1 Timothy 4:4

For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
Because sin or iniquity is not a seeking of things evil by nature but an abandonment of the better things, this is found written in Scripture. “Every creature is good.” Every tree that God planted in paradise was good. Man, therefore, did not desire anything evil by nature when he touched the forbidden tree. But by departing from what was better he himself committed an act that was evil.
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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
As there is an unconscious worship of idols and devils in the fanciful legends of the Manichaeans, so they knowingly serve the creature in their worship of the sun and the moon. And in what they call their service of the Creator they really serve their own fancy, and not the Creator at all. For they deny that God created those things which the apostle plainly declares to the creatures of God, when he says of food, “Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it is received with thanksgiving.” This is sound doctrine…. The apostle praises the creature of God but forbids the worship of it. And in the same way Moses gives due praise to the sun and moon, while at the same time he states the fact of their having been made by God. They have been placed by him in their courses—the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night.

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
It is not the uncleanness of meat that I fear, but the uncleanness of an incontinent appetite. .
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Basil the Great

AD 379
This, assuredly, appeared to me to be ridiculous—to vow to abstain from pork. Therefore, teach them to refrain from foolish prayers and promises; nevertheless, allow the use to be a matter of indifference. No creature of God which is received with thanksgiving is to be rejected. Therefore, the vow is ridiculous; the abstinence is not necessary.
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Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394
Let it be observed that there is no such thing in the world as evil irrespective of a will. Evil is not discoverable in a substance apart from willing. Every creature of God is good, and nothing of his “to be rejected.” All that God made was “very good.” But the habit of sinning entered as we have described, and with fatal quickness, into the life of man. From that small beginning spread into this infinitude of evil. Then that godly beauty of the soul which was an imitation of the Archetypal Beauty, like fine steel blackened with vicious rust, preserved no longer the glory of its familiar essence but was disfigured with the ugliness of sin.

Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394
The whole of creation is in inward harmony, since the bond of concord is nowhere broken by the natural opposition. In the same way the divine wisdom also provides a blending and admixture of the sensible with the intelligible nature, so that all things equally participate in the good and no existing thing is deprived of a share in the higher nature. Now the sphere corresponding to the intelligible nature is a subtle and mobile essence, which by virtue of its special nature and its transcending the world has a great affinity with the intelligible. Yet, for the reason given, a superior wisdom provides a mingling of the intelligible with the sensible creation. In that way, as the apostle says, “no part of creation is to be rejected,” and no part fails to share in the divine fellowship. On this account the divine nature produces in man a blending of the intelligible and the sensible, just as the account of creation teaches.

John Chrysostom

AD 407
If it be the creature of God, it is good. For all things, it is said, were very good. Genesis 1:31 By speaking thus of things eatable, he by anticipation impugns the heresy of those who introduce an uncreated matter, and assert that these things proceed from it. But if it is good, why is it sanctified by the word of God and prayers? For it must be unclean, if it is to be sanctified? Not so, here he is speaking to those who thought that some of these things were common; therefore he lays down two positions: first, that no creature of God is unclean: secondly, that if it had become so, you have a remedy, seal it, give thanks, and glorify God, and all the uncleanness passes away. Can we then so cleanse that which is offered to an idol? If you know not that it was so offered. But if, knowing this, you partake of it, you will be unclean; not because it was offered to an idol, but because contrary to an express command, you thereby communicate with devils. So that it is not unclean by nature...

John Chrysostom

AD 407
By speaking thus of things eatable, he by anticipation impugns the heresy of those who introduce an uncreated matter and assert that these things proceed from it…. He lays down two positions. The first is that no creature of God is unclean. The second is that if it were to become so, you have a remedy: seal it, give thanks and glorify God, and all the uncleanness passes away…. So a thing is not unclean by nature but becomes so through your willful disobedience. What then, is not swine’s flesh unclean? By no means, when it is received with thanksgiving and with the seal. Nor is anything else. It is your unthankful disposition to God that is unclean.

Leo of Rome

AD 461
The first cause of sin crept in from the enjoyment of food. What more salutary gift of God does our redeemed liberty use than that the will, which once did not know how to restrain itself from forbidden things, now knows how to restrain itself from lawful things? “Every creature of God is good, and nothing ought to be rejected, which is received with the giving of thanks.” We were not created to seek out all the riches of the world with a foul and shameless greed. We can restrain voluntarily from what is lawful.
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Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
And (as we know) permitted? Are there not some who prohibit to themselves (the use of) the very "creature of God"
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Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

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