wiesinger]. By a spurious spiritualism (2Ti 2:18), which made moral perfection consist in abstinence from outward things, they pretended to attain to a higher perfection. Mt 19:10-12 (compare 1Co 7:8, 26, 38) gave a seeming handle to their "forbidding marriage" (contrast 1Ti 5:14); and the…Read the comment

Topics related to 1 Timothy 4:3

• Animals
• Apostasy
• Asceticism
• Celibacy
• Commandments
• Doctrines
• Food
• Marriage
• Minister, Christian
• Prayer
• Thankfulness
• Truth

In the dictionaries

• God
• god, false god, goddess, idol, idolater, idolatrous, idolatry
• Attendance
• Charge
• Example
• Faithful
• Godliness
• Marriage
• Nourish
• Presbytery

Commentaries on 1 Timothy 4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings