1 Timothy 1:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Timothy 1:10

Comments

‘For whoremongers’ – the seventh commandment. We don't use the word ‘whore’ very much now. It originally referred to male prostitutes in the time of the Greeks, but it was expanded in ancient times to refer to all fornicators and adulterers in or out of marriage. All unclean acts: people who have sold out the body to follow what they want and to give way to sexual sensation. No reserve, no honour, no purity, chastity, or loyalty, just betrayal and living like alley cats. That is what the educators want to teach the children to do in the schools. Experiment, they say. Sex is to be enjoyed experimentally and without boundaries. Whoremongers, says God. ‘For them that defile themselves with mankind’, and that refers to homosexuality, to sexual relations which are contrary to nature. He is again thinking of the seventh command when he says that. Then he gives us an example of breaking the eighth commandment: ‘For men-stealers’, which includes also all abusers, controllers, and exploiters. For liars: the human heart lies to gain, it lies to hurt, it lies for pleasure. It includes gossip, saying things, repeating things, retailing things, that you don't absolutely know are true, and it is not honourable to retail them anyway. It is cheap character assassination. The apostle moves subtly to the positive at the end of verse 10: ‘And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.’ The word ‘sound’ translates to the Greek for, literally, hygienic. We have that word. Hygienic doctrine, healthy doctrine. There is a healthy version of the law. There is a hygienic version of the law. What is that? It is all the opposite positive virtues. The commandments say, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. What is the opposite of each of those things? What's the positive virtue? All those positive virtues are mentioned in the gospel. The Ten Commandments are found in the New Testament, but for believers, for those who are described as the righteous, because they have the imputed righteousness of Christ. It is the positive virtues that we long for and aspire for. That is the right use of the law, the legitimate use of the law. If there be any other thing that is contrary to hygienic doctrine; in what follows he amplifies.

Application

There are people who turn all of life into a tawdry soap opera – older people and younger people. In some societies, young people can't get together and enjoy each other's company and become fond of each other and have a natural courtship, because they are surrounded by people who gossip about them. Have you heard this? Have you heard that? Oh, do you know about this? Do you know about that? This happened, that happened: people trampling on each other's lives and privacy. It all comes under the lying sin, actually. The law was designed, among other things, to bring down gossips. If somebody tells you something about another and their relationships and their affairs, you say, ‘Please don't tell me that. That's a private matter. That's not for me.’ Subdue the desire to listen, otherwise you become part of the sin. Gently reprove the desire to tell it. And then we have an atmosphere and a community in which things can happen purely and naturally and relationships can form. Liars, perjured persons, the person who tells his lies with such convincing emphasis. It has almost reached the level of supporting the lie with an oath, a perjured person.

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1 Timothy 1:10 Commentary and Bible Study