Friday, June 09, 2006

1 Timothy 4:3-5: Chen's Wedding Verses

3who (false teachers) forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer-1 Tim. 4:3-5



During our wedding ceremony, Pastor John kinda made fun of me for picking these verses (it seems obscure and not a typical wedding verse), so I wanted to briefly give some reasons why I chose them. These verse teach and remind me that:

1. God is creator of all things good, including marriage.

3who (false teachers) forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4For everything created by God is good

2. God's good gifts, like marriage, are to received with thanksgiving by Christians

God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,

3. God's gifts are good or "made holy" by 2 things: 1) the word of God and 2) prayer

5for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer

- I believe God makes his gifts holy by "the word of God" by him declaring it so, that is, he is the authority and source of what's good or bad. We see this in the creation narrative in Genesis, by which God declares his creation as "good".

- I also believe God's gift are made holy by thankful prayer from Christians (v.3 and 5), that is, the goodness of God's gift must result in praises to the glory of the Creator.


Therefore, I chose these verses because it reminds my wife and I that the goodness of marriage originates from God and is also conditoned if it is received with praises to God by us (and others).

4 comments:

JTT said...

yay! you guys are back! :) dan, i think you did a great job choosing your wedding verses. married life is fun, eh?

Anonymous said...

Welcome back and thanks for your supportive comments at my blog. These days are going to try all Presbyterians, so we can be thankful that you are happily married.

There is a story of a particular Puritan pastor who was in the midst of a church controversy, yet was personally serene and unstressed by all of it. So a minister friend asked him, "How can you be so at ease, during all of this?" To which the pastor responded, "That is simple: I am happy at home!"

I think that is a nice prescription for all of us!

(Nice verse that you selected for the service, too!)

Benjamin P. Glaser said...

Congrats on your marriage. Much blessings to you and your wife.

Anonymous said...

Nice.

Congrats to the both of you!

Jimmy