“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 manslayers,”
My Notes
What Does 1 Timothy 1:9 Mean?
Paul makes a provocative statement about the law's intended audience: it wasn't made for the righteous. It was made for the lawless, disobedient, ungodly, sinners, unholy, profane, and then a catalogue of specific offenders. The law targets wrongdoers, not the already-right.
The list that follows — murderers of parents, killers, sexually immoral (verse 10), liars, perjurers — reads like a criminal code. Paul is saying the law functions as legislation against criminality, not as a lifestyle guide for the faithful. The person living righteously doesn't need the law's prohibitions because they're not doing what the law prohibits.
This doesn't mean the righteous person ignores the law — it means the law's coercive, prohibitive function isn't directed at them. A person who loves their neighbor doesn't need "thou shalt not steal" as a restraint. The love that guides them exceeds the law's requirement. The law was designed for those who lack that internal guidance.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Do you experience God's law primarily as restriction or as redundancy — and what does your answer reveal?
- 2.How does love superseding law differ from lawlessness?
- 3.What does 'the law wasn't made for the righteous' teach about the relationship between love and commandments?
- 4.Where might you be relating to the law as a criminal relates to a police force rather than as a citizen relates to a society?
Devotional
The law wasn't made for the righteous. It was made for the lawless. Paul drops a statement that should reframe your entire relationship with biblical rules.
The law functions as a restraint for people who, without it, would do the things listed: murder parents, kill, engage in sexual exploitation, lie under oath. The law exists because these behaviors exist. If everyone lived by love, the law would be unnecessary — not because it's wrong, but because it would be redundant. You don't need a "no stealing" sign in a community where nobody steals.
Paul isn't dismissing the law. He's relocating its primary function. The law is a police force — essential for restraining evil, identifying crime, and establishing boundaries. But the police force isn't designed for the law-abiding citizen. It's designed for the criminal. The righteous person doesn't experience the law as a restraint because they're not doing what the law restrains.
This is freedom, not lawlessness. The person who loves God and neighbor exceeds every requirement the law makes. They don't murder — not because the law says not to, but because love doesn't murder. They don't steal — not because the commandment forbids it, but because love doesn't take what isn't its. The law becomes unnecessary not because it's abolished but because love has superseded it.
If you experience the law primarily as restriction, Paul's verse asks: why? The righteous person doesn't feel restricted by the law any more than a non-criminal feels restricted by the legal code. If the law feels like chains, the issue might not be the law. It might be what the law was made to restrain.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man,.... No man is naturally righteous since Adam, excepting the…
Knowing this - That is, “If anyone knows, or admits this, he has the prover view of the design of the law.” The apostle…
The law is not made for a righteous man - There is a moral law as well as a ceremonial law: as the object of the latter…
Here the apostle instructs Timothy how to guard against the judaizing teachers, or others who mingled fables and endless…
knowing this The A.V. putting a full stop after -lawfully" gives an entirely wrong turn here; the R.V. puts a comma and…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture