But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
The Spirit plainly warns that false teachers will come, placing all holiness in outward ceremonies while they shadow the true spiritual worship of God. Men love hypocrisy by nature, and Satan finds it easy work to persuade them that God is honored by ceremonies rather than by the heart.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 Timothy 4:1-16
Good ministers stir up remembrance of what believers already know; we are slow to learn and apt to forget the things of God. While you teach others, you teach yourself, and this is how ministers grow in faith alongside their brethren.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 Timothy 4:6-16
But refuse profane and old wives' fables,.... Either Jewish ones, the traditions of the elders; or those of the Gnostics, concerning God, angels, and the creation of the world; or those doctrines of demons, and which forbad marriage, and commanded abstinence from meats before mentioned; which are called profane, because impious and ungodly, and old wives' fables, because foolish and impertinent; and which were to...