1:9 {8} Knowing this, that the law is not made for a {e} righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for {f} sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
(8) He indeed escapes the curse of the Law, and therefore does not abhor it, who fleeing and avoiding those things which the Law condemns, gives himself with all his heart to observe it: and he does not make a vain babbling of outward and curious matters.
(e) And such a one is he, whom the Lord has endued with true doctrine, and with the Holy Spirit.
(f) To those who make an art, as it were, of sinning.
1:9 The law is not made for a righteous man. Law (there is no article) is not given to justify men, but to restrain, condemn, and punish the wicked. A long catalogue of sins, common in the Gentile world, are given, which were all condemned by the law.
1:9 The law doth not lie against a righteous man - Doth not strike or condemn him. But against the lawless and disobedient - They who despise the authority of the lawgiver violate the first commandment, which is the foundation of the law, and the ground of all obedience. Against the ungodly and sinners - Who break the second commandment, worshipping idols, or not worshipping the true God. The unholy and profane - Who break the third commandment by taking his name in vain.
1:5-11 Whatever tends to weaken love to God, or love to the brethren, tends to defeat the end of the commandment. The design of the gospel is answered, when sinners, through repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ, are brought to exercise Christian love. And as believers were righteous persons in God's appointed way, the law was not against them. But unless we are made righteous by faith in Christ, really repenting and forsaking sin, we are yet under the curse of the law, even according to the gospel of the blessed God, and are unfit to share the holy happiness of heaven.
