Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Timothy 1:8

"But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully," — 1 Timothy 1:8 (ASV)

But we know.—Or better, Now we know: a strong expression of his knowledge, learned in the school of the Holy Spirit. 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.—St. Paul declared with apostolic authoritative knowledge, “The Law is good,” and that “a man—that is, a teacher of the Law—is to make use of it lawfully; if he is to use it to make men conscious of their sins, conscious that by 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 from 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.