1 Timothy 1:8

1Ti_1:8-10

The law is good, if a man use it lawfully.

The purpose of the law

The value of Gods gifts largely depends upon the use we make of them. There are powers within our reach which may with equal ease destroy our welfare or increase it. Every reader of the Epistles, every student of Pharisaic teaching, and every one who understands the work of the Judaisers, is aware that even the Mosaic law was grossly abused. The law is good if a man use it lawfully. The apostle next endeavoured to explain more fully the purpose of the law, and his explanation may be summed up under three heads:--

I. The law was not meant as an inspiration. The law is not made for a righteous man. The statement is true, whether you think of a man righteous by nature or by grace. Those edicts and prohibitions were not intended for one who was eagerly inclined to obey their spirit. Such a revelation of Gods will would not have been needed if Adam had continued in his righteousness, for things forbidden with pains and penalties after his fall were not at first attractive to him. If you walk through a private garden with the children of its owner, as one of themselves, you do not see anywhere the unsightly notice-boards, which are necessary in a place open to the public, asking you to move in this direction or in that, and to avoid trespassing hither or thither. Amongst the children, and as one of them, you are consciously above the need of such laws as those. Restrictions and warnings are always meant for those inclined to break them. Another example might be drawn from society. The laws on our statute books, the police who tramp through our streets, the vast organization represented by prisons and courts, by judges and magistrates, would no longer be necessary, and would never have been called into existence, if every man loved his neighbour even as himself. It is those who are disobedient in nature who make law a necessary institution. Similarly in the home. When your first child comes as a gleam of sunshine into your home, you parents do not begin to make a theoretical code of restrictions; but when the children grow older, and there are conflicts of will between them, and the household is likely to he disorderly by their thoughtlessness and faults, you begin to say, You must not do this or that; it is to be from this time forward forbidden. But as the years roll on and good habits are formed by the young people, and from the love they bear you they instinctively know what you wish and readily do it, even these wise rules practically fall into desuetude. Because they are ruled by a right spirit they are set free from law. This leads to our second assertion, namely, that the law which was not meant for an inspiration was--

II. Intended for the restraint of the disobedient. A law less man is everywhere the least free. Carried hither and thither by his ungoverned passions; swayed now this way, now that, by his inexcusable carelessness and neglect, he nevertheless finds himself perpetually clashing against a will mightier than his own. Sometimes it is the law of his country which seizes him by the throat and holds him in restraint. Sometimes it is disease, the direct result of his own sin, which falls like a curse upon himself, and even upon his children. Some times it is conscience which protests and rebukes, until his whole life is made miserable. And these are but premonitions of what is coming when the Judge of all the earth will appear to give every man according to his works, and the thunders of outraged law will supersede the gentle voice of Christs gospel. Terrible is the list of offences against human relationships which follows; though the first of the phrases in our version is at once too strong and too narrow. Murderers of fathers should be smiters of fathers and smiters of mothers. The allusion may be to such crimes in the literal sense of the word, of which now and again we are horrified to hear, and which are commonest with those who are under the influence of drink--the cause of innumerable crimes! Or it may refer with equal force to those who smite their parents with the tongue, loading them with scorn and reproach, instead of encircling them with considerate love. Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother, and let all the people say Amen. Man-slayers--those who, by their exactions and oppressions, indirectly destroy the lives of men--as well as murderers, who are regarded as the pariahs of society. Whoremongers and they that defile themselves with mankind, are terms which are meant to include all transgressors of the seventh commandment, a law which our Lord Jesus so broadened out in its application as even to include indulgence in lustful thought. Liars and perjured persons are forms of that false witness against ones neighbour which the ninth commandment so strongly condemns; and nothing is clearer as an evidence of the rule of Christs spirit than the transparent truthfulness of character, which wins the admiration of the world, and suns itself in the favour of God. This list is formidable enough, and the fact that the apostle does not confine himself to the phraseology of the Mosaic decalogue, is a sign that we do not evade the penalties of the law by keeping its letter.

III. The apostle asserts that the purpose of the law is amongst the things revealed in the gospel of the blessed God, The sound doctrine he mentions is the teaching of our Lord and His apostles; which, as the phrase denotes, was thoroughly sound or wholesome, especially as opposed to the weak and distempered doctrines propounded by the false teachers whom Timothy had to oppose. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)

The use of the law

It would appear from this text that there is a way in which the law may be used lawfully, or rightly, from which we infer that there is also a way in which it may be used unlawfully, or unrightly--it may be put to a right use or to a wrong one. And there is a real distinction between this right and this wrong use of the law, which, if steadily kept in view, would be perfect safeguard, both against the error of legality and the equally pernicious one of Antinomianism. First, then, we use the law unlawfully when we try to make out a legal right to the kingdom of heaven. There are two ways in which one may proceed who purposes to make out his right by his obedience to the law. If he have a sufficiently high conception of the standard, then he is paralyzed, and sidles into despair because of the discoveries that he is making of his exceeding distance and deficiency from that standard; and thus he is haunted at all times by a sense of his great insufficiency, and he never can attain to anything like solid peace. But there is another way--he may bring down the law to the standard of his own obedience, and may bring his conscience and conduct into terms of very comfortable equality with one another. But this is what the Bible calls a peace which is no peace. The ruin of the soul comes out in either way of the enterprise.

2. Having said this much on the wrong use of the law, I have only time in this discourse to instance one right use of it. When we compare our conduct with its commandments, we cannot fail, in our deficiency and in our distance, to be convinced of sin. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)

The use of the law

Observe, then, of the law of God, that it has another and distinct object from that of holding out a method by which men acquire a right to its promised rewards, even that of holding out a method by which they acquire a rightness of character for the exercise of its fruits. The legal right is one thing; the moral rightness which obedience confers is another. For the former object the law must now become useless, and having fallen short of perfect obedience in ourselves, we must now found our whole right only in the righteousness of Christ. For the latter object, the law still contains all the use and all the importance which it ever had. It is that tablet on which are inscribed the virtues of the Godhead; and we, by copying these into the tablet of our own character, are restored to the likeness of God. We utterly mistake the design and economy of that gospel, if we think that while the first function of the law has been superseded under the New Testament dispensation, the second has been superseded also. Obedience for a legal right is everywhere denounced as a presumptuous enterprise; obedience for a personal righteousness is everywhere said to be an enterprise, the prosecution of which forms the main business of every disciple, and the full achievement of which is the prize of his high calling. For the one end the law has altogether lost its efficacy; and we, in order to substantiate its claim, must seek to be justified only by the righteousness of Christ. Let me now, then, expound more particularly the uses to which our observance of the law may be turned, in giving us not a right to heaven, but the indispensable character without which heaven never will be entered by us. If, after having laid hold of the righteousness of Christ, as your alone meritorious plea for the kingdom of heaven, you look to the law as in fact a transcript of the image of the Godhead, and by your assiduous keeping of this law, endeavour more and more to become like to God in Christ, this is the legitimate and proper use of the law, and by making this use you use it lawfully. You must not discard the law as being a thing that has no place in the system of the gospel The great end of the gospel is to work in you a life and law of God, and by impressing the traits of that law on your character, to make you more and more like the Lawgiver, and fit you for His companionship. Therefore, although you discard the law in one capacity, that is not to say that you are to discard it altogether; for there remains this other capacity--the law is that to which you must conform yourselves in order to render you meet for the inheritance of the saints. We see, then, that though this obedience of ours to the law of God never can make out for us a judicial right for heaven, yet that this obedience, and this alone makes out our personal meetness for heaven. We can separate, in idea, the judicial from the personal meetness for heaven, and while we lay an entire stress on the former we also count the latter indispensable. Now, what helps us to do this is the arbitrary connexion which obtains between a punishment and a crime in civil society. I trust you see the relation of this to our present subject. One part of the law of God is that we should be forbearing and forgiving one with another. The circumstance which leads us to transgress that law is just the natural heat and violence of our temper. Suppose a man set out on the enterprise of seeking to establish a right to heaven by his obedience to the law, then it is his duty to restrain all the outbreakings of a furious temper, but he sees he never can succeed in making out the right by his obedience to the law, and, transgressing in one particular, he has failed in all. Now, some thinking that they have discarded the law, in as far as its power to obtain for them a right to heaven is concerned, and that in discarding it they have gone to Christ, are apt to think they are quit of the law altogether. But we say they are not because there still remains another end--another important capacity in which they are still to use the law even after they have united themselves to Christ. What is this capacity? and of what use is the law after this step has been taken? Here is the use of the law. All that you have gotten by your faith in Christ is a right to the kingdom of heaven. But the kingdom of heaven is peace and righteousness and joy. The kingdom of heaven is within you, and the essential joy of heaven is that joy which springs from the exercise of good, and kind, and virtuous affections. You have obtained a right of entering heaven and a release from the punishment of hell. But if the temper which prompted you to those transgressions of the law still remains within you, then the essential misery of hell remains within you. You are still exposed to all the misery that is incurred by the exercise of furious and malignant passions. You must have a rightness of character--you must get quit of all those immoral, vile, and wretched things which by nature adhere to you, and your salvation is begun here by a gradual process of deliverance from the wickedness of your hearts and lives, and which, perfected, renders you meet for the inheritance of the saints; so that this use of the law is an indispensable thing, although the law has failed, or rather you have failed, in making out your right to heaven by your obedience to its precepts. If a believer could be delivered from the fear of hell and were to remain in character and effect just what he was, a portion of the misery of hell would still adhere to him. His mind, in respect of all these painful sensations, may be as unrelenting as ever. The man that has this unsanctified feeling in his heart carries hell about with him. In respect of the material ingredients of torture, it is conceivable that he may be saved by being justified, but in respect of the moral ingredients to be saved he must be sanctified. Therefore we see that though the law is of no use, it is just by obeying this law that you make out your sanctification, and the one is just as indispensable as the other. The thing I want is that you will not put asunder what God has joined. It is not enough, then, to obtain a mere translation from what is locally hell to what is locally heaven. There must be an act of transformation from one character to another. Or, if faith is to save them, they must be sanctified by faith; and if it is not by the law that they are to obtain their right of entering into heaven, most assuredly it is by their obedience to the law that they have obtained that heaven shall be to them a place of enjoyment, for without it heaven itself would be turned into a hell. And without going for illustration to the outcasts of exile and imprisonment, the very same thing may be exemplified in the bosom of families. It is not necessary that pain be inflicted on bodies by acts of violence in order to make it a wretched family. It is enough that pain be made to rankle within every heart; from the elements of suspicion, hatred, and disgust, an abode of enjoyment may be turned into an abode of the intensest misery. Having thus endeavoured to make palpable to you that the hell of the New Testament consists mainly in the wretchedness which attaches naturally and necessarily to character, let me touch on the opposite and more pleasing side of the picture--the heaven of the New Testament, as consisting mainly in the happiness which attaches naturally and necessarily to character. I have no idea of a man carrying in life with him the security that he is a justified person, and at the same time a bad member of society, making his whole family miserable. If he perseveringly and presumptuously go on with his disobedience to the law, that man is not in the way of salvation at all. Were it real, the first doing of faith in Christ would be to work love in his heart. It would show itself in all sorts of ways in the walk and conversation. But the main happiness of heaven is just the happiness that springs from righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. And though you have the right of entering there if you have not these things you have no heaven at all. If your life has in it the character of hell, taking you out of one place and putting you into another will not make you happy. The kingdom of God is not in you. To enjoy a brilliant and picturesque heaven a man must be endowed with a seeing eye; to enjoy a musical heaven he must be endowed with a hearing ear; to enjoy an intellectual heaven he must be endowed with a clear and able understanding; and to enjoy the actual heaven of the New Testament into which all who are meet on earth are soon to be transported, he must be endowed with a moral heart. So that the very essence of salvation shall consist in the personal salvation by which man is rendered capable of being a happy and congenial inmate of heaven. This might be made obvious to you in the lessons of your own experience with man--the connection between the character and the happiness of man. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)

The lawful and unlawful use of law

He does not, like a vehement polemic, say Jewish ceremonies and rules are all worthless, nor some ceremonies are worthless, and others essential; but he says the root of the whole matter is charity. If you turn aside from this all is lost, here at once the controversy closes. So far as any rule fosters the spirit of love, that is, is used lawfully, it is wise, and has a use. So far as it does not, it is chaff. So far as it hinders it, it is poison.

I. The unlawful use. Define law. By law, Paul almost always means not the Mosaic law, but law in its essence and principle, that is, constraint. This chiefly in two forms expresses itself--first, a custom; second, a maxim. As examples of custom we might give circumcision, or the Sabbath, or sacrifice, or fasting. Law said, thou shalt do these things; and taw, as mere law, constrained them. Or again, law may express itself in maxims and rules. Principle is one thing, and maxim is another. A principle requires liberality, a maxim says one-tenth. A principle says, A merciful man is merciful to his beast, leaves mercy to the heart, and does not define how; a maxim says, thou shalt not muzzle the ex that treadeth out thy corn. A principle says, forgive; a maxim defines seven times; and thus the whole law falls into two divisions. The ceremonial law, which constrains life by customs. The moral law, which guides life by rules and maxims. Now it is an illegitimate use of law:

1. To expect by obedience to it to make out a title to salvation. By the deeds of the law shall no man living be justified. Salvation is by faith: a state of heart right with God; faith is the spring of holiness--a well of life. Salvation is not the having committed a certain number of good acts. Salvation is Gods Spirit in us, leading to good. Destruction is the selfish spirit in us, leading to wrong. For a plain reason then, obedience to law cannot save because it is merely the performance of a certain number of acts which may be done by habit, from fear, from compulsion. Obedience remains still imperfect. A man may have obeyed the rule, and kept the maxim, and yet not be perfect. All these commandments have I kept from my youth up. Yet lackest thou one thing. The law he had kept. The spirit of obedience in its high form of sacrifice he had net.

2. To use it superstitiously. It is plain that this was the use made of it by the Ephesian teachers (1Ti_1:4). It seemed to them that law was pleasing to God as restraint. Then unnatural restraints came to be imposed--on the appetites, fasting; on the affections, celibacy. This is what Paul condemns (1Ti_4:8). Bodily exercise profiteth little. And again, this superstition showed itself in a false reverence--wondrous stories respecting angels--respecting the eternal genealogy of Christ--awful thoughts about spirits. The apostle calls all these, very unceremoniously, endless genealogies (1Ti_1:4), and old wives fables (1Ti_4:7). The question at issue is, wherein true reverence consists: according to them, in the multiplicity of the objects of reverence; according to St. Paul, in the character of the object revered.

3. To use it as if the letter of it were sacred. The law commanded none to eat the shewbread except the priests. David ate it in hunger. If Abimelech had scrupled to give it, he would have used the law unlawfully. The law commanded no manner of work. The apostles in hunger rubbed the ears of corn. The Pharisees used the law unlawfully in forbidding that.

II. The lawful use of law.

1. As a restraint to keep outward evil in check … The law was made for sinners and profane.… Illustrate this by reference to capital punishment. No sane man believes that punishment by death will make a nations heart right, or that the sight of an execution can soften or ameliorate. Punishment does not work in that way. The law commanding a blasphemer to be stoned could not teach one Israelite love to God, but it could save the streets of Israel from scandalous ribaldry. And therefore clearly understand, law is a mere check to bad men: it does not improve them; it often makes them worse; it cannot sanctify them. God never intended that it should. Hence we see for what reason the apostle insisted on the use of the law for Christians. Law never can be abrogated. Strict rules are needed exactly in proportion as we want the power or the will to rule ourselves. It is not because the gospel has come that we are free from the law, but because, and only so far as, we are in a gospel state. It is for a righteous man that the law is not made, and thus we see the true nature of Christian liberty.

2. As a primer is used by a child to acquire by degrees, principles and a spirit. This is the use attributed to it in verse 5. The end of the commandment is charity. Compare with this two other passages--Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, and love is the fulfilling of the law. Perfect love casteth out fear. In every law there is a spirit, in every maxim a principle; and the law and the maxim are laid down for the sake of conserving the spirit and the principle which they enshrine. Distinguish, however. In point of time, law is first--in point of importance, the Spirit. In point of time charity is the end of the commandment--in point of importance, first and foremost. The first thing a boy has to do is to learn implicit obedience to rules. The first thing in importance for a man to learn is to sever himself from maxims, rules, laws. Why? That he may become an Antinomian, or Latitudinarian? No. He is severed from submission to the maxim because he has got allegiance to the principle. He is free from the rule and the law because he has got the Spirit written in his heart. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

The moral teaching of the Gnostics: its modern counterpart

The speculations of the Gnostics in their attempts to explain the origin of the universe and the origin of evil, were wild and unprofitable enough; and in some respects involved a fundamental contradiction of the plain statements of Scripture. But it was not so much their metaphysical as their moral teaching which seemed so perilous to St. Paul. Their endless genealogies might have been left to fall with their own dead weight, so dull and uninteresting were they. But it is impossible to keep ones philosophy in one compartment in ones mind, and ones religion and morality quite separate from it in another. However unpractical metaphysical speculations may appear, it is beyond question that the views which we hold respecting such things may have momentous influence upon our life. It was so with the early Gnostics, whom St. Paul urges Timothy to keep in check. The sound doctrine has its fruit in a healthy, moral life, as surely as the different doctrine leads to spiritual pride and lawless sensuality. The belief that Matter and everything material is inherently evil, involved necessarily a contempt for the human body. This body was a vile thing; and it was a dire calamity to the human mind to be joined to such a mass of evil. From this premise various conclusions, some doctrinal and some ethical, were drawn. On the doctrinal side it was urged that the resurrection of the body was incredible. Equally incredible was the doctrine of the Incarnation. How could the Divine Word consent to be united with so evil a thing as a material frame? On the ethical side the tenet that the human body is utterly evil produced two opposite errors--Asceticism and Antinomian sensuality. And both of these are aimed at in these Epistles. If the enlightenment of the soul is everything, and the body is utterly worthless, then this vile clog to the movement of the soul must be beaten under and crushed, in order that the higher nature may rise to higher things. The body must be denied all indulgence, in order that it may be starved into submission (1Ti_4:3). On the other hand, if enlightenment is everything and the body is worthless, then every kind of experience, no matter how shameless, is of value, in order to enlarge knowledge. Nothing that a man can do can make his body more vile than it is by nature, and the soul of the enlightened is incapable of pollution. Gold still remains gold, however often it is plunged in the mire. The words of the three verses taken as a text, look as if St. Paul was aiming at an evil of this kind. These Judaizing Gnostics desired to be teachers of the Law. They wished to enforce the Mosaic Law, or rather their fantastic interpretations of it, upon Christians. They insisted upon its excellence, and would not allow that it has been in many respects superseded. We know quite well, says the apostle, and readily admit, that the Mosaic Law is an excellent thing; provided that those who undertake to expound it make a legitimate use of it. They must remember that, just as law in general is not made for those whose own good principles keep them in the right, so also the restrictions of the Mosaic Law are not meant for Christians who obey the Divine will in the free spirit of the gospel. Legal restrictions are intended to control those who will not control themselves; in short, for the very men who by their strangest doctrines are endeavouring to curtail the liberties of others. In a word, the very persons who in their teaching were endeavouring to burden men with the ceremonial ordinances, which had been done away in Christ, were in their own lives violating the moral laws to which Christ had given a new sanction. They tried to keep alive, in new and strange forms, what had been provisional and was now obsolete, while they trampled under foot what was eternal and Divine. If there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine. In these words St. Paul sums up all the forms of transgression not specified in his catalogue. The sound, healthy teaching of the gospel is opposed to the morbid and corrupt teaching of the Gnostics, who are sickly in their speculations (1Ti_6:4), and whose word is like an eating sore (2Ti_2:17). Of course healthy teaching is also health-giving, and corrupt teaching is corrupting; but it is the primary and not the derived quality that is stated here. It is the healthiness of the doctrine in itself, and its freedom from what is diseased or distorted, that is insisted upon. Its wholesome character is a consequence of this. The extravagant theories of the Gnostics to account for the origin of the universe and the origin of evil are gone and are past recall. It would be impossible to induce people to believe them, and only a comparatively small number of students ever even read them. But the heresy that knowledge is more important than conduct, that brilliant intellectual gifts render a man superior to the moral law, and that much of the moral law itself is the tyrannical bondage of an obsolete tradition, is as dangerous as ever it was. It is openly preached and frequently acted upon. The great Florentine artist, Benvenuto Cellini, tells us in his autobiography that when Pope Paul

III. expressed his willingness to forgive him an outrageous murder committed in the streets of Rome, one of the gentlemen at the Papal Court ventured to remonstrate with the Pope for condoning so heinous a crime. You do not understand the matter as well as I do, replied Paul III.: I would have you to know that men like Benvenuto, unique in their profession, are not bound by the laws. Cellini is a braggart, and it is possible that in this particular he is romancing. But, even if the story is his invention, he merely attributes to the Pope the sentiments which he cherished himself, and upon which (as experience taught him) other people acted. Over and over again his murderous violence was overlooked by those in authority, because they admired and wished to make use of his genius as an artist. Ability before honesty was a common creed in the sixteenth century, and it is abundantly prevalent in our own. The most notorious scandals in a mans private life are condoned if only he is recognized as having talent. It is the old Gnostic error in a modem and sometimes agnostic form. (A. Plummer, D. D.)

The right use of the Divine law

When we look around us, we see that God governs all by established rules. His government enters into all the minutiae of providence. But when we leave this government, where we ought to leave it, in the hands of almighty wisdom and power, and ascend to the spiritual world, there we find the great difference there is between created and uncreated, between the imperfection of man and the perfection of God. Let us consider--

I. The infinite perfection of the law of God. The law, says the apostle, is holy; and the commandment holy, just, and good; and why? because God Himself is holy, just, and good.

1. To understand the perfection of this law we must consider also the relation subsisting between the Governor and the governed. They are all dependent for everything, both new and for ever, upon Him. No man upon earth has a right to legislate, but as the representative of God Himself. Why is a father a legislator in his own family? because he is a father? No; but because God has invested him with that right. Moreover, legislation is not a something arbitrary in the Deity; His legislation flows from His own essential perfection. It must be what it is, it cannot be otherwise.

2. Consider the law of God as to its commandments. It requires, in the first place, supreme love to God; involving the exercise of all the affections of the heart. The commands of this law require, also, fraternal love.

3. Consider the law of God as to its curse. In this respect, also, it will appear to be just and good. Does it seem unkind? No; for it throws the sinner no farther from God than he throws himself.

4. The law of God, then, is immutable and eternal. The law of God must necessarily relate to every inhabitant of heaven, of earth, of hell.

5. Consider the law of God under the Adamic covenant. It connected life with obedience, death with disobedience.

6. Consider the law of God under the Mosaic dispensation.

II. The uses of the law of God. The law is good, if a man use it lawfully.

1. The law is abused and insulted by transgression. What is said of wisdom may be said of this law; he that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul.

2. The law is insulted and abused when men endeavour to justify them selves by it. This must arise, first, from ignorance of themselves; and, secondly, from ignorance of the law of God. Paul says of the Jews, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of Gods righteous ness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. The whole ceremonial law taught men that they were to be justified by another--that sin was to be atoned for.

3. And the law is insulted and abused whenever men endeavour to justify themselves, in the least degree, by it.

4. And not only is the law insulted and abused when men reject the law, but also when they reject the remedy for their disobedience. The rejection of the gospel is the greatest and most dreadful act of disobedience to the law. It is an insult offered to the government of God, and a wanton rejection of His goodness.

But what are the uses of the law?

1. We should view it as fulfilled by Jesus Christ. But Christ died also for His brethren, that He might bring them to a state of perfect conformity to the law, and preserve them in that state for ever. The apostle speaks of being under the law to Christ; this is the state of the believer on earth, and this will be his state for ever.

2. To use the law aright, is to study it perfectly, and to see its beauty as it was exemplified in Christ.

3. To use the law aright is to connect it intimately with faith. There is a more intimate connection between faith and the law of God than we can possibly describe. By believing in Christ we honour the law as a covenant, in its commands, and its curse; and when we take it as a rule of life we honour it altogether.

4. The law is used and honoured as it should be, when we make it the guide of our dally conduct, when we aim to bring all our actions as near to the law of God as possible. (W. Howels.)

The right use of the law

The apostle speaks like one possessed of the full assurance of understanding, in the mystery of God and of Christ. We know, says he, that the law is good: we know it by Divine inspiration, by rational deduction, and also by experience. This may be applied to the ceremonial law, by which the Jews were distinguished from all other nations as Gods peculiar people. They were hereby directed how to worship God, and how they were to be saved. It was a shadow of good things to come, and afforded a typical representation of the blessings of the gospel. But it is the moral law which the apostle principally intends: and this is truly good in itself, whether we use it lawfully or not. It is a copy of the Divine will, a transcript of the Divine perfections. If we do not approve of this law, it is because we are ignorant of its nature and are at enmity against God. The law is holy, and the commandment holy, just and good: and I delight in the law of God after the inward man (Psa_119:28; Rom_7:12; Rom_7:22).

I. Notice some instances in which she divine law is used unlawfully.

1. In thinking that Christs obedience to it renders our obedience unnecessary.

2. When, instead of judging ourselves by the law, we take occasion from it to judge uncharitably of others, we use it unlawfully. Thus did the Pharisees: This people who know not the law are cursed, said they.

3. In depending upon the works of the law for justification before God, we make an improper use of the law; and that which is good in itself ceases to be good to us.

II. Consider what are the proper uses of the divine law. The law is good, if a man use it lawfully.

1. It serves as a glass or mirror, in which we may behold the majesty and purity of God, and the guilty and wretched state of man.

2. It acts as a restraint upon our lusts and corruptions. If it be asked, Wherefore serveth the law? The answer is, It was added because of transgressions; that is, to prevent them by curbing the unruly passions and appetites of men.

3. The law is properly used as a means of conviction. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and without it sin could not be fully known. When the commandment came, says Paul, sin revived, and I died.

4. It is a complete directory, or rule of conduct. One great end of the law ever was, and ever will be, to instruct us in our duty towards God, ourselves, and our neighbour. Like the pillar of fire which guided the Israelites through the wilderness, it is a light to our feet, and a lamp to our paths.

5. It serves as a criterion by which to judge of our experience, and whether we be the subjects of real grace. (B. Beddome, M. A.)

On the law

I. In the first place, then, we beg your attention to the character and requirements of Gods law.

1. This law, in the first place, is holy. It is the offspring of the mind of Deity, which is perfectly pure. It is the spotless transcript of Gods holiness. It is the faithful representation of His moral excellence and perfection.

2. It is not only holy, but it is just. It is the standard of right, and the infallible standard of right. In all that it claims, in all that it forbids, in all that it inculcates, it is perfectly just to God the Lawgiver, and perfectly just to man the subject of His laws.

3. Moreover, the law is good. It is a kind and merciful law. The motive which prompted the promulgation of it was a motive of benevolence.

4. I beg to remind you that it is a supreme law; universal in its obligations, and binding on the consciences of every rational, intelligent, and accountable being.

5. I must beg you to remark, in the fifth place, that the law is unchangeable; and for this plain reason, because it is perfectly holy, perfectly just, perfectly good. Whatever change there is wrought in the law, it must be either for the better, or for the worse. If the law be already perfect, it cannot be changed for the better; and that God should change His law for the worse, is an idea not for a moment to be admitted into any rational understanding.

6. Let me further observe that this law is also eternal; for the very reasons to which I have already adverted. It requires not only a personal obedience but a perfect obedience. We must not only obey in some things but in all things--all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. This obedience, also, must be perpetual. It is not a mans obeying the law to-day and violating it to-morrow, which will constitute the obedience which it requires: for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.

II. Wherefore then serveth the law? If such are its characters, and such are its requirements, and every living man must feel that he is utterly incapable of rendering that personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience which the law requires, wherefore then serveth it?

1. The law of God serves for instruction. It holds up to our view the standard of right and of wrong.

2. The law serves for conviction--conviction of sin: and this it does in three ways. First, it demonstrates to us the evil of sin in its direct contrariety to Gods nature and will. I had not known sin--I had not been acquainted with sin--except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But the law of God not only demonstrates what sin is, but it brings home a sense and a conviction of it, to the conscience of the sinner. Once more, the law serves for conviction, inasmuch as it utterly silences and stops the mouth of every transgressor, by showing him that he stands without excuse in the presence of the Lawgiver, on the ground of his manifold delinquencies and his innumerable breaches of this law. The law serves, in the third place, for condemnation. It will be the rule by which every sinner who perishes will be condemned at the last great day: for the wages of sin is death. Fourthly, the law serves to magnify the all-sufficiency and perfection of that justifying righteousness, which Christ, as the surety of His people, has supplied. In the fifth place, this law serves as a rule of life and a directory of conduct to all who are the subjects of Gods moral government. Some persons have adopted that most pernicious sentiment, that the law of God is not a rule of life to the believer. But I ask, why not? Cannot you easily conceive that the law of God may be annulled and abrogated in one view of it, and remain altogether in full force in another view of it? As a covenant, it is utterly taken out of the way; because it has been gloriously fulfilled in the person of the Surety. And therefore, now, by the deeds of the law no flesh living shall be justified. But it would be indeed a strange and most anomalous thing, if God, in removing His law as a covenant, should have disannulled that law as the rule of life. I speak it with all reverence, this is a thing which God Himself could not do; and for this plain reason, that the law is just a transcript of His own pure and perfect mind; the law is just the revelation of His holy and unchangeable will; and unless He could destroy His own perfect mind, and unless He could alter His own immutable will, then His law must ever remain the rule of life and manners, not only to all His redeemed children, but to all intelligences in heaven and in earth.

III. Then, what is necessary in order that we may use the law lawfully?

1. We should daily appeal to it, as the standard of action, the rule of self-examination, and the instrument of penitential conviction.

2. In the next place, be it remarked, that when we habitually divorce ourselves from the law as a covenant, as a means of justification, and as a ground of hope, we use it lawfully.

3. We use this law lawfully, in the third place, when Christ becomes inexpressibly dear to our hearts, as having honoured and fulfilled the law, placed it in the position of its just authority and importance, and at the same time redeemed us from its curse and from its punishment.

4. We use the law lawfully when, conscious of our own weakness and incapacity to fulfil its requirements, we are earnest in prayer for the Spirit of grace to renew and sanctify our nature, and to strengthen us to a compliance with all the known will of God.

5. Again, the law is used lawfully when we make it our constant study, and aim, to exemplify is holy requirements--to show the law of God in our habitual walk, in our life, our spirit, our behaviour. Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. (G. Clayton, M. A.)

The proper uses of the law

The law is good, says the apostle, if a man use it lawfully. Consequently there is an unlawful use of the law. What, then, is the lawful use of the law?

I. To show us our need of a saviour. By the law is the knowledge of sin. And again, The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Let us take but a cursory view of the various commandments, and we shall find that we have individually violated them all, and thus are verily guilty before God.

II. Observe, then, that in this case the law serves as a rule to regulate our behaviour. Like so many poles or beacons placed along a difficult navigation, or so many finger-posts erected along a road, the several commandments serve to indicate our course heavenward. If we wish to secure in the most effectual manner the fidelity of a son or a servant, we shall not proceed by a system of terror, but rather by one of authority, tempered by gentleness and kindness. Precisely such is the system adopted by the Father of mercies in the gospel. Seeking not the compulsory eye-service of the convict, but the cheerful and cordial obedience of an attached child, He employs a plan exquisitely suited to this desired end. He deals with us as creatures of reason and feeling. He knows that affection must be won, not forced; that men are not to be driven, but drawn into love. Accordingly the Christian, now that he is justified by faith, obeys the law immeasurably better than he ever did, or could do before.

1. For now he obeys it not merely in the letter, but in the spirit; not as of necessity, but willingly; not partially, but universally. He esteems Gods commandments concerning all things to be right.

2. And then he has now what he had not before, namely, the aid of the Holy Spirit working in him both to will and to do, and causing him, like water at the roots of a tree, to bring forth the fruits of righteousness to the Divine praise and glory. And now behold the necessary, the indissoluble connection between justification and sanctification. A person is justified through faith, which, uniting him to Christ, gives him an interest in His righteousness. Then this faith produces obedience by producing love. Faith worketh by love. It becomes a living principle in the heart, urging to the performance of all such good actions as God has prescribed; and therefore this is termed the obedience of faith. (J. E. Hull, B. A.)

The use of the law

I. We consider the institution, extent and application of the law. When God formed man upright in His own image, the moral law, which inculcates eternal, unchangeable truth and perfect goodness, was written in his heart. By the fall, the fair image of Gods purity was defaced, some faint lines of distinction only of right and wrong being left upon the natural conscience. When God was about to separate to Himself the people of Israel, with a view to preserve and perpetuate in the earth the knowledge of His character and will, He gave them the law from Sinai, not now inscribed on their hearts as before, but engraven on two tables of stone. Such was the institution of the law. We proceed to its extent and application. The moral law of the ten commandments is a complete summary of all human duty to God, to each other, and to themselves. We are not to limit the commandments to their literal meaning; otherwise a great part of our thoughts, and words, and even of our actions would be exempt from the notice and control of the law of God. It has the whole Word of God for its expositor, the regulation of the whole sphere of human principle and action for its object. The law is spiritual. It does not merely regard the outward action, it goes down into the heart and motives, and tries every thought, intention, and principle of the soul.

II. To consider how it is lawfully used.

1. We use it lawfully when we receive and respect it in its full extent, and in every part of it. There is hardly any man, however wicked, who does not feel something like reverence for some parts of Gods commands. A man will coolly break and profane the Sabbath who dares not curse and swear.

2. We use the law lawfully when we bring every part of our character, the inward as well as the outward man, to the test of its requirements. An action, though apparently agreeable to the law of God, if it originate in some base, selfish, unholy motive, is in His sight an act of disobedience, a positive sin. Jehu did an action which the law required, when he rooted idolatry out of the land; but it soon appeared that his object was not the glory of God, but his own distinction and advancement. Neither was Amaziahs conduct better than splendid sin, who did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.

3. We use the law lawfully when we seriously believe, and rally admit that it contains eternal and unalterable truth, that our holy God could not have given a law less holy, less extensive; that every being, in proportion as he is holy and fit for heaven, loves the law; that every transgression of it must expose us to Divine justice as guilty offenders; that the penalty of every sin is death eternal; and that till we seek mercy and forgiveness in His appointed way for each sin of our lives, the curse of the law, and the wrath of God abide upon us. All this must be true in the very nature of things.

III. This lawful use of the law answers good ends, produces. Happy effects upon us, whatever our state and character may be.

1. This lawful use of the law is good for the unconverted, whether a wicked or a self righteous man. When, under a serious and spiritual understanding of the law, he not only surveys his actions but enters with its light into the secret chambers of his heart, he discovers his true character in all its horrid deformities. He perceives that his heart has never felt the love of God, the principle of all true obedience. His best actions are now seen in their proper light, as needing the mercy, not claiming the reward of his holy God. He cannot be saved by works under the law, except he keep it perfectly. But if he could forget all his past sins, he finds that the law is so pure and extensive that he cannot keep it for a day. The more he tries the more he is condemned. In this awful state the gospel points his despairing eye to the Cross. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. Thus the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It drives us from Sinai to Calvary. It pulls down every false foundation of hope, that we may build on Christ alone, the rock of ages.

2. After the law has brought a penitent sinner to Christ for pardon, peace, and life, it is, if lawfully used, good and useful to him as a justified believer. He is called to be holy; and the practical part of the Word of God, which is a comment upon the law, shows him at large what is sinful and what is holy. It therefore becomes a light to his feet and a lamp to his paths. To be conformed to the law is to be conformed to the image of God, and to be capable of heavenly happiness with Him.

(1) Let me entreat you, if you regard your immortal souls, diligently to read, hear, and meditate upon the Word of God at large, which explains the law and will of God by precept, and illustrates them by example.

(2) Let your hearing and study of the Word of Life be ever accompanied with earnest humble prayer to God, for the powerful aid of His grace to give you a spiritual taste and judgment to dispel your ignorance, to guide you into all truth, and to fasten it with power on your hearts.

(3) In considering the* several parts of the law of God your object should be to comprehend its full bearing, extent, and meaning. In order to succeed you cannot take a better model than our Saviours view and explanation of a part of the law in His sermon on the mount. (J. Graham.)

Using the law

A Chinese correspondent of the New York Christian Weekly sends some instances of how Chinese preachers meet questions and preach, of which the following is one:--Bishop Russell, of Ningpo, recently told us of a helper of his who was preaching on the Ten Commandments, when a man suddenly entered and walked rapidly forward to the desk. What have you got there? he asked in a loud voice. The helper immediately replied, I have a foot-rule of ten inches (the Chinese foot has ten inches, as the foot everywhere ought to have), and if you will sit down I will measure your heart. And he proceeded with his ten-inch rule to show how short his hearers were according to Gods measure.

The law good

No doubt the law restrains us; but chains are not fetters, nor are all walls the gloomy precincts of a jail. It is a blessed chain by which the ship, now buried in the trough, and now rising on the top sea, rides at anchor, and outlives the storm. The condemned would give worlds to break his chain; but the sailor trembles lest his should snap; and when the gray morning breaks on the wild lee-shore, all strewn with wrecks and corpses, he blesses God for the good iron that stood the strain. The pale captive eyes his high prison-wall to curse the man who built it, and envies the little bird that perches upon its summit; but were you travelling some Alpine pass, where the narrow road, cut out of the face of the rock, hung over a frightful gorge, it is with other eyes you would lock on the wall that restrains your restive steed from backing into the gulf below. Such are the restraints Gods law imposes. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Applying the law

The Bishop of Moosonee, whose diocese is in the region of the Hudsons Bay territory, and inhabited chiefly by Ojibbeway Indians and Esquimaux, said, Let me take you in thought to a place a hundred miles distant from my own home in that country--a place called Ruperts House. One morning I had before me a large congregation of Indians. I knew that among them there were four men who only a month or two before had murdered their fathers and mothers, and I intentionally placed those men directly in front of me. I called attention to the Ten Commandments. I read the Fourth Commandment and explained it, and I also read the sixth and explained it, and when I had done I put questions to the four men to whom I have just alluded. I said to the first, Who killed his father? I said to the second, Who killed his mother? I said to the third, Who killed his mother-in-law? I said to the fourth, Who killed his father? And each of those men replied without blushing, It was I who did it. Of what crime were those poor murdered people guilty? They were guilty of a crime of which we may any of us be guilty, and of which some of us here already begin to be guilty--the crime of growing old. Accordingly the old father and mother were told that they had lived long enough and that it was time for them to die, and the bow-string was speedily placed round their necks, and with one son pulling at one end, and another son or perhaps a daughter at the other, the poor old people were deprived of life, and then hastily flung into a grave. Happily this state of things has now passed away.

Design of the law

An American gentleman said to a friend, I wish you would come down to my garden and taste my apples. He asked him about a dozen times, but the friend did not come, and at last the fruit-grower said, I suppose you think my apples are good for nothing, so you wont come and try them. Well, to tell the truth, said the friend, I have tasted them. As I went along the road I picked up one that fell over the wall, and I never tasted anything so sour in all my life; and I do not particularly wish to have any more of your fruit. Oh, said the owner of the garden, I thought it must be so! Those apples around the outside are for the special benefit of the boys. I went fifty miles to select the sourest sorts to plant all around the orchard, so the boys might give them up as not worth stealing; but if you will come inside you will find that we grow a very different quality there, sweet as honey. Now you will find that on the outskirts of religion there are a number of Thou shalt nots, and Thou shalts, and convictions and alarms; hut these are only the bitter fruits with which this wondrous Eden is guarded from thievish hypocrites. If you can pass by the exterior bitters, and give yourself up to Christ and live for Him, your peace shall be like the waves of the sea. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Sound doctrine.

Sound doctrine

is not a thing separate from its purpose. It is not spoken from heaven merely for the sake of informing mens minds. Is not this the heresy pervading Christian teaching; that Christian teachers have thought of doctrine as something given them that they might exercise their minds upon it, rather than as something which came to them in order that what God supremely loves--a holy life--might be built up? The one great thing which has perverted mans study of the Christian gospels is, that men have dared to forget that the gospel came to a world of sinners that they might be reclaimed from the paths of sin and brought to righteousness again. Wonderfully few are the mistakes which men make when they read the Bible as the law of life. Wonderfully few are the men able to read the Bible rightly when they fasten their eyes on it for speculation. The soul which goes to the Bible to get the thing for which it was given, gets the thing it goes for. The soul laying hold on the heart of the New Testament finds what was in the heart of God. It is expressed by St. Paul in the phrase, the will of God, even your sanctification. It is certainly easy to find in the New Testament the truth of Jesus Christ. A man comes to the Bible and says, Is not this strange and mysterious? And he points to some marvellous proof he seems to have extorted from the plain text of the New Testament. He is using the Bible for that for which it was not given. He is sure to go wrong, and gather from it some strange doctrine, a fantasy which never was in the simple teaching of the Holy Spirit. Another man goes to the Bible hungering for a better life, desiring to escape from sin; weary of the barren sinfulness of this world he goes to the Bible for a picture of the kingdom of heaven; goes to the Bible to learn how this world can be made the habitation of the Holy God. That man can understand, not perhaps every truth there, for there are truths yet to be developed by certain exigencies of the world; but he will come away full of the learning which he at present needs. The New Testament will become to him a book of life. When St. Paul writes back from Europe to Asia, he bids Timothy teach the disciples that the law is to be used lawfully. He tells him and them the same lesson which we need. Let us go to our Bible for our Bibles purpose, inspiration, and a law of life, and the idea of what God would have man to be, and the power to become what it is the purpose of our Father that we should become. This is the teaching of the First Epistle to Timothy. The fundamental thing which Paul said to Timothy was that he should send the Ephesians to the Bible for the Bibles purpose. Always, spirituality is to go back to morality. The idea that man is to be wise with the wisdom of God is to refresh itself with the idea that man is to be good with the holiness of God. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti 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, Rom 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, Rom 3:20; Gal 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, Rom 13:10; Gal 5:14; Jas 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 Col 2:14. Against the ungodly and sinners — Persons destitute of the knowledge and fear, as well as love of God, and notorious transgressors; the unholy — In heart and life; and profane — Violating the name and day of God, and all sacred things, and so treating with contempt or neglect all the commands of the first table: murderers of fathers and of mothers — The apostle proceeds to speak of those who violate the commands of the second table; and first, of those who, instead of honouring their parents, even imbrue their hands in their blood, and so by one act transgress and trample under foot both the fifth and sixth commands: whoremongers — Adulterers, fornicators, and lewd persons of all kinds, who violate the seventh; men-stealers — Who in the grossest sense possible break the eighth; for of all thieves, those who steal human beings are the worst. In comparison of them, highwaymen and house-breakers are innocent! “They who make war for the inhuman purpose of selling the vanquished for slaves, as is the practice of African princes; and they who, like African traders, encourage their unchristian traffic by purchasing that which they know to be thus unjustly acquired, are really men-stealers.” — Macknight. And such are all the nations who legalize or connive at such proceedings. And what shall we say of those who steal children to beg with them, or that they may rob them of their clothes, or for other purposes: or of those who enlist soldiers by lies, tricks, or enticements? Liars, perjured persons — Who violate the ninth commandment; and if there be any other thing — As there are very many; contrary to sound doctrine — Υγιαινουση διδασκαλια, salutary, or healing doctrine. According to the apostle, therefore, the doctrine which condemns and restrains wicked practices, though ridiculed by some as legal and Pharisaic, is, as far as it goes, salutary doctrine. On the other hand, the doctrine which encourages men to sin, or which makes them easy under it, though represented by some as evangelical, and the sweet doctrine of grace, is unwholesome and pernicious. According to the glorious gospel — Which, far from making void, does indeed establish the law, and that in the most effectual manner.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

1Ti_1:8. We know that the law is good.—The “grace and truth” which “came by Jesus Christ” did not abrogate the law. That law had a moral excellence, was indeed an admirable thing, provided that it was used legitimately.

1Ti_1:9. The law is not made for.—As we say “is not laid down.” The vices which follow are enumerated first under terms more general, and then more specific. Lawless and disobedient.—R.V. “lawless and unruly.” Both imply opposition to law—the former a more passive disregard of it, the latter a more active violation of it arising from a refractory will (Ellicott). For the ungodly and for sinners.—This second pair of terms points to want of reverence for God, the third to want of inner purity and holiness, the fourth to want of even the commonest feeling (ibid.). Murderers of fathers … mothers.—So R.V., but margin, “smiters.” This seems to soften the word; but if the blow should prove fatal, the crime of manslaughter is aggravated by a parent’s death.

1Ti_1:10. If there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.—St. Paul has followed the order of the commandments, making them all bear on human relationships.

1Ti_1:11. According to the gospel.—The gospel is more stern than the law against such deeds.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Ti_1:8-11

The Function of the Law.

I. The law is good in itself.—“We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully” (1Ti_1:8). The law is blameless: the blame is in the improper use of the law. The law is the standard and guardian of right, and has no quarrel with the man who obeys its enactments. We spoil the law when we try to improve it. In the Jewish Talmud we read that there was a flute in the Temple preserved from the days of Moses: it was smooth, thin, and formed of a reed. At the command of the king it was overlaid with gold, which ruined its sweetness of tone until the gold was taken away. There were also a cymbal and a mortar, which had become injured in course of time, and were mended by men of Alexandria summoned by the wise men; but their usefulness was so completely destroyed by this process that it was necessary to restore them to their former condition. So when we try to improve the law by overlaying it with what we call the gold of rationalism, but which in truth is the dross and tinsel of human conceits, we injure and divert both its beauty and its usefulness.

II. The law does not avail in producing personal righteousness.—“Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man” (1Ti_1:9). The law regulates the outward life, but it does not touch the heart, until it is planted there as the law of love. But it has in itself no power thus to transform itself: this is done only by the soul being made righteous by faith in Christ. Then the law is not destroyed, but it is rendered powerless by being obeyed. The righteous man is “not forensically amenable to the law,” though he still needs it to show him his lapses and shortcomings, and the requirements of a holy God.

III. The function of the law is to convict the sinner of his manifold transgressions.—“But for the lawless and disobedient … and any other thing contrary to sound doctrine” (1Ti_1:9-10). The catalogue of sins contained in these verses includes every kind of transgression. They differ in baseness and violence; but they are all violations of the law; and the root of these evils is in the obstinacy and rebellion of the human heart. The law not only reveals the enormity of these transgressions, but inflicts pains and penalties upon their perpetrators. The gospel is not placed so high above the law as to favour sin: it denounces all sin as “contrary to sound doctrine.” The doctrine that deals with meaningless questions and false interpretations of the law is diseased.

IV. The function of the law is in harmony with the teaching of the gospel.—“According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust” (1Ti_1:11). “The glorious gospel of the blessed God” is a striking and suggestive phrase, as though the arrival of the time when the glorious news of salvation was announced to man was an occasion of Divine joy. We say it with profound reverence—the gospel was proclaimed with Divine hilarity. God was happy that man should be at length told of the reality of the Divine blessedness. The law represented God as a rigid, unbending Magistrate—the gospel as a loving, forgiving, joyous Father. In the presence of this glorious evangel, how paltry the distorted, emasculated gospel of the false teachers would appear! There is no real antagonism between the law and the gospel: the law is a preparation for and introduction to the gospel. Both are included in God’s method for saving men. An old divine writes: “It is ordinary with the prophets first to discover the sins of the people and to denounce judgments; and then to promise Christ upon their coming in to enlighten and make them lightsome with raising their thoughts to a fruitful contemplation of the glory, excellency, and sweetness of His blessed kingdom. Isaiah in his first chapter, from the mouth of God, doth in the first place behave himself like a son of thunder, pressing upon the conscience of those to whom he was sent many heinous sins, horrible ingratitude, fearful falling away, formality in God’s worship, cruelty, and the like. Afterwards he invites to repentance, and assures them of God’s willingness to forgive and cleanse—‘Come now, and let us reason together.’ Nathan, to recover even a regenerate man, first convinces him soundly of his sin, with much aggravation and terror, and then upon remorse assures him of pardon (2Sa_12:13).”

Lessons.—

1. The law is terrible to the disobedient.

2. The law convinces of sin, but cannot remove it.

3. The gospel as a remedy for sin is a glorious revelation of God.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

1Ti_1:8. The Lawful Use of the Law.

I. It is lawful to employ it as a schoolmaster to lead the sinner to Christ.

II. It is lawful to use the law as a rule of life.—

1. The gospel dissolves no relation to God.

2. Obedience is the object of the gospel.

3. The law shall be eternally obeyed.

III. It is lawful to use the law as a test of our spiritual state.—

1. God uses the law for this end, in judging.

2. We may anticipate the judgment.

3. The law the standard by which the believer’s progress is ascertained.—Stewart.

1Ti_1:11. A Noble Eulogy of the Gospel.

I. The gospel of the glory of God.

II. This God the blessed God.

III. Through this blessed God the ministry of the gospel is entrusted to a man like Paul.—J. P. Lange, D.D.

The Gospel Glorious.

I. As it is a splendid revelation of the Divine felicity.

II. In the sublime themes it declares.

III. In the grandeur of the moral benefits it confers on man.

IV. In the dignity and power with which it invests its messengers.

The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God.

I. It contains a bright display of the perfections of God.—His wisdom, His power, His justice, His holiness, and His love are all exhibited, and the exhibition is striking and harmonious.

II. It is admirably adapted to the moral and spiritual necessities of man.—Man is ignorant, guilty, polluted, miserable, immoral, impotent.

III. It exerts, wherever it is believed, a mighty influence.—It civilises, reforms, exalts, strengthens.

IV. It has already won signal triumphs.—Contrast the infant Church in Jerusalem with Christendom as it is.

V. It secures eternal happiness.

VI. It combines with the utmost grandeur of result the utmost simplicity of requirement.—It is of faith that it might be by grace.—G. Brooks.

The Blessed God.

I. Let us contemplate the happiness of God.—

1. Its nature is beyond our comprehension, because it is beyond our comprehension, because it is beyond our experience.

2. It consists of many elements. Infinite power, wisdom, and goodness.

3. It is communicated to sentient creatures.

4. It furnishes a lofty and delightful subject of thought.

II. Let us collect some of the practical lessons which the contemplation of the happiness of God suggests.—

1. It teaches us how great God is. He is all-sufficient.

2. It teaches us how great man is. He is capable of friendly relations with Him who is blessed for ever.

3. It teaches us the evil of sin. It has alienated man from the source of all bliss.

4. It teaches us the grandeur of the gospel, whose aim is to make believers partakers of God’s happiness.—Ibid.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 4

THE MORAL TEACHING OF THE GNOSTICS-ITS MODERN COUNTERPART. - 1Ti_1:8-11

THE speculations of the Gnostics in their attempts to explain the origin of the universe and the origin of evil, were wild and unprofitable enough; and in some respects involved a fundamental contradiction of the plain statements of Scripture. But it was not so much their metaphysical as their moral teaching which seemed so perilous to St. Paul. Their "endless genealogies" might have been left to fall with their own dead weight, so dull and uninteresting were they. Specimens of them still survive, in what is known to us of the systems of Basilides and Valentinus; and which of us, after having laboriously worked through them, ever wished to read them a second time? But it is impossible to keep ones philosophy in one compartment in ones mind, and ones religion and morality quite separate from it in another. However unpractical metaphysical speculations may appear, it is beyond question that the views which we hold respecting such things may have momentous influence upon our life. It was so with the early Gnostics, whom St. Paul urges Timothy to keep in check. Their doctrine respecting the nature of the material world and its relation to God, led to two opposite forms of ethical teaching, each of them radically opposed to Christianity.

This fact fits in very well with the character of the Pastoral Epistles, all of which deal with this early form of error. They insist upon discipline and morality, more than upon doctrine. These last solemn charges of the great Apostle aim rather at making Christian ministers, and their congregations, lead pure and holy lives, than at constructing any system of theology. Erroneous teaching must be resisted; the plain truths of the Gospel must be upheld; but the main thing is holiness of life. By prayer and thanksgiving, by quiet and grave conduct, by modesty and temperance, by self-denial and benevolence, by reverence for the sanctity of home life, Christians will furnish the best antidote to the intellectual and moral poison which the false teachers are propagating. "The sound doctrine" has its fruit in a healthy, moral life, as surely as the "different doctrine" leads to spiritual pride and lawless sensuality.

The belief that Matter and everything material is inherently evil, involved necessarily a contempt for the human body. This body was a vile thing; and it was a dire calamity for the human mind to be joined to such a mass of evil. From this premise various conclusions, some doctrinal and some ethical, were drawn.

On the doctrinal side it was urged that the resurrection of the body was incredible. It was disastrous enough to the soul that it should be burdened with a body in this world. That this degrading alliance would be continued in the world to come was a monstrous belief. Equally incredible was the doctrine of the Incarnation. How could the Divine Word consent to be united to so evil a thing as a material frame? Either the Son of Mary was a mere man, or the body which the Christ assumed was not real. It is with these errors that St. John deals, some twelve or fifteen years later, in his Gospel and Epistles. On the ethical side the tenet that the human body is utterly evil produced two opposite errors, ascetieism and antinomian sensuality. And both of these are aimed at in these Epistles. If the enlightenment of the soul is everything, and the body is utterly worthless, then this vile clog to the movement of the soul must be beaten under and crushed, in order that the higher nature may rise to higher things. The body must be denied all indulgence, in order that it may be starved into submission. {1Ti_4:3} On the other hand, if enlightenment is everything and the body is worthless, then every kind of experience, no matter how shameless, is of value, in order to enlarge knowledge. Nothing that a man can do can make his body more vile than it is by nature, and the soul of the enlightened is incapable of pollution. Gold still remains gold, however often it is plunged in the mire. The words of the three verses taken as a text, look as if St. Paul was aiming at evil of this kind. These Judaising Gnostics "desired to be teachers of the Law." They wished to enforce the Mosaic Law, or rather their fantastic interpretations of it, upon Christians. They insisted upon its excellence, and would not allow that it has been in many respects superseded. "We know quite well," says the Apostle, "and readily admit, that the Mosaic Law is an excellent thing; provided that those who undertake to expound it make a legitimate use of it. They must remember that, just as law in general is not made for those whose own good principles keep them in the right, so also the restrictions of the Mosaic Law are not meant for Christians who obey the Divine will in the free spirit of the Gospel." Legal restrictions are intended to control those who will not control themselves; in short, for the very men who by their strange doctrines are endeavoring to curtail the liberties of others. What they preach as "the Law" is really a code of their own, "commandments of men who turn away from the truth. They profess that they know God; but by their works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate". {Tit_1:14; Tit_1:16} In rehearsing the various kinds of sinners for whom law exists, and who are to be found (he hints) among these false teachers, he goes roughly through the Decalogue. The four commandments of the First Table are indicated in general and comprehensive terms; the first five commandments of the Second Table are taken one by one, flagrant violators being specified in each case. Thus the stealing of a human being in order to make him a slave is mentioned as the most outrageous breach of the eighth commandment. The tenth commandment is not distinctly indicated, possibly because the breaches of it are not so easily detected. The overt acts of these men were quite sufficient to convict them of gross immorality, without enquiring as to their secret wishes and desires. In a word, the very persons who in their teaching were endeavoring to burden men with the ceremonial ordinances, which had been done away in Christ, were in their own lives violating the moral laws, to which Christ had given a new sanction. They tried to keep alive, in new and strange forms, what had been provisional and was now obsolete, while they trampled under foot what was eternal and Divine.

"If there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine." In these words St. Paul sums up all the forms of transgression not specified in his catalogue. The sound, healthy teaching of the Gospel is opposed to the morbid and corrupt teaching of the Gnostics, who are sickly in their speculations, {1Ti_6:4} and whose word is like an eating sore. {2Ti_2:17} Of course healthy teaching is also health-giving, and corrupt teaching is corrupting; but it is the primary and not the derived quality that is stated here. It is the healthiness of the doctrine in itself, and its freedom from what is diseased or distorted, that is insisted upon. Its wholesome character is a consequence of this.

This word "sound" or "healthy" as applied to doctrine, is one of a group of expressions which are peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles, and which have been condemned as not belonging to St. Pauls style of language. He never uses "healthy" in his other Epistles; therefore these three Epistles, in which the phrase occurs eight or nine times, are not by him.

This kind of argument has been discussed already, in the first of these expositions. It assumes the manifest untruth, that as life goes on men make little or no change in the stock of words and phrases which they habitually use. With regard to this particular phrase, the source of it has been conjectured with a fair amount of probability. It may come from "the beloved physician," who, at the time when St. Paul wrote the second Epistle to Timothy, was the Apostles sole companion. It is worth remarking that the word here used for "sound" (with the exception of one passage in the Third Epistle of St. John) occurs nowhere in the New Testament in the literal sense of being in sound bodily health, except in the Gospel of St. Luke. And it occurs nowhere in a figurative sense, except in the Pastoral Epistles. It is obviously a medical metaphor; a metaphor which anyone who had never had anything to do with medicine might easily use, but which is specially likely to be used by a man who had lived much in the society of a physician. Before we call such a phrase un-Pauline we must ask:

(1) Is there any passage in the earlier Epistles of St. Paul where he would certainly have used this word "sound," had he been familiar with it?

(2) Is there any word in the earlier Epistles which would have expressed his meaning here equally well? If either of these questions is answered in the negative, then we are going beyond our knowledge in pronouncing the phrase "sound doctrine" to be un-Pauline.

"Contrary to the sound doctrine." It sums up in a comprehensive phrase the doctrinal and moral teaching of the Gnostics. What they taught was unsound and morbid, and as a consequence poisonous and pestilential. While professing to accept and expound the Gospel, they really disintegrated it and explained it away. They destroyed the very basis of the Gospel message; for they denied the reality of sin. And they equally destroyed the contents of the message; for they denied the reality of the Incarnation. Nor were they less revolutionary on the moral side than on the doctrinal. The foundations of morality are sapped when intellectual enlightenment is accounted as the one thing needful, while conduct is treated as a thing of no value. Principles of morality are turned upside down when it is maintained that any act which adds to ones knowledge is not only allowable, but a duty. It is necessary to remember these fatal characteristics of this early form of error, in order to appreciate the stern language used by St. Paul and St. John respecting it, as also by St. Jude and the author of the Second Epistle of St. Peter.

St. John in his Epistles deals mainly with the doctrinal side of the heresy, -the denial of the reality of sin and the reality of the Incarnation: although the moral results of doctrinal error are also indicated and condemned. In the Apocalypse, as in St. Paul and in the Catholic Epistles, it is mainly the moral side of the false teaching that is denounced, and that in both its opposite phases. The Epistle to the Colossians deals with the ascetic tendencies of early gnosticism. The Apocalypse and the Catholic Epistles deal with its licentious tendencies. The Pastoral Epistles treat of both asceticism and licentiousness, but chiefly of the latter, as is seen from the passage before us and from the first part of chapter 3 in the Second Epistle. As we might expect, St. Paul uses stronger language in the Pastoral Epistles than he does in writing to the Colossians; and in St. John and the Catholic Epistles we find stronger language still. Antinomian licentiousness is a far worse: evil than misguided asceticism, and in the interval between St. Paul and the other writers the profligacy of the Antinomian Gnostics had increased. St. Paul warns the Colossians against delusive "persuasiveness of speech," against "vain deceit," "the rudiments of the world," "the precepts and doctrines of men." He cautions Timothy and Titus respecting "seducing spirits and doctrines of devils profane and old wives fables," "profane babblings" anti teachings that "will eat as doth a gangrene," "vain talkers and deceivers whose mind and conscience is deceived," and the like. St. John denounces these false teachers as "liars," "seducers," "false prophets," "deceivers," and "antichrists"; and in Jude and the Second Epistle of Peter we have the profligate lives of these false teachers condemned in equally severe terms.

It should be observed that here again everything falls into its proper place if we assume that the Pastoral Epistles were written some years later than the Epistle to the Colossians and some years earlier than those of St. Jude and St. John. The ascetic tendencies of Gnosticism developed first. And though they still continued in teachers like Tatian and Marcion, yet from the close of the first century the licentious conclusions drawn from the premises that the human body is worthless and that all knowledge is Divine, became more and more prevalent; as is seen in the teaching of Carpocrates and Epiphanes, and in the monstrous sect of the Cainites. It was quite natural, therefore, that St. Paul should attack Gnostic asceticism first in writing to the Colossians, and afterwards both it and Gnostic licentiousness in writing to Timothy and Titus. It was equally natural that his language should grow stronger as he saw the second evil developing, and that those who saw this second evil at a more advanced stage should use sterner language still.

The extravagant theories of the Gnostics to account for the origin of the universe and the origin of evil are gone and are past recall. It would be impossible to induce people to believe them, and only a comparatively small number of students ever even read them. But the heresy that knowledge is more important than conduct, that brilliant intellectual gifts render a man superior to the moral law, and that much of the moral law itself is the tyrannical bondage of an obsolete tradition, is as dangerous as ever it was. It is openly preached and frequently acted upon. The great Florentine artist, Benvenuto Cellini, tells us in his autobiography that when Pope Paul III expressed his willingness to forgive him an outrageous murder committed in the streets of Rome, one of the gentlemen at the Papal Court ventured to remonstrate with the Pope for condoning so heinous a crime. "You do not understand the matter as well as I do," replied Paul III: "I would have you to know that men like Benvenuto, unique in their profession, are not bound by the laws." Cellini is a braggart, and it is possible that in this particular he is romancing. But, even if the story is his invention, he merely attributes to the Pope the sentiments which he cherished himself, and upon which (as experience taught him) other people acted. Over and over again his murderous violence was overlooked by those in authority, because they admired and wished to make use of his genius as an artist. "Ability before honesty" was a common creed in the sixteenth century, and it is abundantly prevalent in our own. The most notorious scandals in a mans private life are condoned if only he is recognized as having talent. It is the old Gnostic error in a modern and sometimes agnostic form. It is becoming daily more clear that the one thing needful for the regeneration of society, whether upper, middle, or lower, is the creation of a "sound" public opinion. And so long as this is so, Gods ministers and all who have the duty of instructing others will need to lay to heart the warnings which St. Paul gives to his followers Timothy and Titus.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

1Ti 1:8. Ὁ νόμος—νομίμως) Conjugate terms: νομίμως, according to what is agreeable to the law. They used to “strive about the law,” Tit 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.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti_1:8. In contrast with the heretics advocacy of the law, the apostle, in what follows, states its real value.

Οἴδαμεν δὲ, ὅτι κ.τ.λ.] Baur wrongly infers from these words that the heretics, as Antinomians, had no desire to vindicate the law as good. It is not these first words, but the words ἐάν τις κ.τ.λ., that are directed against the heretics. In spite of Hofmanns denial, οἴδαμεν δέ stands in a concessive sense, (Wiesinger), as in Rom_7:14, 1Co_8:1, the apostle making an acknowledgment which is restricted by ἐάν τις κ.τ.λ.; still we cannot translate it simply by concedimus, as Heinrichs does.

καλὸς ὁ νόμος] By νόμος we must understand, neither the Christian moral law, nor a single part of the Mosaic law, but the latter as a whole. It is of the entire Mosaic law in its existing form as a revelation of the divine will given in a system of written commandsit is of this that Paul uses καλός as a suitable epithet. It is not enough to take καλός as equivalent to ὠφέλιμος (Theodoret), though the idea of usefulness is included in it; καλός denotes generally the internal excellence of the law, just as the same is set forth in still more significant expressions in Rom_7:12; Rom_7:14. But the good and excellent qualities of the law depend on its being applied according to its nature and signification: when applied otherwise, it ceases to be καλός. Hence Paul, in opposition to the heretics, adds: ἐάν τις αὐτῷ νομίμως χρῆται. The νομίμως, which is clearly a play on words with νόμος, only expresses the formal relation; we can only infer from the thoughts that follow what is meant by the lawful use of law.[57] De Wette rightly remarks: There is in this passage nothing but what the words really say, that the Christian teacher must not uphold the law as binding on the ΔΊΚΑΙΟς. While nearly all expositors understand by ΤΙς the Christian as such, Bengel remarks: Paulus hoc loco non de auditore legis, sed de doctore loquitur; in this he is right, as is acknowledged also by de Wette, Wiesinger, van Oosterzee, Hofmann. Paul says nothing here as to how the law is to be obeyed, but rather he tells us how it is to be made use of by Christian teachers.

[57] Most expositors have on this passage told us wherein consisted the material advantage of the law; but however correct their statements in themselves may be, they are out of place, since there is no ground for them in the apostles words.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti 1:8-11 . And yet this alleged antagonism of the Law to the Gospel is factitious: the Law on which they insist is part of law in general; so is the Gospel with which I was entrusted. The intention of both is to a large extent identical: to promote right conduct.

1Ti 1:8 . οἴδαμεν , as in Rom 7:14 , 1Co 8:1 ; 1Co 8:4 , introduces a concession in the argument καλὸς ὁ νόμος was a concession made by St. Paul, Rom 7:16 , also Rom 7:12 , ὁ μὲν νόμος ἅγιος . It is possible that it had been objected that his language was inconsistent with his policy. It may be questioned whether καλός , in St. Paul’s use of it, differs from ἀγαθός , as meaning good in appearance as well as in reality. For the use of καλός in the Pastorals, see notes on 1Ti 1:18 and 1Ti 3:1 . τις has no special reference to the teacher as distinct from the learner. The law is καλός in its own sphere; but Corruptio optimi pessima ; “Sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds”. νομίμως here means in accordance with the spirit in which the law was enacted . It does not mean lawfully in the usual acceptation of that term. St. Paul impresses the word into his service, and does it violence in order to give an epigrammatic turn to the sentence. In 2Ti 2:5 , νομίμως has its ordinary meaning in accordance with the rules of the game . χρῆται : In Euripides, Hipp . 98 νόμοις χρῆσθαι means “to live under laws”.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The taking away of an objection. He condemneth not the Law, but requireth the right use and practice of it.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

But--"Now we know" (Rom 3:19; Rom 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 (Ti1 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 (Ti1 1:9-10; compare Rom 7:7-12; Gal 3:21).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. But we know that the law is good] The law as given by God, is both good in itself and has a good tendency. This is similar to what the apostle had asserted, Ro 7:12-16: The law is holy; and the commandment is holy, just, and good; where see the note.

If a man use it lawfully] That is, interpret it according to its own spirit and design, and use it for the purpose for which God has given it; for the ceremonial law was a schoolmaster to lead us unto Christ, and Christ is the end of that law for justification to every one that believes. Now those who did not use the law in reference to these ends, did not use it lawfully-they did not construe it according to its original design and meaning.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8 Now we know that the law is good He again anticipates the calumny with which they loaded him; for, whenever he resisted their empty display, they seized on this shield for their defense “What then? Do you wish to have the law buried, and blotted out of the remembrance of men?” In order to repel this calumny, Paul acknowledges that “the law is good,” but contends that we are required to make a lawful use of it. Here he argues from the use of cognate terms; for the word lawful (legitimus) is derived from the word law (lex). But he goes still further, and shews that the law agrees excellently with the doctrine which it teaches; and he even directs it against them.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) But we know.—Better, Now we know: a strong expression of his knowledge, learned in the school of the Holy Ghost. He spoke with the conscious authority of an Apostle, confident of the truth of what he preached and taught.

That the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.—“The Law is good,” St. Paul declared with apostolic authoritative knowledge, “should a man—i.e., a teacher of the Law—make use of it lawfully; if he should use it so as to make men conscious of their sins, conscious that of themselves they deserve no mercy, only punishment.” To press this sorrowful knowledge was the Law’s true work upon men. It was never intended to supply materials for casuistry and idle, profitless arguments. It was never meant as a system out of which man might draw material for self-deception. It was never meant as a system through which a man might imagine that by a compliance, more or less rigid, with its outer ritual he was satisfying all the higher requirements of justice and truth.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. But we know] Yet we are all aware, a correction or concession. St Paul uses ‘we know’ in a similar way, Rom_7:14, ‘I grant that the law is spiritual’; 1Co_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 2Ti_3:4; 2Ti_4:7, and better 1Ti_1:3; 1Ti_1:5, ‘charge,’ ‘charges.’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But we know that the law is good,.... The apostle says this to prevent an objection that might be made to him, that seeing he bore so hard on such who were fond of being teachers of the law, he was himself against the law, and the preaching and proper use of it; but this he would not have concluded, for he and his fellow labourers in the ministry, and all true believers know, from the Scriptures of truth, from the agreement of the law with the Gospel, and from their own experience, that the law is good, provided it be used in a lawful way, and to lawful purposes: and this is to be understood not of the ceremonial law, which was now disannulled, because of the weakness and unprofitableness of it, so that there was no lawful use of that; but of the moral law, which must needs be good, since the author of it is God, who is only good; and nothing but good can come from him: the law, strictly moral, is a copy of his nature, transcribed out of himself, as well as with his own hands; and is a declaration of his will, and is stamped with his authority, and therefore must be good: the matter of it is good, it contains good, yea, great and excellent things; the matter of it is honestly and morally good, as to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with God: and it is pleasantly good to a regenerate man, who loves it, and delights in it after the inner man, and serves it with his spirit; though the carnal mind cannot be subject to it, but rejects it, and rebels against it: and it is also profitably good; for though obedience to it is not profitable to God, yet it is to men; and though eternal life is not obtained hereby, nor any reward given for keeping it, yet in keeping it there is a reward; and that peace is enjoyed, which the transgressors of it are strangers to: it is good in the uses of it, both to sinners and to saints. To sinners it is useful for the knowledge of sin, to convince of it, and bring them to a sense of it, and concern for it, which is effectually done, when the Spirit of God sets in with it, or brings this commandment home to the heart; and if it has not this use, it is sometimes a means of restraining men from sin, which is the use of civil laws among men; and if it has not this, it is of use however to accuse men rightly of sin, and to pronounce justly guilty before God for it, to curse them as they deserve it, and to sentence to condemnation and death: and to believers it is of use, though they are not under it as in the hands of Moses, and as a covenant of works, and are freed from its curse and condemnation, and under no obligation to seek for life and righteousness by it; to them it is of use, to point out to them what is the will of God, and what should be done, and not done; and it is a rule of walk and conversation to them, as in the hands of Christ; and is as a glass to them to behold their own deformity, the impurity of their nature, the plague of their own hearts, and the imperfection of their obedience; by which they see the insufficiency of their own righteousness, how far they are from perfection, and what carnal creatures they are, when compared with this law: and as this serves to put them out of conceit with themselves, so it tends to make Christ and his righteousness more lovely and valuable in their esteem; who has wrought out a righteousness as broad and as long as the law is, and by which it is magnified and made honourable, and has delivered them from its curse and condemnation. And this law is good as it is holy, in its author, nature, and use; and as it is just, requiring just things, and doing that which is just, by acquitting those who are interested in Christ's righteousness, and in condemning those that have no righteousness; and as it is a spiritual and perfect law, which reaches the spirit and soul of man, and is concerned with inward thoughts and motions, as well as outward actions; and especially the end of it, the fulfilling end of it is good, which is Jesus Christ, who was made under it, came to fulfil it, and has answered all the demands of it: so that it must be good, and which cannot be denied,

if a man use it lawfully; for if it is used in order to obtain life, righteousness, and salvation by the works of it, or by obedience to it, it is used unlawfully: for the law does not give life, nor can righteousness come by it; nor are, or can men be saved by the works of it; to use the law for such purposes, is to abuse it, as the false teachers did, and make that which is good in itself, and in its proper use, to do what is evil; namely, to obscure and frustrate the grace of God, and make null and void the sufferings and death of Christ. A lawful use of the law is to obey it, as in the hands of Christ, the King of saints, and lawgiver in his church, from a principle of love to him, in the exercise of faith on him, without any mercenary selfish views, without trusting to, or depending on, what is done in obedience to it, but with a view to the glory of God, to testify our subjection to Christ, and our gratitude to him for favours received from him.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;

Ver. 8. If a man use it lawfully] For discovery of sin, for manuduction to Christ, and for a rule of life. Lex, lux, Pro 6:23. Xenophon telleth us, that this was the drift of the Persian laws, to keep men from acting, yea, from coveting, anything evil or idle, κειται.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But we know that the law is good - We admit this; it is that which we all concede. This declaration is evidently made by the apostle to guard against the supposition that he was an enemy of the law. Doubtless this charge would be brought against him, or against anyone who maintained the sentiments which he had just expressed. By speaking thus of what those teachers regarded as so important in the law, it would be natural for them to declare that he was an enemy of the law itself, and would be glad to see all its claims abrogated. Paul says that he designs no such thing. He admitted that the law was good. He was never disposed for one moment to call it in question. He only asked that it should be rightly understood and properly explained. Paul was never disposed to call in question the excellency and the utility of the law, however it might bear on him or on others; compare Rom 7:12 note, and Act 21:21-26 notes.

If a man use it lawfully - In a proper manner; for the purposes for which it was designed. It is intended to occupy a most important place, but it should not be perverted. Paul asked only that it should be used aright, and in order to this, he proceeds to state what is its true design.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The law is good. Do not think I condemn the law of Moses, or those who observe it; it is good, if properly understood and rightly practised. I only blame those who make the law an occasion of disturbance; who, without understanding, pretend to be masters, and teach idle curiosities. (Theodoret)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

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, Rom 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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. The law—The Old Testament, upon which these errorists base their jangling.

Is good—Its centre is the decalogue, which embodies all righteousness; and all else in the old canon is but a circumference and area enclosing and sustaining this centre. “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Rom_7:12.

Use it lawfully—As these errorists were using it unlawfully, illegitimately, and contrary to its right end as law. The play upon the words law and lawfully is very significant. Use the law unlawfully, and it leads to vain jangling; use it lawfully, and it brings us to the glorious gospel, 1Ti_1:11.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Law is good. (see the similar statement in Rom_7:12) The Jews thought that St. Paul spoke against the Law (comp., Act_6:13, Act_6:14) because he vindicated its true use (Rom_10:4; Gal_3:24 Gal_4:4, Gal_4:5, etc.) But he everywhere speaks of the Law as good and holy. If a mani.e., a teacher of the Law use it lawfully; knowing its proper use, as it follows in the next verse.

Vers. 8, 9.

The nature and design of the Law.

know that the Law is good, if a man use it lawfully." This passage contains the last recorded utterance of the apostle concerning the Law, and of which he speaks with all the conscious authority of an apostle. He asserts the goodness of the Law the moral Law, not the ceremonial, which was now disannulled, for the context refers expressly to the precepts of the Decalogue and this goodness is manifest if you keep in view the moral end for which it was given. Perhaps the apostle may have had in view the lax moral practice of the errorists at Ephesus.

I THE LAWFUL USE OF THE LAW. Scripture sets forth its design in plain language.

1. It was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. (Gal_3:24) Thus "Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness". (Rom_10:4)

2. But it only brings us to Christ as it reveals to us our imperfections and our sins. "For by the Law is the knowledge of sin". (Rom_3:20) It was, indeed, "added because of transgressions". (Gal_3:19) The Law shows us our sinfulness, and drives us to the Savior. It thus "shuts us up to faith". (Gal_3:23)

II THE UNLAWFUL USE OF THE LAW.

1. To make it the occasion of endless logomachies of vain talking, of "strivings about the Law.

2. To seek justification by obedience to its precepts.

3. To strive for the attainment of holiness by a use of the Law, interpreted, not in its plain sense, but with meanings imposed upon it by mystical allegorizings and theosophic culture. The errorists at Ephesus were no Pharisaic legalists or mere Judaists, but persons ignorant of the true nature and design of the Law; who abstained from things lawful and good, and were yet morally corrupt (Tit_1:10; Rev_2:9, Rev_2:14, Rev_2:20, Rev_2:24)

III GROUND OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN ITS LAWFUL AND UNLAWFUL USE. "Knowing this, that the Law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless

1. The Law is not made for a righteous man.

(1) This does not mean that a righteous man that is, a man right with God, whose experience has made the principles of righteousness habitual with him has no relation whatever to the Law.

(a) Because the Law had relation to

(a) Adam in innocence, who had the Law written in his heart;

(b) to Abraham, who was a righteous man;

(c) to David, who was a righteous man;

(d) and to all the Old Testament saints;

(e) it had even relation to Jesus Christ himself, who was "made under the Law the very "Law that was in his heart", (Psa_40:8) of which he was "the end for righteousness", (Rom_10:4) because he came to fulfill it. (Mat_5:16)

(b) Because the Law has relation to believers under the Christian dispensation; for this very apostle enforces the obligation to obey it, specifying six of its enactments (Rom_13:8, Rom_13:9; Eph_6:1) James says that believers who show respect of persons become "transgressors of the Law." Therefore, when the apostle says "the Law is not made for a righteous man," he does not mean that the righteous man is no longer bound to obey it. He delights in it; he actually serves it. (Rom_7:25) If any should say that the apostle means that the righteous do not need the Law to direct them, we answer that they might as well say they do not need the Scripture to direct them, as the Law is already in their hearts. How is a righteous man to know sin but by the Law? "For by the Law is the knowledge of sin.

(2) His statement has an abstract cast, like our Lord"s saying, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

(a) The Law was not made because of righteous, but because of wicked, men. "It was added because of transgressions." It is similar to the statement of the apostle concerning the nine graces of the Spirit such there is no Law". (Gal_5:23) The Law does not, cannot condemn, any one of these graces.

(b) The Law was never made for the righteous man in the sense in which it was made for the unrighteous man, to condemn him; for the righteous man is redeemed from the curse of the Law. (Gal_3:13) Its penalty cannot affect him; its burden does not weigh him down; its terrors do not bring him into bondage. On the contrary, he delights in it as he serves it. Thus, while in one sense the righteous man delights in it and serves it, he is in another sense "not under the Law, but under grace". (Rom_6:14) It may be further observed that if Adam had continued in his original righteousness, the Law of Sinai would never have been given to man. "It was added because of transgressions.

2. The Law is made for the wicked. They are described according to the two tables of the Decalogue. Those in the first table go in pairs.

(1) The lawless and unruly. These terms describe opposition to the Law the one in its more subjective, the other in its more objective side; the one representing, perhaps, a more passive, the other a more active hostility to Law.

(2) The ungodly and sinful. These terms describe the opposition to God the one without reverence for him, the other living in defiance of him.

(3) The unholy and profane. These terms describe the manifestation of the wicked and godless spirit toward the Name or ordinances of God. They touch upon the violation of the first four commandments.

(4) Those in the second table in with

(a) sins against the fifth commandment: "smiters of fathers and smiters of mothers;

(b) sins against the sixth: "man-slayers;

(c) sins against the seventh: "fornicators, sodomites;

(d) sins against the eighth: "men-stealers this special form of transgression being selected because the theft of a man himself is a far more serious offence than the theft of his goods;

(e) sins against the ninth: "for liars, for perjurers the one being a great advance in enormity upon the other.

(f) Strange that the apostle does not enumerate the tenth, which operated upon himself so powerfully. (Rom_7:7) Perhaps it was designed by the inclusive reference no longer to the committers of sin, but to the sins themselves: "And if there be any other thing that is contrary to the sound instruction, according to the gospel of the glory of God which was committed to my trust." This language implies

(1) that the list is not designed to be exhaustive of the various forms of evil in the worm;

(2) that the Law and the gospel are in perfect harmony respecting what is sin;

(3) that the design of the gospel is to set forth the glory of God"s mercy, goodness and love;

(4) that the gospel is a precious deposit committed to human hands, to be dispensed for the benefit of the race of man. The apostle did not shrink from such a solemn trust, but rather rejoiced in it. T.C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

We grant the whole Mosaic law is good, answers excellent purposes, if a man use it in a proper manner. Even the ceremonial is good, as it points to Christ; and the moral law is holy, just, and good, on its own nature; and of admirable use both to convince unbelievers, and to guide believers in all holiness.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Ver. 8. The apostle turns here from the false to the true, gives his own view of the nature of the law, and of the right use of it, as contradistinguished from that which he had condemned in others. We know, indeed (so δὲ here may be best rendered), that the law is good: our quarrel, therefore, with those pretentious law-teachers is not about the quality of the instrument they profess to handle, but only about their manner of handling it; we know it to be like Him from whom it proceeds—good. The theme, in this point of view, had been already discussed at considerable length in other parts of the apostle’s writings, especially in his Epistle to the Romans. Here, as what he says is of the nature of an admission, he merely asserts it; and then brings in a regulating principle as to that respecting which there was a difference betwixt him and the false teachers at Ephesus,—namely, as to the use or application to be made of the law. The principle is, if one use it lawfully; that is, in accordance with its proper nature and design. For, if a man mistakes regarding this, he cannot possibly handle the law rightly; he necessarily turns it into a wrong direction, and loses at least the spirit, if not also the substance, of its teaching.

Ver. 8. I wish, then (the οὖν at once resuming the subject of prayer, with an exhortation to which in a particular direction this part of the epistle commenced, and pressing as a conclusion from the views more recently advanced—I wish, then), that prayer be made in every place by men, lifting lip holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In the verb Βούλομαι the active wish is expressed, as of one who, having a right to speak in the name of Christ, should in expressing a wish be regarded as virtually uttering a command. If it had been ἐθέλω, the apostle would merely have said he was willing that the thing in question should be done; but in using Βούλομαι he indicates his desire or wish that such a course should be pursued. (See Donaldson, Cratylus, § 463, for the clear exhibition and proof of this distinction. (Donaldson has gone into the discussion of this point at great length, refuting an opposite view which had been advanced by Buttmann in his Lexilopis. As regards Biblical usage, the respective meanings of the two verbs are correctly and succinctly stated by Mr Webster, Syntax and Synonyms of the Greek Testament, p. 197: “Βούλομαι expresses a wish, intention, purpose, formed after deliberation, and upon considering all the circumstances of the case; θέλω denotes a natural impulse or desire, the ground of which is generally obvious, or for which it is unnecessary to assign a reason. Mat 1:19, μὴ θέλων, being reluctant, as was naturally the case; ἐβουλήθη, ‘was minded,’ deliberately purposed, intended after careful consideration.” He refers to the contrary view of Buttmann, that Βούλεσθαι indicates mere inclination, passive desire; but points to Jas 4:4, also to 1Ti 6:9, in both of which cases he justly says θέλειν would be altogether out of place. On the contrary, in 1Ti 5:11, where the impulse of natural desire is in question, θέλειν is the proper word, and Βούλομαι would be unsuitable.)) In respect to the object of his wish, the point of greatest prominence undoubtedly is the praying—hence the προσεύχεσθαι stands first: it is the immediate object of the desire he was breathing in connection with the proper place and responsibilities of believers. But as these are contemplated with reference to the public worship of God, so a certain degree of prominence is also given to the men to whom it properly belongs to manage and direct such worship; while for women, who are presently after mentioned, duties of a more retired and quiet kind are assigned. It seems, however, an awkward way of indicating this subordinate distinction, which is but allusively introduced, to translate with Alford, “that the men pray,” which is formally correct, no doubt, as the article is found in the original (τοὺς ἄνδρας), but gives a sense which to English readers must appear abrupt and unnatural. Indeed, Alford himself seems partly conscious of this, since he admits that the distinction in respect to men cannot be regarded as the apostle’s main object in this verse, and that their relation to public prayer is taken for granted. If so, the kind of double end aimed at in the passage is better gained by such a rendering as we have adopted, giving the act of prayer the chief prominence, but giving the subject, men, also a sort of prominent position by throwing it a little forward, and thus also rendering the transition easy and natural from the male to the female section of believers: that prayer be made in every place, by men lifting up, etc.; likewise also that women ... In mentioning every place in connection with the offering of prayer, the apostle is not to be regarded, with some, as indicating any contrast with the temple, the synagogue, or other conspicuous places of worship, but merely as giving expression to the universal nature of the duty; so that wherever the assemblies of Christian worshippers might meet, there prayer should be offered. And with the duty he couples a brief description of the spirit and manner in which it should be done by the persons who conduct it: lifting up holy hands, without wrath or doubting (ὁσίους, a masculine termination joined to the feminine; χεῖρας, as οὐρανίου at Luk 2:13, and ὅμοιος; in Rev 4:3). The lifting up of the hands in their more formal exercises of devotion appears to have been common among the nations of antiquity, Jew as well as Gentile (Gen 14:22; Psa 28:2, Psa 63:4, Psa 134:2; Virgil, AEn. i. 92); and from the Jewish it naturally passed into the Christian assemblies. Here it is referred to without explanation, as a thing familiarly known; so also by the Roman Clement in his letter to the Corinthians, c. 29, where, with evident respect to the words of the apostle, he says: “Let us come near to Him in holiness of soul (ἐν ὁσιότητι ψυχῆς), raising pure and undefiled hands toward Him.” (In this primary stage the lifting of the hands in public prayer is spoken of as a mere usage or custom, which was deemed suitable and appropriate. But by and by, like other things of a like kind, it was turned into a piece of sacred pantomime or symbolism, and to make it more expressive the stretched-out hands and arms were thrown into the figure of the cross. See quotations to this effect in Bingham, B. xiii. 10, from Tertullian, Minutius, and many others.) The hands so employed might fitly be regarded as bearing the petitions of the suppliants heavenwards, and, in accordance with the action, should themselves possess a character of holiness; in other words, should be the hands of those who are not pursuing courses of iniquity, but are lovers of what is pure and good. All spiritual excellence is necessarily implied in this; yet the apostle adds the further qualifications, without wrath and doubting: without wrath, to which especially, in their relation to the heathen, the early Christians were often under great provocation, and might consequently be disposed to offer up imprecations rather than supplications in regard to them. What, however, is meant precisely by the other term (διαλογισμοῦ) —whether it is to be understood of disputation in the ordinary sense, contendings with others, or disputation in one’s own mind, thought contending with thought, doubting —interpreters are not agreed. As the word may be understood either way, Ave are thrown upon the connection for something to determine our judgment; and in this point of view the second of the two senses indicated seems plainly the most natural and fitting: for the indispensable condition of acceptable prayer is faith; and therefore doubting, which is the mark of a wavering spirit, the conflict between faith and unbelief, must, so far as it prevails, be a hindrance to success. Prayer offered without wrath and doubting is simply prayer animated by a spirit of meek, generous loving-kindness in respect to those for whom it is presented, and by a spirit of faith or assured confidence in Him whom we supplicate in their behalf This is intelligible, and perfectly cognate to the subject; but not so the reference supposed by some to personal disputations among the parties concerned in the exercise of devotion. Nothing had been said or implied which might seem to call for any particular reference to this.

Patrick Fairbairn — An Exposition of Ezekiel (1851), Jonah (1849), and The Pastoral Epistles (1874) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Real Purpose of the Law.

v. 8. But we know that the Law is good, if a man use it lawfully;

v. 9. knowing this, that the Law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane. for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for man-slayers,

v. 10. for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

v. 11. according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

Far from decrying the Law and deprecating its continued use in the Church, the apostle is careful to place his right knowledge in opposition to the false teaching of the errorists: We know, however, that the Law is admirable, if one makes a lawful use of it. The apostle chooses such words as bring out his position properly and ward off the objection that his language does not agree with his policy. That the Mosaic Law, the Moral Law, is good, acceptable, that it is of real value in the world, the apostle says also in other instances, e. g. , Rom 7:12; Rom 14:18 its contents correspond to the highest demands which can be made with reference to a law, namely, that it be above all justified criticism. But the Law must now also be used lawfully, in accordance with its object. Only then is the Law used properly, when it is taught for the purpose of working knowledge of sin, of making men conscious of their guilt and damnableness. It is not there for the purpose of affording occasion for various idle questions and speculations or for teaching righteousness through works.

The apostle now illustrates his meaning by naming such sins as demand the application of the Law: Knowing this (when every teacher for his own person has this knowledge), that for the just man the Law is not set forth. This is a sweeping statement concerning the Moral Law, and one which puts the doctrine of justification into the very center of Christian preaching. He that is justified in Christ through faith and by virtue of the merit of Christ is acknowledged by God as just, is no longer under the Law, for Christ is the end of the Law to them that believe, Rom 10:4; Rom 6:14-15; Gal 2:21; Gal 3:21. A person justified in this manner is clothed with the righteousness of Christ and no longer is subject to the condemnation of the Law. The Law, as demanding a perfect fulfillment, no longer exists for him. "But the meaning of St. Paul is that the Law cannot burden with its curse those who have been reconciled to God through Christ; nor must it vex the regenerate with its coercion, because they have pleasure in God’s Law after the inner man. " To a believer in his capacity as Christian, as justified before God, the Law, as Law, shall no longer be applied. And evangelical admonitions that have the sanctification of the believers in view must never assume the character of legal driving.

But the case is different with the unbelievers, with the unregenerate. The Law is indeed given, and exists in its full force, for the lawless, for those that deny the validity of the Law and serve their own lusts and desires; for refractory people, unruly rebels that resent restrictions of every kind; for irreverent, that deliberately deny all respect to God; for sinners, such as are continually engaged in acts of evil against God and man; for irreligious, who consider nothing holy and refuse to know anything of the dignity of duty and obligation; for profane, that deliberately tread everything holy under foot. Their sins profane the name of God and destroy all morality. There is, however, not only a general disposition toward evil on the part of the unregenerate, but they become guilty also of specific transgressions. The Law is given for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, children that so far forget themselves as not only to omit the respect and reverence due the parents, but actually mistreat them brutally, and under circumstances do not shrink back from the last terrible step, that of taking the life of them that gave them life. As the Fourth and Fifth Commandments are both included here, so the apostle names the transgressors of the Fifth Commandment separately: murderers. As violators of the Sixth Commandment are mentioned adulterers and sodomites, people that either in a natural or in an unnatural manner abuse their fellow-men for the sake of gratifying their sexual lust. See Rom 1:27; 1Co 6:9. The kidnapers mentioned by the apostle include all who exploit other men and women for their own selfish ends, especially such as abducted girls and boys for the purpose of selling them into slavery. As transgressors of the Eighth Commandment Paul names liars, such as deliberately speak falsehoods in order to harm their neighbor; and perjurers, that do not hesitate to swear in corroboration of a lie, or deliberately break a word given under oath. All other sins the apostle includes in the expression: And if there is anything else opposed to the sound doctrine, according to the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. The expression "healthy, wholesome doctrine" is peculiar to the Pastoral Letters. Evidently the apostle is speaking of the Christian doctrine as a whole, of the teaching concerning sin and grace. All sins are contrary to this doctrine, for they indicate the corruption of human nature, they are external symptoms for the illness of the soul. Against such transgressions the proclamation of the Law is directed, such violations it condemns. By applying the Law in its proper manner, the disease should be uncovered, the tumor of the soul exposed. Only then will it be possible to put a person in the condition that accords with the wholesome doctrine of the apostle: the Law having shown the disease, the Gospel brings the remedy, health and strength.

So the apostle closes this paragraph by summarizing his knowledge regarding the wholesome doctrine entrusted to him. He has the knowledge, as every true teacher in the Christian Church should have it, on the basis of the Gospel, namely, that the Law is not made, does not exist, for a righteous man. The apostle wants to distinguish absolutely between the teaching of the Law and the proclamation of grace; for the one class of men, for the justified as such, he wants only the Gospel; for the other class, the unrighteous, he wants only the Law. His Gospel, moreover, is a Gospel of glory; it contains and transmits all the gifts of grace through which God is glorified in the believers. But the perfection of this glory will be reached in the life above, when our existence for eternal ages will redound to the glory of God, of Him who is blessed and perfectly happy in Himself and will make us partakers of this eternal happiness. With the news of this grace, of these blessings, the apostle has been entrusted. He considers his office a wonderful privilege, which no natural inclination caused him to seek, but which he now, in the full consciousness of its dignity and power, defends with all warmth, and which causes him to voice his heartfelt gratitude.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lest any should have apprehended, from the reflection he made upon the teachers of the law in the foregoing verse, that he did disparage and undervalue the law itself, our apostle in this verse declares, that the law, rightly understood and preached, was very good, given for, and serves unto, excellent purposes, if we use it lawfully; that is, as we ought to use it, as God intended it, namely, as a perfect rule of life to direct us in our obedience to God, but not so good as to expect justification by it; not good in opposition to the gospel, but in subserviency to the gospel; The law is good, if used lawfully.

Observe, 1. Something implied, namely, that the law of God may be used unlawfully.

But how and when may it be said to be so?

Ans. When it is converted to unprofitable disputes, as was the case here; when men oppose it to Christ, when they seek justification by it, and the like.

Observe, 2. Something expressed, namely, That the law of God, considered in itself, is good and excellent; it is good in regard of its author, it hath the authority of God instamped upon it; good in regard of the matter contained in it; good in regard of the end of it, to lead us unto Christ, Christ is the end of the law; Rom 10:4 good in regard of the use of it, and that,

1. To the ungodly, to restrain them from sin, to convince them of sin, to condemn them for sin.

2. To the godly, to discover sin more clearly, and more fully to drive them out of themselves, and from all expectation of righteousness and justification by any thing in themselves, or done by themselves; or to cause them to put the higher value, esteem, and price, upon Jesus Christ, and the benefits received by him.

Thus the law is good: and if so, woe to the Antinomians, who deny the use and excellency of the holy law of God, who vilify it, trample upon it, and, because it is not good for justification, affirm it is not good at all.

What, is not gold good, because you can not eat it for food?

It was never intended for that purpose.

Is not obedience to the law as an eternal rule of holy living, and good works, agreeable to the demands of the law, necessary and good, though they never had the impress of God’s ordination for our justification in his sight, he having provided a perfect and spotless righteousness for that purpose, which is highly pleasing to him?

Lord! in the day when thou shalt come to plead with the world for transgressing thy law, how shall these men, who with tongue and pen have cried down the use and excellences of thy law, show their heads before thee?

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8–11. The law is good, if a man use it lawfully. Its object was not, however, to teach fables, and genealogies, and foolish fancies. The men he opposes asserted that the law was good, but made a wrong use of it.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

8–11. DIGRESSION TO AVOID MISUNDERSTANDING OF WHAT HAS BEEN JUST SAID

8. οἴδαμεν δὲ κ.τ.λ. But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully. For οἴδαμεν δέ cp. Rom 2:2; Rom 3:19; Rom 8:28 and οἴδαμεν ὅτι πάντες γνῶσιν ἔχομεν (1Co 8:1) ‘we grant that &c.’: the phrase introduces a concession. St Paul hastens on to explain that a true νομοδιδάσκαλος is a valuable minister of godliness; it is only the irrelevances and trivialities of these would-be teachers of the law that he deprecates. The law (sc. the Mosaic law) is good, if it be used for the purposes for which law (not only the law of Moses, but law in general) is intended, viz. to restrain evil-doing; but not, if it be used as a peg on which to hang unverifiable speculation, or as a system of casuistry by which either asceticism, on the one hand, or licence, on the other, may be defended. He does not here take into account the function of law in developing a consciousness of sin which he elsewhere expounds (e.g. Rom 5:20); the primary subject of law, in his thought, is not the righteous man, but the sinner, as he proceeds to explain.

καλὸς ὁ νόμος. The adj. καλός (also used of law at Rom 7:16) is used with unusual frequency in the Pastorals, occurring 24 times, as against 16 occurrences in the other letters of St Paul. It expresses the ‘beauty of holiness’ in a fashion which no single English word can reproduce. To a Greek the union between ‘goodness’ and ‘beauty’ was almost inseparable in thought, and the best translation for καλός is, often, simply ‘good.’ But it has a shade of meaning which ἀγαθός has not, inasmuch as it directs attention to the outward and visible beauty of that which is ‘good,’ whilst ἀγαθός does not suggest anything beyond the intrinsic quality. See on ch. 1Ti 2:10 below.

νομίμως. The paronomasia or word-play is quite in St Paul’s manner; law is good, if it be used lawfully, i.e. suitably to the purposes which law is intended to serve. The adverb νομίμως only occurs elsewhere in the Greek Bible at 2Ti 2:5; 4Ma 6:18.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. οἴδαμεν] “We Christians,” with, perhaps, a conscious reference to Rom 7:12, Rom 7:14 οἴδαμεν γὰρ ὅτι ὁ νόμος πνευματικός.

καλός (cf. note, p. 22) ὁ νόμος. The Mosaic Law, but only as the instance used by these teachers of what is true of all law, νόμος 9.

ἐάν τις] Any teacher (cf. τισί, 3; τινές, 6): νομίμως (here and II 2:5 only in N.T.), in accordance with its true spirit, “as a law,” not “as a Gospel.” “Si quis sciat quibus, quare, et quamdiu habenda sit data,” Pelag. Law with its penalties is needed to control sinners, but when once the true love of God is created in a man’s heart, there is no longer need to appeal to its sanctions; Love fulfils it: the true Christian is “non sub lege sed cum lege” (Aug. on Joh_1, Tr. 3), he is “amicus legis” (Ambrosiaster on Rom 2:12), and law is put on a firmer basis, not as a penalizing force, but as the guidance of a loving God; cf. Rom 3:31, Rom 7:14, Rom 8:4, Rom 13:8-10, Gal 5:23. “When at last love suffuses all the mind—love of God and His Laws, and love for our neighbour as made in His image and the chief mirror of His goodness, then indeed the yoke becomes easy and the burden light,” Inge, Personal Idealism, p. 16.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Good [καλος] . Comp. Rom 7:16. Morally excellent and salutary. See on Jas 10:11. This is the only instance of crasqai to use with nomov law.

Lawfully [νομιμως] . Past o. o LXX The nature of the proper use of the law - is indicated by the next clause.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.