1 Timothy 1:8

1:5-11 Whatever tends to weaken love to God, or love to the brethren, tends to defeat the end of the commandment. The design of the gospel is answered, when sinners, through repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ, are brought to exercise Christian love. And as believers were righteous persons in God's appointed way, the law was not against them. But unless we are made righteous by faith in Christ, really repenting and forsaking sin, we are yet under the curse of the law, even according to the gospel of the blessed God, and are unfit to share the holy happiness of heaven.

1 Timothy 1:8-11 . We know that the law is good — Answers excellent purposes; if a man use it lawfully — In a proper manner. Even the ceremonial law is good as it points to Christ, and is emblematical of the various branches of salvation that are in and through him; and the moral law is holy, just, and good, resulting from the nature of God and man, and the relations of mankind to him and each other, and of admirable use both to convince men of sin, and to bring them to Christ for justification, as well as to direct such as are justified in the way of holiness. The apostle’s expression, If a man use it lawfully, plainly intimates, as Doddridge observes, “that there were some who abused the law, borrowing a pretence from it to condemn some of the best of men, and to subvert the gospel. And whereas some had represented Paul as an enemy to the law, he here denies and disproves the charge. The design of the Mosaic law was to direct the conduct of those to whom it was given, and to humble them under a sense of their sin. But it could not be intended to save them by a perfect conformity to it, which was το αδυνατον του νομου , what the law could not do, Romans 8:3 .” Knowing this — As first necessary in order to the making a right use of the law; that the law is not made for — Greek, ου κειται , does not lie against, a righteous man — Who makes it the rule of his conduct, and has it written on his heart, sincerely loving it, and carefully guarding against every violation of it.

Not that the righteous so fulfil the law as to answer its high demands in every respect; in that sense, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified, Romans 3:20 ; Galatians 2:16 ; where see the notes. But Christ having redeemed true believers from that curse and condemnation of the law to which they would otherwise be exposed, through him their love to God and man is graciously accepted as the fulfilling of the law, Romans 13:10 ; Galatians 5:14 ; James 2:8 . But for the lawless — That is, it lies against the lawless; and disobedient — Who, despising or disregarding the authority of the lawgiver, knowingly transgress his commands. Perhaps, as some observe, the expression, κειται , lies, refers to the custom of having laws written on tables, and hung up or laid in public places, to be read by all, and evidently showing against whom the law lay: see on Colossians 2:14 .

But we know that the law is good: not that I speak against the law of God, I know that it is holy, and spiritual, and just, and good, Romans 7:12,14 . It is good, though not for justification, yet for conviction, to convince men of sin, and as a schoolmaster to lead men unto Christ, and to direct us in our walking with God; the equity and sanctity of its precepts are evident to the sincere and purified mind. If a man use it lawfully: and as the law has an intrinsic goodness in its nature, so it is good to men when it is used for the end to which God gave it.

1 Timothy 1:8 . Ὁ νόμος — νομίμως ) Conjugate terms: νομίμως , according to what is agreeable to the law . They used to “strive about the law,” Titus 3:9 .— χρῆται ) Sophocles has the phrase, νόμῳ χρῆσθαι , which is explained as equivalent to νομοθετεῖν by the Scholiast; and so Paul is speaking in this passage, not of the hearer of the law, but of the teacher.

8. But—"Now we know" (Ro 3:19; 7:14). law is good—in full agreement with God's holiness and goodness. if a man—primarily, a teacher; then, every Christian. use it lawfully—in its lawful place in the Gospel economy, namely, not as a means of a "'righteous man" attaining higher perfection than could be attained by the Gospel alone (1Ti 4:8; Tit 1:14), which was the perverted use to which the false teachers put it, but as a means of awakening the sense of sin in the ungodly (1Ti 1:9, 10; compare Ro 7:7-12; Ga 3:21).

Verse 8. - The Law is good (see the similar statement in Romans 7:12 ). The Jews thought that St. Paul spoke against the Law (comp. Acts 6:13, 14 ), because he vindicated its true use ( Romans 10:4 ; Galatians 3:24 ; Galatians 4:4, 5 , etc.). But he everywhere speaks of the Law as good and holy. If a man - i.e. , a teacher of the Law - use it lawfully ; knowing its proper use, as it follows in the next verse. 1 Timothy 1:8

8 . But we know ] Yet we are all aware , a correction or concession. St Paul uses ‘we know’ in a similar way, Romans 7:14 , ‘I grant that the law is spiritual’; 1 Corinthians 8:3 , ‘We are quite aware (with irony) that we all have knowledge.’ if a man use it lawfully ] The regular Greek idiom corresponding with our passive, if it be handled as law should be , that is, by the teacher of the law. Ellicott gives the sense of the passage clearly, ‘The false teachers on the contrary, assuming that it was designed for the righteous man, urged their interpretations of it as necessary appendices to the Gospel.’ For the play on the word ‘law’ compare 2 Timothy 3:4 ; 2 Timothy 4:7 , and better 1 Timothy 1:3 ; 1 Timothy 1:5 , ‘charge,’ ‘charges.’