Limitless Word
For it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.
1 Timothy 4:5 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
  • BSB because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
  • NKJV for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
  • NASB for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.
  • NLT For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God's good gifts are sanctified through His word and prayer. It teaches that thankful prayer sets ordinary things apart for holy use.

Overview

Paul explains that food and other gifts are 'sanctified' by Scripture and prayer. The believer's grateful prayer, shaped by God's word, consecrates these gifts. The verse encourages thanksgiving as the fitting response to the Creator's provision.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 7

  • 1 Tim 4:3forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
  • Luke 4:4Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”
  • 1 Cor 7:14For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
  • Titus 1:15To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
  • Luke 11:41But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.
  • Gen 1:25God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.
  • Gen 1:31God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (4)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — 1 Timothy videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on 1 Timothy 4:5YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on 1 TimothyMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

There is 'one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all' — the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.

How 1 Timothy 4:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.