I Timothy 1:10

whoremongers, &c.--sinners against the seventh commandment. men-stealers--that is, slave dealers. The most heinous offense against the eighth commandment. No stealing of a man's goods can equal in atrocity the stealing of a man's liberty. Slavery is not directly assailed in the New Testament; to have done so would have been to revolutionize violently the existing order of things. But Christianity teaches principles sure to undermine, and at last overthrow it, wherever Christianity has had its natural development (Mat 7:12). liars . . . perjured--offenders against the ninth commandment. if there be any other thing--answering to the tenth commandment in its widest aspect. He does not particularly specify it because his object is to bring out the grosser forms of transgression; whereas the tenth is deeply spiritual, so much so indeed, that it was by it that the sense of sin, in its subtlest form of "lust," Paul tells us (Rom 7:7), was brought home to his own conscience. Thus, Paul argues, these would-be teachers of the law, while boasting of a higher perfection through it, really bring themselves down from the Gospel elevation to the level of the grossly "lawless," for whom, not for Gospel believers, the law was designed. And in actual practice the greatest sticklers for the law as the means of moral perfection, as in this case, are those ultimately liable to fall utterly from the morality of the law. Gospel grace is the only true means of sanctification as well as of justification. sound--healthy, spiritually wholesome (Ti1 6:3; Ti2 1:13; Tit 1:13; Tit 2:2), as opposed to sickly, morbid (as the Greek of "doting" means, Ti1 6:4), and "canker" (Ti2 2:17). "The doctrine," or "teaching, which is according to godliness" (Ti1 6:3).

After the inscription (Ti1 1:1, Ti1 1:2) we have, I. The charge given to Timothy (Ti1 1:3, Ti1 1:4). II. The true end of the law (Ti1 1:5-11), where he shows that it is entirely agreeable to the gospel. III. He mentions his own call to be an apostle, for which he expresses his thankfulness (Ti1 1:12-16) IV. His doxology (Ti1 1:17). V. A renewal of the charge to Timothy (Ti1 1:18). And of Hymenaeus and Alexander (Ti1 1:19, Ti1 1:20).

1:10 This list portrays the ultimate tendencies of the false teachers’ teachings, their underlying spiritual state, and the superior righteousness of the Good News (see Matt 5:20; Gal 5:22-23). • that contradicts the wholesome (or sound, healthy) teaching: See also 1 Tim 6:3-4; 2 Tim 1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9, 13; 2:1, 8. This addition to the list is both a closing generalization and a powerful assertion. Righteousness is now defined more perfectly by the Good News than by the law, but law still speaks to all that is opposed to the Good News. The false teachers’ reliance on the law, therefore, underscores their departure from Paul’s teaching.