1 Timothy 1:8-9 — The Law Is Not Made for a Righteous Man

The pulpit reads verse 9 alone and concludes that the law is not for believers. Paul did not write verse 9 alone.

Verse 8 comes first: the law is good, if a man use it lawfully. Verse 9 then says whom the law stands against. It is not laid against the righteous man; it is laid against the lawless and the disobedient.

The lawless man is the one living without the law. The righteous man is the one walking in it. The law has no charge against him because he is keeping it, not because he has been released from it. Verse 9 does not set the believer free from the law; it shows that the believer who keeps it has nothing to fear from it.