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,
All Commentaries on 1 Timothy 1:9 Go To 1 Timothy 1
John Chrysostom
AD 407
But for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers. Thus he does not stop at the mention of sins in general, nor of these only, but goes over the several kinds of sin, to shame men, as it were, of being under the direction of the law; and having thus particularized some, he adds a reference to those omitted, though what he had enumerated were sufficient to withdraw men. Of whom then does he say these things? Of the Jews, for they were murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers: they were profane and unholy, for these too he means when he says, ungodly and sinners, and being such, the law was necessarily given to them. For did they not repeatedly worship idols? Did they not stone Moses? Were not their hands imbrued in the blood of their kindred? Do not the prophets constantly accuse them of these things? But to those who are instructed by a heavenly philosophy, these commandments are superfluous. For murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liers, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; for all the things which he had mentioned were the passions of a corrupted soul, and contrary, therefore, to sound doctrine.
