It's ALL Good!

“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1Tim 4:4-5).

Somewhere along the line we fell for a lie. We bought into the goofy idea that God is holding out on us. For years, I pictured Him as some supernatural Ebenezer Scrooge. Knowing Jesus meant no fun. I thought accepting the Good News was goodbye to the good stuff. 

But nothing could be any further from the truth about the Truth. God is the ultimate Giver. It’s at the core of who He is. He gives so we can enjoy. John Piper likes to say, “He is most glorified in us when we are the most satisfied in Him.” He gave us Creation to enjoy. He gives us His Son so that we may have overflowing and abundant life to enjoy. God is the Great Giver. It’s ALL good!

There are folks who try to perpetuate the lie of a stingy God. They try to tell us that the only way to true holiness is through denial and rejection of anything that brings us pleasure. It’s the doctrine of “if it feels good, DON’T do it!” It’s self-salvation by subtraction. Self-righteousness by rejection. They dupe us into thinking the way to please God is by grabbing a monk’s robe and taking a vow of poverty. I hate to think “Celibate Good Times” is the number one tune down at the local monastery. 

Religious con artists have been selling this scam for centuries. False teachers had distracted the followers of Jesus to avoid not only marriage and the all-you-can-eat buffet (1Tim 4:1-3). Don’t touch this. Don’t eat that. Don’t even think about enjoying anything. Self-salvation by subtraction. Self-righteousness by rejection. 

Paul says that may sound super duper spiritual but it couldn’t be any further from what the Great Giver has for us. “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (v4-5). He’s no Almighty Miser. God is the Great Giver! He gives so we can enjoy. It’s ALL good!

The apostle makes his point to Pastor Timothy by going back to the beginning. Not the beginning of the letter. Not the beginning of the year. I mean THE Beginning. Creation. “For everything created by God is good” (v4). Paul flips back to the opening pages of Scripture when our Creator gets busy crafting the universe. Grab a front row seat for the first moments of history. Each time our great big God speaks, great big stuff happens (Gen 1). Light. Night. Day. Oceans. Land. Outer Space. Plants. The Sun. The Moon. Animals. Our first parents. It’s all good!

I mean, it’s ALL good. Every. Single. Thing. If God made it, it comes with a supernatural stamp of approval. Moses makes the point six times in Genesis (Gen 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). Paul drives it home once again to Tim. “For everything created by God is good” (v4). In case you’re wondering just how much of God’s handiwork he’s talking about, the apostle says “everything.” This is the Greek word pas. When you do an exhaustive word study using all the lexicons and dictionaries, you find out it means “everything.” The whole enchilada. It’s ALL good!

The ESV uses “created” to translate the original Greek ktisma. It describes the result of God’s creative activity, any creature or part of creation. The term emphasizes forming and shaping out of nothing. God started from scratch…except WITHOUT the scratch! He generously created the entire universe from total nothingness. Smart folks who know Latin call it ex nihilo. That simply means “out of nothing.” Creation didn’t come with a starter kit. The recipe is simple. God+Nothing=Everything. And it’s ALL good!

Paul’s words here in verse 4 echo the scene at end of God’s first work week. On Friday afternoon, our Creator kicked back to take it all in. “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day” (Gen 1:31). Forget an endorsement from Consumer Reports. Don’t worry about a five-star review on Yelp. God gives creation His divine stamp of approval. Take His word for it. When he creates everything. It’s ALL good!

So where did we get the wonky idea that God is stingy and that a lot of stuff is taboo? Once again, let’s go back to Eden and check in on our first parents. Let me refresh your memory. Our Creator had given them the entire garden to enjoy with the exception of the fruit of one single tree (Gen 2:16). God graciously rolled out the red carpet for them to the greatest all-inclusive resort the universe has ever seen. And do I need to remind you about the part where their naked (Gen 2:25)? Yeah, it’s ALL good!

That’s when satanic snake conned Adam and Eve into thinking God was holding out on them (Gen 3:1-5). Just a quick observation here. If you happen to run across a talking snake, run away and run away quickly. But they didn’t. They listened. They rebelled. They ate (Gen 3:6-7). In the process, they fractured humanity’s relationship with God and invited sin into His perfect creation. The result was a broken world. And we’re the ones who broke it. “Everything created by God is good” (v4). Whatever is bad about the universe is our fault. 

Flipping back to 1 Timothy, Paul tells Tim that “nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (v4). If God made it, it’s good. There’s no list of banned foods or activities. Sure, there was that time Yahweh gave Moses dietary restrictions for His chosen people (Lev 11). But that all changed the day God dropped a giant picnic blanket down in front of Peter filled with all sorts of kosher AND non-kosher goodies (Acts 10:11). Not once, but three times. The disciple Jesus called Rocky told our gracious God thanks but no thanks (Acts 10:14). The heavenly voice made it clear to Pete, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (Acts 10:15 NIV). In other words, bacon is back on the menu.

Whatever God makes, we’re shouldn’t reject but receive and ENJOY! We’re to be grateful to the Great Giver. Paul instructs us to do so “with thanksgiving” (v4). This is the Greek noun eucharistia, which means gratitude, appreciation, and recognition of the gift. It’s where Roman Catholics get their term Eucharist for the Lord’s Supper. The word literally means “good (eu-) grace (-charistia).” Good gracious is God gracious! Be grateful to the Great Giver for everything He provides. Thank Him for it all because it’s ALL good!

The apostle writes that all our Creator gives us “is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (v5). Does reading the Bible to my peanut butter sandwich and then praying over it do the trick? I’ve got a sneaking suspicion here that “the word of God” here isn’t talking about Scripture. Remember the method Yahweh used to create back in Genesis 1? “And God said” (Gen 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 29). He simply made the divine command and stuff happened. “And it was so” (Gen 1:7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30). Everything from nothing simply through the incredible power of God’s words. He created it all holy by His very words. 

One of the most important ways that we acknowledge the goodness of His gifts to us is through “prayer” (v5). There’s no real magic in saying grace before you eat. You won’t find that command anywhere in the Bible. But it IS a wonderful opportunity to thank our Great Giver for all that He’s done. Jesus thanked His Dad for the seven fish sandwiches He used to unleash a seafood buffet for 4,000-plus people (Mt 15:16). Tell God how much you grateful you are for His generosity. Thank God. It’s ALL good!

So how do we apply Paul’s words here in a letter to a first century pastor? First of all, remember that “everything created by God is good” (v4). Don’t buy the lie that He’s holding out on us. He’s MUCH more generous than we could ever believe. Receive His good gifts. Don’t reject what He has for you. Life is to be enjoyed! 

Jesus didn’t come to give you a bland and narrow life. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). Life overflowing. Life without limits. Now don’t miss the point that He gives us give us restrictions and guidelines for our own benefit. The beauty of obedience to His rules for life lead to abundance. Who saw THAT coming?!? Thank our Great Giver. The bottom line in applying this truth? Life is to be enjoyed! It’s ALL good!