Sometimes when wondering where to begin with explaining who God is it is best to simply go to the beginning – of the Bible and of creation. In the opening verse of the Bible we read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). The beginning spoken about here was not God’s beginning; God doesn’t have a starting point; He is from everlasting to everlasting (Ps. 90:2; 103:17); and Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, felt no need to offer an introductory apologetic for God’s eternal self-existence.
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15 for some have already turned aside to follow Satan. (1 Tim. 5:15 NASB)
This verse shows why Paul’s previous instruction was so urgent (vs.14): Some younger widows had already turned aside to follow Satan. The things that Paul described in the previous verses weren’t hypothetical, they were things that were actually happening in Ephesus. In light of 1 Timothy 5:11 it would seem that they had pledges and commitments that they were breaking in disregard of Christ. Having a desire to marry, but perhaps not being able to find Christian men who wanted to marry a vow-breaker, they could have been marrying outside of Christ, turning away from the faith, engaging in immorality, and even giving heed to false teachers (cf. 2 Tim. 3:6). Additionally, they were not only idle but were engaging in slander and gossip, being busybodies in matters that didn’t concern them (1 Tim. 5:13). From the snippets we have in the passage before us we can see how the paths of their feet were not in the direction of service to Christ but of Satan.
In our previous Why Am I Here? (The Answer) daily teaching we saw how, according to to the Genesis account, mankind was created to image God (Gen. 1:26a). But there’s still plenty more to see. So, as we make our way to the ultimate reason for man’s existence we will first continue to survey the opening chapter of God’s Word, looking back to the initial revelation of man’s creation to understand why we are here. We pick up today in the second half of Genesis 1:26.
An Early Explanation for Man
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
There Must Be More Than This
Some years back 60 Minutes did a piece on Tom Brady, the Super Bowl winning quarterback of the New England Patriots, entitled “Tom Brady: The Winner.” The idea of the segment was that he would discuss both his career as well as other aspects of his life. At one point during the interview, the CBS News correspondent prefaced a portion of his forthcoming video interview by saying,
