1 Timothy 1:9

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.

{8} Knowing this, that the law is not made for a {e} righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for {f} sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, (8) He indeed escapes the curse of the Law, and therefore does not abhor it, who fleeing and avoiding those things which the Law condemns, gives himself with all his heart to observe it: and he does not make a vain babbling of outward and curious matters. (e) And such a one is he, whom the Lord has endued with true doctrine, and with the Holy Spirit. (f) To those who make an art, as it were, of sinning.

By the law is to be understood the moral law, (though possibly not excluding the law of Moses, consisting in many ordinances), as it is armed with stings and terrors, to restrain rebellious sinners; by the righteous man, one in whom a principle of Divine grace is planted, and, from the knowledge and love of God, chooses the things that are pleasing to him, and is ardent and active to do his will. Now it is true, the holiness commanded in the law, that, consists in the love of God and our neighhour, obliges every reasonable creature indispensably and eternally; but as the law was delivered in so terrible a manner, as it has annexed so many severe threatenings to the transgressors of it, it is evident that it is directed to the wicked, who will only be compelled by fear from an outrageous breaking of it. And this may be emphatically signified in the word here used, keitai, for it signifies to be laid, as well as to be made. The law non objicitur is not lald against a righteous man. Thus we translate it, Matthew 3:10 : The axe is laid unto the root of the trees: there is some difference in the construction; here it is immediately joined with the dative case, there with an accusative case, with the preposition prov between the verb and the case; but that must be the sense.

It is very probable, that these false teachers had been terrifying the Christians with the law, in opposition to whom the apostle saith, the law was not made for a righteous man, as to its condemning office; it was never intended against a righteous man, but against men that committed and lived in gross sin and wickedness. These sinners are first mentioned in general terms, then the apostle proceedeth to a more particular enumeration of them; whether in them (as some think) the apostle hath respect to the several precepts of the decalogue, I cannot determine. By the lawless he meaneth persons living without any respect to the laws of God or men. By the disobedient he meaneth such as will live in subjection to no government. The word by us translated ungodly, signifieth such as live without any religion, having no regard to the worship of God, asebesi. The word translated sinners signifies infamous, scandalous sinners. Unholy and profane are also general terms, signifying persons that have no piety, but lewdly talk of things sacred, and live as lewdly. Murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers: the words signify such as strike or beat their parents, though they do not give them mortal wounds, and well expresseth violaters of the fifth commandment. Manslayers, androfonouv, signifies such as kill men, whether maliciously or passionately, violaters of the sixth commandment.

1 Timothy 1:9 . Εἰδὼς , knowing ) construed with χρῆται , use .— δικαίῳ , for a righteous man ) Many things which follow are put in antithesis to this one word. Therefore righteousness is widely spread.— οὐ κεῖται ) is not in force, doth not exist among us, in its application is not intended [“ is not made ”]. Therefore a true teacher ought not to use the law against a righteous person, Galatians 5:23 . The antithesis is ἀντίκειται , in the following verse.— ἀνόμοις , for the [ lawless ] unrighteous ) Paul here names the unrighteous according to the order of the Decalogue; from which it is evident that the commandment, Honour thy father , is fourth, not third.[6]— ἀνόμοις καὶ ἀνυποτάκτοις , lawless and disobedient ) Referring to the first commandment, the foundation of the law , the foundation of all obedience .— ἀσεβέσι καὶ ἀμαρτωλοῖς , for the ungodly and sinners ) not reverencing the ‘name’ of God, and thereby involved in great guilt,[7] Exodus 20:7 ,— ἀνοσίοις καὶ βεβήλοις , for unholy and profane ) despising the true worship of God with a profane mind.[8] Such were those very persons whom Paul notices; comp. 1 Timothy 4:7 . Βέβηλος is compounded of the inseparable preposition, βε , Lat. ve , and βηλὸς , a threshold , especially a sacred threshold: whence βέβηλοι τόποι , οἱ βατοὶ καὶ τοῖς τυχοῦσι , places accessible to the common people . See E.

Schmid . on Matthew 12, and Eustathius . [6] The Church of Rome suppresses the second commandment, and divides the tenth into two. So Beng. also. Thus our fifth is his fourth . To make our fifth into third , their third and fourth must be joined and made second .—ED. [7] Referring to the third commandment, as we divide them.—ED. [8] This will answer to our fourth commandment.—ED.

Knowing (εἰδὼς) The participle is connected with τὶς one, a man, in the preceding clause. Is not made (οὐ κεῖται) Lit. Is not laid down, set, appointed. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:3. This is the only instance of its use with νόμος law. That usage is frequent in Class. See, for instance, Thucyd. ii.37. Righteous (δικαίῳ) Morally upright. Not in the Pauline sense of justified by faith. Comp. 2 Timothy 2:22; 2 Timothy 3:16. This appears from the way in which the opposite of righteous is described in the next clause. Lawless (ἀνόμοις) Recognizing no law; a sense which accords better with the following context than not having a law, as 1 Corinthians 9:21. Disobedient (ἀνυποτάκτοις) Only in Pastorals and Hebrews. Better unruly. Disobedient is too specific. It means those who will not come into subjection. It is closely allied with lawless. In the one case no legal obligation is recognized; in the other, subjection to law is refused. Ungodly - sinners (ἀσεβέσι - ἁμαρτωλοῖς) The same collocation in 1 Peter 4:18; Jde 1:15. See on godliness, 2 Peter 1:3. Unholy - profane (ἀνοσίοις - βεβήλοις) continued...

9. law is not made for a righteous man—not for one standing by faith in the righteousness of Christ put on him for justification,and imparted inwardly by the Spirit for sanctification. "One not forensically amenable to the law" [Alford]. For sanctification, the law gives no inward power to fulfil it; but Alford goes too far in speaking of the righteous man as "not morally needing the law." Doubtless, in proportion as he is inwardly led by the Spirit, the justified man needs not the law, which is only an outward rule (Ro 6:14; Ga 5:18, 23). But as the justified man often does not give himself up wholly to the inward leading of the Spirit, he morally needs the outward law to show him his sin and God's requirements.

The reason why the ten commandments have no power to condemn the Christian, is not that they have no authority over him, but because Christ has fulfilled them as our surety (Ro 10:4). disobedient—Greek, "not subject"; insubordinate; it is translated "unruly," Tit 1:6, 10; "lawless and disobedient" refer to opposers of the law, for whom it is "enacted" (so the Greek, for "is made"). ungodly and … sinners—Greek, he who does not reverence God, and he who openly sins against Him; the opposers of God, from the law comes. unholy and profane—those inwardly impure, and those deserving exclusion from the outward participation in services of the sanctuary; sinners against the third and fourth commandments. murderers—or, as the Greek may mean, "smiters" of fathers and … mothers; sinners against the fifth commandment. manslayers—sinners against the sixth commandment.

Verse 9. - As knowing for knowing , A.V.; Law for the Law , A.V.; unruly for disobedient , A.V.; and sinners for and for sinners , A.V.; the unholy for unholy , A.V. Law is not made for a righteous man. It is much better to render νόμος , with the A.V., "the Law," as e.g. , Romans 2:12-14 . The whole proposition relates to the Law of Moses, which these teachers perverted and tried to force upon Christians, being ignorant that the Law was made, not for the righteous, but for sinners. For is not made , we might render does not apply to or is not in force against . Κεῖται with the dative following (as 2 Macc. 4:11) suggests some such meaning, somewhat different from the simple νόμος κεῖται . This freedom of the righteous from the Law is what St. Paul everywhere asserts ( Romans 6:14 ; Romans 8:2 ; Galatians 2:19 ; Galatians 3:25 ; Galatians 5:18 , etc.), the Law being viewed, not as a holy rule of life, but as a system of penalties - "a Law of sin and death." That νόμος here means the Law of Moses is further evident from this, that in the following list the apostle clearly follows the general order of the Decalogue, taking first the offences against the first table, and then sins against the fifth, sixth, seventh, and ninth commandments (compare, too, ver. 11 with Romans 2:16 ). Lawless ( ἀνόμοις ); with no special reference to its etymology, but meaning simply "transgressors," "wicked," as Luke 22:37 ; Acts 2:23 ; 2 Thessalonians 2:8 (A.V.), and very frequently in the LXX.

Unruly ( ἀνυποτάκτοις ); insubordinate, resisting lawful authority. In the LXX. for the Hebrew בְלִיַעִל ( 1 Samuel 2:12 , Symmachus),and perhaps Proverbs 16:27 . In the New Testament it is peculiar in this sense to the pastoral Epistles, being only found here and in Titus 1:6, 10 In Hebrews 2:10 it has the classical sense of "unsubdued." The express application of the word in Titus 1:10 , to the "unruly talkers of the circumcision," shows that St. Paul has them in view here also. Ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane. All terms implying offences against the first table. Ἀσεβέσι , (with the kindred ἀσεβεία and ἀσεβέω ) is always rendered "ungodly," "ungodliness," "to act ungodly;" ἁμαρτωλοῖς , sinners, viz. against God; ἀνοσίοις , unholy (found only here and at 2 Timothy 3:2 in the New Testament, but frequent in the LXX.) is the contrary to ὅσιος , holy, saintly; βεβήλοις (whence βεβηλόω , to profane, Matthew 12:5 ; Acts 24:6 ), profane, of persons and things not consecrated to God - peculiar in the New Testament to the pastoral Epistles ( 1 Timothy 4:7 ; 1 Timothy 6:20 ; 2 Timothy 2:16 ;) and Hebrews 12:16 , but found commonly in the LXX. and in classical Greek. Πατραλῶαις and μητραλῴαις , not murderers , but, as in the margin, " smiters , ill-users of father and mother." Both words are only found here in the New Testament, but found in Demosthenes, Aristophanes, etc.