What Does 1 Timothy 1:10 Mean?

(10) **For menstealers.**—After enumerating the transgressors of the Sixth and Seventh Commandments against murder and adultery, St. Paul speaks of a class well known in the Roman world of his day—perhaps the worst class of offenders against the Eighth Commandment—the “slave-dealers.” **For liars, for perjured persons.**—In these inclusive terms St. Paul apparently reckons all who break the solemn Ninth charge given on Sinai, which forbade false witness against a neighbour. Among the sins which especially excite the hot wrath of the first inspired teachers of Christianity, “want of truth” appears singularly prominent. One after the other of the Apostles, in different language, express their deep abhorrence of this too common sin, which, in St. John’s fervid words, will suffice to exclude from the city of the blessed (Revelation 22:15). **And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.**—In this broad and general summary, with which St. Paul concludes his dreadful catalogue, the prohibition of the Tenth Commandment against “covetousness” is doubtless included. In the words “sound doctrine”—an expression peculiar to this group of Epistles—a sharp contrast is suggested to the “sickly and unhealthy” teaching of the false teachers, with their foolish legends and allegories—a teaching which suggested controversy and useless disputes, and had no practical influence at all upon *life.*