the law--the Jewish law ([Tit 1:14]; ). The Judaizers here meant seem to be distinct from those impugned in the Epistles to the Galatians and Romans, who made the works of the law necessary to justification in opposition to Gospel grace. The Judaizers here meant corrupted the law with "fables," which they pretended to found on it, subversive of morals as well as of truth. Their error was not in maintaining the obligation of the law, but in abusing it by fabulous and immoral interpretations of, and additions to, it.
neither what they say, nor whereof--neither understanding their own assertions, nor the object itself about which they make them. They understand as little about the one as the other [Alford].
8. But--"Now we know" ([Ro 3:19]; ).
law is good--in full agreement with God's holiness and goodness.
if a man--primarily, a teacher; then, every Christian.
use it lawfully--in its lawful place in the Gospel economy, namely, not as a means of a "'righteous man" attaining higher perfection than could be attained by the Gospel alone ([1Ti 4:8]; [Tit 1:14]), which was the perverted use to which the false teachers put it, but as a means of awakening the sense of sin in the ungodly ([1Ti 1:9], ; compare [Ro 7:7-12]; [Ga 3:21]).
9. law is not made for a righteous man--not for one standing by faith in the righteousness of Christ put on him for justification, and imparted inwardly by the Spirit for sanctification. "One not forensically amenable to the law" [Alford]. For sanctification, the law gives no inward power to fulfil it; but Alford goes too far in speaking of the righteous man as "not morally needing the law." Doubtless, in proportion as he is inwardly led by the Spirit, the justified man needs not the law, which is only an outward rule ([Ro 6:14]; [Ga 5:18], ). But as the justified man often does not give himself up wholly to the inward leading of the Spirit, he morally needs the outward law to show him his sin and God's requirements. The reason why the ten commandments have no power to condemn the Christian, is not that they have no authority over him, but because Christ has fulfilled them as our surety ([Ro 10:4]).
disobedient--Greek, "not subject"; insubordinate; it is translated "unruly," [Tit 1:6], ; "lawless and disobedient" refer to opposers of the law, for whom it is "enacted" (so the Greek, for "is made").
ungodly and ... sinners--Greek, he who does not reverence God, and he who openly sins against Him; the opposers of God, from the law comes.
unholy and profane--those inwardly impure, and those deserving exclusion from the outward participation in services of the sanctuary; sinners against the third and fourth commandments.
murderers--or, as the Greek may mean, "smiters" of fathers and ... mothers; sinners against the fifth commandment.
manslayers--sinners against the sixth commandment.
10. whoremongers, &c.--sinners against the seventh commandment.
men-stealers--that is, slave dealers. The most heinous offense against the eighth commandment. No stealing of a man's goods can equal in atrocity the stealing of a man's liberty. Slavery is not directly assailed in the New Testament; to have done so would have been to revolutionize violently the existing order of things. But Christianity teaches principles sure to undermine, and at last overthrow it, wherever Christianity has had its natural development ([Mt 7:12]).
liars ... perjured--offenders against the ninth commandment.
if there be any other thing--answering to the tenth commandment in its widest aspect. He does not particularly specify it because his object is to bring out the grosser forms of transgression; whereas the tenth is deeply spiritual, so much so indeed, that it was by it that the sense of sin, in its subtlest form of "lust," Paul tells us ([Ro 7:7]), was brought home to his own conscience. Thus, Paul argues, these would-be teachers of the law, while boasting of a higher perfection through it, really bring themselves down from the Gospel elevation to the level of the grossly "lawless," for whom, not for Gospel believers, the law was designed. And in actual practice the greatest sticklers for the law as the means of moral perfection, as in this case, are those ultimately liable to fall utterly from the morality of the law. Gospel grace is the only true means of sanctification as well as of justification.
sound--healthy, spiritually wholesome ([1Ti 6:3]; [2Ti 1:13]; [Tit 1:13]; 2:2), as opposed to sickly, morbid (as the Greek of "doting" means, [1Ti 6:4]), and "canker" ([2Ti 2:17]). "The doctrine," or "teaching, which is according to godliness" ([1Ti 6:3]).
11. According to the glorious gospel--The Christian's freedom from the law as a sanctifier, as well as a justifier, implied in the previous, [1Ti 1:9], , is what this [1Ti 1:11] is connected with. This exemption of the righteous from the law, and assignment of it to the lawless as its true object, is "according to the Gospel of the glory (so the Greek, compare Note, see on [2Co 4:4]) of the blessed God." The Gospel manifests God's glory ([Ep 1:17]; ) in accounting "righteous" the believer, through the righteousness of Christ, without "the law" ([1Ti 1:9]); and in imparting that righteousness whereby he loathes all those sins against which ([1Ti 1:9], ) the law is directed. The term, "blessed," indicates at once immortality and supreme happiness. The supremely blessed One is He from whom all blessedness flows. This term, as applied to God, occurs only here and in [1Ti 6:15]: appropriate in speaking here of the Gospel blessedness, in contrast to the curse on those under the law ([1Ti 1:9]; [Ga 3:10]).
committed to my trust--Translate as in the Greek order, which brings into prominent emphasis Paul, "committed in trust to me"; in contrast to the kind of law-teaching which they (who had no Gospel commission), the false teachers, assumed to themselves ([1Ti 1:8]; [Tit 1:3]).
12. The honor done him in having the Gospel ministry committed to him suggests the digression to what he once was, no better ([1Ti 1:13]) than those lawless ones described above ([1Ti 1:9], ), when the grace of our Lord ([1Ti 1:14]) visited him.
And--omitted in most (not all) of the oldest manuscripts.
I thank--Greek, "I have (that is, feel) gratitude."
enabled me--the same Greek verb as in [Ac 9:22], "Saul increased the more in strength." An undesigned coincidence between Paul and Luke, his companion. Enabled me, namely, for the ministry. "It is not in my own strength that I bring this doctrine to men, but as strengthened and nerved by Him who saved me" [Theodoret]. Man is by nature "without strength" ([Ro 5:6]). True conversion and calling confer power [Bengel].
for that--the main ground of his "thanking Christ."
he counted me faithful--He foreordered and foresaw that I would be faithful to the trust committed to me. Paul's thanking God for this shows that the merit of his faithfulness was due solely to God's grace, not to his own natural strength ([1Co 7:25]). Faithfulness is the quality required in a steward ([1Co 4:2]).
putting me into--rather as in [1Th 5:9], "appointing me (in His sovereign purposes of grace) unto the ministry" ([Ac 20:24]).
13. Who was before--Greek, "Formerly being a blasphemer." "Notwithstanding that I was before a blasphemer," &c. ([Ac 26:9], ).
persecutor--([Ga 1:13]).
injurious--Greek, "insulter"; one who acts injuriously from arrogant contempt of others. Translate, [Ro 1:30], "despiteful." One who added insult to injury. Bengel translates, "a despiser." I prefer the idea, contumelious to others [Wahl]. Still I agree with Bengel that "blasphemer" is against God, "persecutor," against holy men, and "insolently injurious" includes, with the idea of injuring others, that of insolent "uppishness" [Donaldson] in relation to one's self. This threefold relation to God, to one's neighbor, and to one's self, occurs often in this Epistle ([1Ti 1:5], [9, 14]; [Tit 2:12]).
I obtained mercy--God's mercy, and Paul's want of it, stand in sharp contrast [Ellicott]; Greek, "I was made the object of mercy." The sense of mercy was perpetual in the mind of the apostle (compare Note, see on [1Ti 1:2]). Those who have felt mercy can best have mercy on those out of the way ([He 5:2], ).
because I did it ignorantly--Ignorance does not in itself deserve pardon; but it is a less culpable cause of unbelief than pride and wilful hardening of one's self against the truth ([Joh 9:41]; [Ac 26:9]). Hence it is Christ's plea of intercession for His murderers ([Lu 23:34]); and it is made by the apostles a mitigating circumstance in the Jews' sin, and one giving a hope of a door of repentance ([Ac 3:17]; [Ro 10:2]). The "because," &c., does not imply that ignorance was a sufficient reason for mercy being bestowed; but shows how it was possible that such a sinner could obtain mercy. The positive ground of mercy being shown to him, lies solely in the compassion of God ([Tit 3:5]). The ground of the ignorance lies in the unbelief, which implies that this ignorance is not unaccompanied with guilt. But there is a great difference between his honest zeal for the law, and a wilful striving against the Spirit of God ([Mt 12:24-32]; [Lu 11:52]) [Wiesinger].
14. And--Greek, "But." Not only so (was mercy shown me), but
the grace--by which "I obtained mercy" ([1Ti 1:13]).
was exceeding abundant--Greek, "superabounded." Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" ([Ro 5:20]).
with faith--accompanied with faith, the opposite of "unbelief" ([1Ti 1:13]).
love--in contrast to "a blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious."
which is in Christ--as its element and home [Alford]: here as its source whence it flows to us.
15. faithful--worthy of credit, because "God" who says it "is faithful" to His word ([1Co 1:9]; [1Th 5:24]; [2Th 3:3]; [Re 21:5]; ). This seems to have become an axiomatic saying among Christians the phrase, "faithful saying," is peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles ([1Ti 2:11]; ; [Tit 3:8]). Translate as Greek, "Faithful is the saying."
all--all possible; full; to be received by all, and with all the faculties of the soul, mind, and heart. Paul, unlike the false teachers ([1Ti 1:7]), understands what he is saying, and whereof he affirms; and by his simplicity of style and subject, setting forth the grand fundamental truth of salvation through Christ, confutes the false teachers' abstruse and unpractical speculations ([1Co 1:18-28]; [Tit 2:1]).
acceptation--reception (as of a boon) into the heart, as well as the understanding, with all gladness; this is faith acting on the Gospel offer, and welcoming and appropriating it ([Ac 2:41]).
Christ--as promised.
Jesus--as manifested [Bengel].
came into the world--which was full of sin ([Joh 1:29]; [Ro 5:12]; [1Jo 2:2]). This implies His pre-existence. [Joh 1:9], Greek, "the true Light that, coming into the world, lighteth every man."
to save sinners--even notable sinners like Saul of Tarsus. His instance was without a rival since the ascension, in point of the greatness of the sin and the greatness of the mercy: that the consenter to Stephen, the proto-martyr's death, should be the successor of the same!
I am--not merely, "I was chief" ([1Co 15:9]; [Ep 3:8]; compare [Lu 18:13]). To each believer his own sins must always appear, as long as he lives, greater than those of others, which he never can know as he can know his own.