1 Timothy 1:9

1 Timothy 1:9. The law. There is no article in the Greek, but St. Paul's use of the words elsewhere (e.g. Romans 6:14; Galatians 5:18) justifies the translation. The law would not be needed but for the lawless element in men which needs correction.

Disobedient. Better ‘ insubordinate,' the state of the ‘carnal mind ‘which is not subject to the law of God (Romans 8:7). The next four words, while expressing different shades of evil, have this in common, that they all speak of evil in its relation to God, of sins against the First Table the ungodly, who have no reverence; the sinners, who, apart from special offences, are without God in the world; the unholy, in whom there is no inward purity; the profane, in whom there is not even any show of consecration to His service. The words that follow, as describing sins against the Second Table, begin naturally with those against the fifth commandment. In the strong words chosen to indicate the sins of deepest dye in each case, we may probably trace a righteous indignation at the sins of the Heathen world, like that in Romans 1:24-32; possibly also as in Romans 2:21-24, to the vices which stained the lives even of these boasters of the law. ‘ Murderers of fathers,' The Greek is more generic, ‘ smilers,' without necessarily implying death as resulting from the blow. It is distinguished here from ‘man-slayers,' and so sins against the fifth and sixth commandments come in their natural order.