Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them who believe and know the truth.
All Commentaries on 1 Timothy 4:3 Go To 1 Timothy 4
Basil the Great
AD 379
It should also be laid down as essential that continency is inexoably demanded of combatants fo godliness, so that they may bing the body into subjection, “fo evey athlete execises selfcontol in all things.” Howeve, to avoid being classed with the enemies of God who ae seaed in thei conscience and, theefoe, abstain fom food which God has made fo the faithful to patake of with thanksgiving, we should taste each dish when occasion offes so as to indicate to those looking on that “all things ae clean to the clean” and that “evey ceatue of God is good and nothing to be ejected that is eceived with thanksgiving; fo it is sanctified by the wod of God and paye.” The aim of continency must nevetheless be kept in mind also, to the extent that we satisfy ou need with the plaine foods and those necessay to sustain life, avoiding the evil of taking ou fill of them and abstaining absolutely fom those foods whose sole pupose is to give delight. The Long Rules, q...
