John Calvin Commentary 1 Timothy 1:9

"as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers," — 1 Timothy 1:9 (ASV)

That the law is not made for a righteous man. The apostle did not intend to argue about the whole function of the law, but views it in reference to people. It frequently happens that those who wish to be regarded as the greatest zealots for the law give evidence by their whole life that they are its greatest despisers.

A remarkable and striking instance of this is found in those who maintain the righteousness of works and defend free will. They continually have these words in their mouths: “Perfect holiness, merits, satisfactions”; but their whole life cries out against them that they are outrageously wicked and ungodly, that they provoke God’s wrath in every possible way, and fearlessly disregard His judgment. They extol in lofty terms the free choice of good and evil, but they openly show by their actions that they are slaves of Satan and are most firmly held by him in the chains of slavery.

Having such adversaries, in order to restrain their haughty insolence, Paul remonstrates that the law is, as it were, the sword of God to slay them; and that neither he nor any like him have reason for viewing the law with dread or aversion, for it is not opposed to righteous persons, that is, to the godly and to those who willingly obey God.

I am well aware that some learned scholars draw an ingenious sense out of these words, as if Paul were treating theologically about the nature of “the law.” They argue that the law has nothing to do with the sons of God, who have been regenerated by the Spirit, because it was not given for righteous persons.

But the connection in which these words occur compels me to give a more simple interpretation to this statement. He takes for granted the well-known sentiment that “from bad manners have sprung good laws,” and maintains that the law of God was given in order to restrain the licentiousness of wicked people, because those who are good of their own accord do not need the authoritative injunction of the law.

A question now arises, “Is there any mortal person who does not belong to this class?” I reply, in this passage Paul gives the designation “righteous” to those who are not absolutely perfect (for no such person will be found), but who, with the strongest desire of their heart, aim at what is good, so that godly desire is to them a kind of voluntary law, without any motive or restraint from another quarter.

He therefore wished to repress the impudence of adversaries. These adversaries armed themselves with the name of “the law” against godly people, whose whole life actually exhibits the law’s role.

This was despite the fact that these adversaries themselves greatly needed the law, yet did not care much about it. This reality is more clearly expressed by the opposite clause.

If any refuse to admit that Paul brings an implied or indirect charge against his adversaries as guilty of those wicked acts which he enumerates, still it will be acknowledged to be a simple repelling of the slander. And if they were animated by a sincere and unfeigned zeal for the law, they should rather have used their armor for carrying on war with offenses and crimes, instead of employing it as a pretext for their own ambition and silly talking.

For the unrighteous and disobedient. Instead of “unrighteous,” it would have been better if translators had used the word “lawless,” for the Greek word is ἀνόμους, which does not differ much from the second word in the clause, “disobedient.” By sinners he means wicked persons, or those who lead a base and immoral life.

For the ungodly and profane. These words might have been suitably rendered “profane and impure,” but I did not wish to be fastidious in matters of little importance.