The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8–11)

He is charged not to allow empty and vain-talking rumors and teachings to circulate among the believers, but to direct all attention to building up and strengthening the believers in a holy life full of love in the spirit of faith. Now particular instructions are given on what precisely he must exert the power of his word and pastoral authority toward, working in this direction. This is the content of the whole Epistle, in which one may distinguish the following parts: 2) what orders ought to be established and maintained among the flock (1 Tim. 2:1–15, 3:1–13); 3) how to act among them and guide them (1 Tim. 3:14–6:19); 1) both of these in the spirit of Christian faith (1 Tim. 1:8–20). Since this last—“the spirit of Christian faith”—is evidently meant to serve as the guiding principle in this, faith in Christ the Lord is mentioned more than once in the course of the Epistle as the confirmatory and enlivening principle of the prescribed rules. At the very beginning a special section is devoted to it—all the remaining verses of chapter 1. Thus the first instructions deal with:

1) Faith in the Lord Jesus

This section may be considered a continuation of the preceding words; at least it is attached to them by the flow of discourse. Having said that those who, leaving behind what is essential—love in the spirit of faith—attempt to assert the significance of the Law, do not themselves understand what they are saying, he now explains this, saying: a) the time of the Law has already passed (1 Tim. 1:8–10); b) the time of the Gospel has come, which has been entrusted to me (1 Tim. 1:11–14); c) therefore—if you wish to be saved, believe in the Lord (1 Tim. 1:15–17); and d) he concludes: this is what I charge you to teach above all else (1 Tim. 1:18–20).

A) The time of the Law has already passed (1 Tim. 1:8–10)

This thought is not expressed literally, but constitutes the inner meaning of these verses, without which they cannot be understood.

1 Tim. 1:8. We know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully.

The Apostle seems to soften the preceding reproach against those who assert the significance of the Law—that they do not know what they are doing—by conceding: “the Law is good.” But he immediately adds a condition that is powerful enough to remove every boldness from those who come forward with teaching about the force of the Law: “if one uses it lawfully,” χρηται,—uses it in a lawful manner, that is, in the spirit of the Law itself, according to its inner meaning and significance. I know, he says, that the Law is good; but you are teaching about it wrongly. You present its significance as unconditional, whereas it is subject to a condition: “if.” Now examine this condition, and you will find that its fulfillment must lead to perceiving the passing away of the Law. The Law is a tutor toward Christ—it is the shadow, while the body is Christ. Follow this tutor, walk along this shadow—and you will arrive at Christ, the promised Deliverer. While Christ had not yet come, you were all under the tutor’s care, walking in the shadow; but when Christ came, the tutorship is ended, and the shadow must be left behind. Yet you keep repeating: the Law, the Law. Consequently, you are using it unlawfully—using it contrary to its significance and spirit; and so you do not know what you are saying.

Given the special significance of this passage, we transcribe what the holy Fathers and teachers said in commenting on it. Blessed Theodoret writes: “I do not censure the Law, but the bad teachers of the Law. For I know that the Law is profitable for those who have resolved to observe the purpose of the Law. This is what the words mean: ‘if one uses it lawfully’—that is, if one follows the purpose of the Law. And the purpose of the Law is to lead us to Christ the Master, and after His coming the Law no longer has force. This is what the Apostle said also in the Epistle to the Galatians: ‘I through the Law died to the Law, that I might live to God’ (Gal. 2:19). For in obeying the Law itself, he says, I do not keep the Law.” The same is found in Ambrosiaster: “The Apostle does not deny that the Law given through Moses is good, but only so that its meaning and the purpose for which it was given should be acknowledged and accepted. But the one who knows the Law and the purpose for which it was given is one who, upon hearing the proclamation about Christ, leaves the Law. One uses the Law lawfully who can distinguish in it what was given for a time from what is permanent, and acknowledges that what in it pertains to the mystery of Christ need no longer (after Christ’s coming) be observed in the future; for this would mean believing that He who has already come is yet to come.” And in blessed Theophylact: “One uses the Law lawfully who is led by it to Christ. The Law, being unable to justify, leads the one seeking righteousness to Christ—and this is its purpose: so that one uses the Law lawfully—that is, as the Law itself commands—who prefers Christ to the Law.” This was taken from Saint Chrysostom, who says: “If you use the Law as you ought, it will lead you to Christ. For since the purpose of the Law consists in the justification of man, yet it is not able (to accomplish this), it leads to the One who can (fulfill this).”

1 Tim. 1:9, 10. Knowing this: that the Law is not laid down for the righteous person, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, “for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those who practice homosexuality, for enslavers, [for slanderers, for those who practice bestiality,] for liars, for perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.”

The words “knowing this: that the Law is not laid down for the righteous person” explain who uses the Law correctly or relates to it correctly, indicating that this is the one who holds the conviction that the Law is not laid down for the righteous—that he is already free from it. By “righteous” here we must understand the Christian who, having believed in Christ, has received justification—that is, has received the forgiveness of sins and gracious renewal, manifested in a holy life. For such a person the Law is evidently not needed as a pointer to what is right; he is guided by the grace of the Holy Spirit, a higher law. “The Law is not laid down for the righteous,” says Saint Chrysostom, “because he does not wait for the Law to teach him what must be done, having within himself the guiding grace of the Holy Spirit—one who lacks nothing in the way of a guide has no need of instruction.” Since he is brought to this—that is, to faith in Christ and His grace—by the Law, for such is its purpose; it follows that the one who uses the Law lawfully is the one who, having reached the Law’s goal, lays its yoke from himself, in full conviction that it is no longer laid upon him. In other words, “the one who uses the Law as he ought is the one who knows that he has no need of it”—as Saint Chrysostom says. On the contrary, upon those who have not yet come to justification through faith and grace and remain in sins, it lies with all the weight of its yoke—obligation, condemnation, and fear—in order that by the effect of such a heavy yoke upon them it may move them to seek the relief and freedom that the Gospel proclamation sets before them.

One may suppose that Saint Paul, in making his qualification about the goodness of the Law under the stated condition, had in mind those Jewish believers who had not yet managed to free themselves from the Law. He says to them, as it were: never mind; this will not work to your harm, if you continue to relate to the Law lawfully—that is, if you hold the conviction that it is not the Law that saves and enlivens you to righteousness, but grace through faith, while the Law is something external and extraneous to you. Only such a relation to the Law is the correct and lawful one, maintained according to the meaning of the Law itself. Those who present the significance of the Law as unconditional do not know what they are doing; do not listen to them.

But it may also be taken that the Apostle is expressing a general principle—under what condition the Law is good. For it is the very purpose of the Law that the one who under its guidance arrives at where it leads should leave it behind, in the conviction that it is no longer laid upon him.

Oecumenius writes: “One uses the Law lawfully who knows that he has no need of it for a righteous life.” And who are such persons? Ambrosiaster answers: “They are those who, having received the forgiveness of sins, have become righteous, so as no longer to live under the Law, from which they have been freed by the grace of God through faith in Christ, but, fulfilling in their hearts what was written by the Creator (and now restored and enlivened by grace), to await from now on the Day of Judgment, when the righteous will receive their righteous reward.” Ambrosiaster also explains that originally the pattern of righteous life was written in the nature of man, so that by living according to it, people would appear righteous and pleasing to God. Then, when people, having given themselves over to the passions, began to trample upon that law of nature, God gave as a guide the written Law through Moses—so that, had the law of nature retained its force, the written Law would have had no place. Therefore now, when grace through faith restores in force what was written by the Creator in nature, the Law—which came in as a consequence of the disruption of this writing—is no longer needed for those in whom it is being restored by grace through faith. Something similar is written also by Oecumenius: “The Law was added because of transgressions” (Gal. 3:19); so that for a righteous person, who lives rightly out of love for virtue and not from fear of the Law, it is not needed; but it is needed for those who are not drawn to virtue of their own accord, and who, if they do anything, do so only from fear of the Law’s threats.

The Law, he says, does not rest upon the righteous person, because, having believed in the Lord and received grace, he bears the Law fulfilled within himself; but it rests upon the unrighteous, who have yet to fulfill the Law’s purpose. Having said this, the Apostle further identifies who such unrighteous people are, using first general names and then passing on to particulars. And even among the general names there is a noticeable movement from the more general to the less general.

“The lawless and disobedient.” The lawless person is one who fearlessly violates the moral law; while the disobedient, ανυποτακοις, is one who refuses to submit to established orders—civic and social. Such people live by their own will, being a law to themselves. In this respect they resemble righteous people, for these too are a law to themselves. Only the righteous are a law to themselves for every good, while those are a law to themselves for every evil, following the pull of self-indulgence and the passions.

“The ungodly and sinners” may be distinguished as follows: the former are violators of commandments in relation to God, who have no fear of God and honor nothing sacred; while the latter are violators of all the other commandments—in relation to themselves and to their neighbors.

The latter, in relation to others, violate every form of righteousness, and provide themselves with every indulgence through lusts, thereby defiling themselves. The Apostle calls them the unholy and the profane.

The following specific enumerations of lawbreakers are distributed between these two categories. To the first belong: those who strike their fathers and mothers, murderers, enslavers, slanderers, liars, perjurers; and to the second: the sexually immoral, those who practice homosexuality, those who practice bestiality. Who these people are is clear from their names. Some names, however, will be better understood if we point to the roots of the corresponding Greek words. “Those who strike their fathers and mothers,” πατρολωαις, μητρολωαις,—people who beat their father and mother severely, as threshers beat the grain being threshed. ’Αλοαις — from αλοαω — I thresh. “Enslavers,” ανδραποδισταις,—people who reduce others to slavery by force or by cunning.

“And whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.” Sound doctrine suggests the idea of teaching of a more theoretical character, in which there is nothing false—nothing that should be recognized as error. Falsehood and error are diseases of teaching; they are foreign to sound doctrine. The Christian teaching proclaimed by the Apostles is sound in all its substance. — But Christian teaching, though it proceeds from theoretical dogmas, is directed above all to the ordering of a good, holy, and righteous life. Therefore, understanding by sound doctrine the Christian teaching, one may interpret it as a teaching setting forth the rules of holy and righteous life, together with means of advancement in it. Contrary to sound doctrine will be whatever is contrary to pure, holy morality. The Apostle uses this expression (sound doctrine) in other places as well (2 Tim. 4:3; Tit. 2:1)—always either in rebuke of evil morals or in guidance toward good ones. In the present passage, having enumerated several categories of lawbreakers upon whom the Law rests, he finally states a general principle (blessed Theophylact): and in general, the Law rests upon all those who in any respect live contrary to sound doctrine, or to the sound rules of holy and righteous life. Those who follow sound doctrine have also a sound soul; while those who live contrary to it are afflicted with “the sickness of a corrupt soul” (Saint Chrysostom).

Such people need a physician and a remedy. The Law rests upon them for this very purpose—to convict, threaten, and crush them, bringing them to an awareness of their sickness and its danger, and thereby moving them to turn to the one Physician and His remedy. When they do this, the Law will also become superfluous for them: for then in them too it will have attained its goal and will yield its place to another master and guide.

B) The time of the Gospel has come (1 Tim. 1:11–14)

This too the Apostle does not express word for word, but makes it clearly understood through the entire structure of his speech. For he says: the Law does not rest upon the righteous person—by the Gospel: aa) by virtue of the Gospel, which is now being preached and received everywhere (verse 11). That this is happening by God’s arrangement: bb) be assured from my own life. I was on your side and persecuted the Gospel. Yet God so transformed me that He not only made me a believer but entrusted the preaching of the Gospel to me (verses 12–14). From this you can clearly see that the time of the Law has passed and the time of the Gospel has come. Such is the will of God.

Aa) The Law does not rest upon the righteous—according to the Gospel (1 Tim. 1:11)

1 Tim. 1:11. According to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.

“According to the Gospel”—refers to the whole preceding discourse, and chiefly to the fact that the Law does not rest upon the righteous. The Law has ceased because the Gospel is now being proclaimed. But the proclamation of the Gospel was not limited to words alone; it immediately established among those who believed new orders of life, by God’s command. It is now evident that God is introducing a new economy of salvation. By virtue of this, the Law no longer rests upon the righteous—that is, upon the one who receives justification and righteousness in the faith of the Gospel. “According to the Gospel,” says Saint Chrysostom, “means that for those who believe in it the Law is no longer needed.”

“According to the glorious Gospel”—the same as: according to the Gospel that is glorious; and it is glorious because it bears the seal of Divinity, because above all else it proclaims the glory of God’s boundless mercy toward us, and because it clothes those who receive it here with spiritual glory, and in the age to come promises to clothe them with a wondrous visible glory.

The reason why, of all the qualities of the Gospel, the Apostle chose to mention chiefly its glorious character, is that he wished to turn the attention of those who would read his Epistle away from the outward ingloriousness of the Gospel and of those who believe in it, and to direct it toward perceiving the glory of both—inner, essential, unfading. This was also needed as a counterweight to the Law, which still continued at the time to enjoy prestige, so that those who were leaving it would not consider themselves covered with shame for having believed the Gospel, as though passing from what is glorious to what is inglorious. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle called the Gospel ‘glorious’ for no other reason than on account of those who are ashamed of the persecutions and Christ’s sufferings. And he calls the Gospel the Gospel of glory because he wished to show that the suffering of Christ the Lord constitutes His glory—or even that he is hinting thereby at what is to come. For although our present life is full of shame and reproach, the future is nothing like that.”

To this same end serves also the Apostle’s naming God “blessed,” pointing thereby to the source and purpose of the Gospel’s economy. God, all-blessed within Himself, graciously willed to create rational creatures for participation in this blessedness; and when they through foolishness turned aside from this goal of their creation, He graciously willed to return them to this purpose by a certain wondrous means, which is proclaimed by the Gospel. Faith in the Gospel is the path to participation in the divine, all-encompassing blessedness. Therefore one cannot better extol it than by calling it the work of the blessed and all-beatifying God.

The words “with which I have been entrusted” serve as a transition to the second moment of the present section. By them Saint Paul suggests that in saying that the Gospel has now come, he speaks as one who knows the matter. For if the Gospel has been entrusted to him, then he knows its power and, in attributing to it the significance he has shown, presents it as it essentially is. This suggestion ought to seem all the more persuasive in that the Gospel does not have its origin in him, but has been entrusted to him—and entrusted from on high, because it is God’s.

Bb) Be assured, from my own life, that this comes about by God’s arrangement (1 Tim. 1:12–14)