1 Timothy 4:3b-5 which God created for sharing with thankfulness by the faithful and have knowledge of the truth, 4because everything created by God is good and nothing is rejected if received with thanksgiving; 5for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.
Paul gives the theological principle for eating in verse 3. God created all food, therefore all food should be accepted with thankfulness. It is important to remember the context and that Paul is not writing about food that might be considered healthy or unhealthy but about the religious teachings of the false teachers. Obviously, some foods and drinks should be avoided because they will cause health problems. Paul builds his argument on creation theology and how God pronounced everything good. The logic is, if God created it, it must be good. The opponents may have had a skewed interpretation of Old Testament law and were putting a burden upon the shoulders of the Ephesians, especially the Gentile converts.
Food is made for sharing with thankfulness. Sharing (metalēmpsin) is a rare word only found here in the New Testament and has the sense of enjoying what we receive. Food is more than for survival but can be a great blessing from God to be enjoyed. God created many tasty foods and given us sensitive taste buds. It is a great experience when these two come together. It is permissible to eat any food because God created it all. Those who believe and know the truth of the gospel should realize the freedom Christians have. The opponents were twisting freedom in Christ and using the law to bind people to a set of skewed principles, which could lead to divisions within the church and ethical confusion.
Verse 4 gives the basic theological premise by which Paul views eating and drinking. God pronounced everything good when he created it, and this included things that humanity can eat. The key factor is that food is received with thanksgiving. Paul repeats the idea of thanksgiving and explains its importance in relation to food. The opponents had rejected (apoblēton) what God had declared good, and thereby twisting God’s pronouncement of blessing upon creation. Every meal becomes a sacrament because of God’s pronouncement of good. Eating can become a form of worship that begins with a word of thanksgiving. That is why it is important for Christians to pause before eating to acknowledge God as creator who has provided the nourishment of the food.
Verse 5 gives the reason (for) for offering thanksgiving for meals and what makes food and drink such a blessing and spiritually safe thing to partake. The reason is that the food has been sanctified (hagiazetai) or made holy by 1) God’s word and 2) prayer. Any food can be sanctified because it has been anointed through our thanksgiving. Food itself is not clean or unclean but the one who eats it. The one condition to this is if eating a certain food or drinking a certain beverage violates the law of love and causes cause someone else to fall into sin (Romans 14:14; 1 Corinthians 8). The word of God is not specified but could be what God teaches through Scripture and the gospel. Prayer is encountering God and acknowledging God’s supremacy and power. Prayer expresses in a personal way what Scripture teaches. It takes the theology of the Bible and brings it down to real life.
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