fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers; and if any other thing is opposed to sound teaching,
Paul has been saying that the law is good if a person uses it properly. Verse 10 finishes his list of the people the law targets, then leaves it open: anything else "contrary to sound doctrine" belongs there too. Why does Paul measure these sins against the gospel and not against the law?
The list is a diagnosis, not a description of the believer:
An X-ray is not used on people who are perfectly healthy. It is used to find what may be wrong in the body. So, the law is not made for a righteous man. It is made to expose the many moral ailments that afflict mankind — lawlessness, disobedience, ungodliness, and all these dreadful evils that follow here. There is no need to name them one by one. They include everything that is contrary to sound doctrine.
So what place does the law have for a believer today?
The use of the law is to condemn, to kill, to deal with evil. This never could be the full expression of God. It does keep up a witness to God's hatred of evil, no doubt; those who are presumptuous it leaves without excuse. But if a Christian takes up the law as the rule of his own life, he must first give up his place as being in Christ. He must abandon that righteousness of God which he is made in Him. The law was not enacted for the Christian.
The word translated "enslavers" is rendered "men-stealers" in older versions. It means people who kidnap others and sell them. Christianity condemned the kidnapper, but it treated slavery itself in another way:
Though slavery came from sin, the law of Moses recognised it and gave rules about it, and for the protection of the slaves. In the New Testament Paul sent Onesimus, a runaway slave, back to his master, who was a Christian. He did not demand his release. Instead he made a beautiful appeal to Philemon: he should keep Onesimus no longer as a slave, but as a beloved brother. The effects of sin were in the world, and God did not bring in Christianity to set the world right. While He shed light on everything and proclaimed grace to all, His purpose was "to take from the Gentiles a people for His name." Christianity taught equal treatment of slaves, as we see in several of the letters that address masters. It condemned kidnappers.
The standard Paul names at the close of the list is not the law at all:
The law is a most powerful instrument of conviction for sinners. It shows no mercy to the terrible list of sins given in verses 9 and 10. But besides all these there were other things the law did not name, which were contrary to all sound teaching. The Apostle refers to these at the close of verse 10. Notice that he does not say "contrary to sound doctrine according to the holy standard established by the law." He says "in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God," for the gospel sets before us a standard of conduct higher than the law. The law did not set out the most that God could expect from man. It set out the least He demands, if man is to live on the earth. So to fall below that standard, in one thing on one occasion, was to incur the death penalty.
The word translated "sound" is a medical one. It describes teaching that keeps a soul well:
The word translated "sound" occurs again and again. It is the word from which we get "hygienic," so often on people's lips today. It means healthful. Sound doctrine is indeed doctrine which makes for spiritual health.
So sound doctrine is more than right belief. It shows in how a person lives:
Sound doctrine is not only a correct belief in the gospel of the glory of the blessed God... but sound doctrine also means practical godliness. Sound doctrine produces a holy life, and sound doctrine must lead to a holy life.
The law could not heal what it exposed, and it could not show God's heart:
The gospel is no less exclusive of evil than the law. But the gospel of the glory of the blessed God is the great remedy that brings health and soundness to the sick. In this, God's glory shines as it could not in the law. The law declared God's righteous judgment, but it could not reveal the love and grace of His heart.
- Diagnosis — The list of sins is the law's X-ray of a sick humanity. It exposes what is wrong. The law was not written for the righteous person.
- Limits — The law condemns and leaves the guilty without excuse. It was never the rule of a Christian's life.
- Reach — The law's verdict falls on "enslavers," those who kidnap and sell people. Christianity condemned the kidnapper and worked on hearts instead of reforming the world.
- Health — "Sound" is a medical word. Sound doctrine keeps the soul healthy, and it must show up as practical godliness.
- Cure — Paul measures every remaining evil by the gospel, not the law. The gospel is just as hard on sin, and it is also the remedy that heals.
according to the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God, with which *I* have been entrusted.
Paul closes a hard list of sins with a surprising standard: not the law, but the good news entrusted to him. That phrase raises three questions: whose glory is this, why is God called "blessed," and what does Paul mean by a message put in his trust?
Paul does not simply call the gospel glorious. He names God's own glory, and one writer makes that glory the measure of everything else.
It is the gospel of God's glory, not "the glorious gospel." Such is the hope in which we rejoice, and such the standard by which He would have us measure and reject all evil. It is a standard that allows no compromise with man's hardness of heart, as the law did, but is completely intolerant of everything opposed to God's nature and presence on high.
The word "blessed" here means happy. One writer notes where the phrase sits: dark pictures of human evil stand on both sides of it.
What could exceed the moral filth and degradation of those who had fallen short not only of the law but of "the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23)? Their portrait appears in verses 9 and 10. Then in verse 11 comes "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God," followed in the next verses by the dark picture Paul gives of himself as an unconverted man. Look before and look after, and we see nothing but the shame of cursed and unhappy man. Into the middle of it comes the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed, or happy, God. A contrast indeed!
Why is God happy? Another writer points to how God speaks now, and to what made that possible.
God is now revealed as "the blessed God," because He speaks to us not from Sinai's fire and storm, but in the fullness of grace and truth of Christ. Once atonement was accomplished and the Saviour had gone up into glory, God was "happy" in acting freely in love to the lost.
One writer asks a plain question: what is glory? His answer comes from Paul's own conversion.
If anyone asks, what is glory? We may answer, it is excellence on display. God's excellence may be on display in a way the eye can see. But it may not be. A glory of a moral and spiritual kind, reaching the heart by channels other than the eye, is no less wonderful. When Saul of Tarsus was converted, a glory struck him to the ground and blinded his eyes. But the glory of that exceedingly abundant grace of our Lord "with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" opened the eyes of his heart without dazzling the eyes of his head. That is the glory spoken of here.
Is the gospel a softer standard than the law? One writer answers by comparing what each one does.
The gospel, then, is no less exclusive of evil than the law is; but the gospel of the glory of the blessed God is the great remedy that brings health and soundness to the sick. And in this gospel God reveals His glory as He could not in the law. The law did declare God's righteous judgment, but it could not reveal the love and grace of His heart.
So "sound doctrine" here is never only correct opinion.
Sound doctrine is therefore not only a correct belief in the gospel of the glory of the blessed God — what that gospel accomplishes to the glory of God, and the glory it puts on our side. Sound doctrine also means practical godliness. Sound doctrine produces a holy life, and sound doctrine must lead to a holy life.
One writer warns against shrinking this message down to escape from judgment.
To preach forgiveness of sins and relief from judgment, with a sure hope of heaven at the end, is good as far as it goes. But the gospel of the glory of the blessed God is according to His purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the world began. It takes us out of the world in spirit now. It brings us into salvation and a holy calling, with the enjoyment of eternal life now.
Paul ends the verse with a trust the Lord handed him. One writer weighs both sides of it.
This is the gospel the Lord has committed to His servants. Paul puts it this way: it is "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted." Unspeakable privilege! Solemn responsibility! To be commissioned by the Lord Himself to proclaim that gospel far and near! That gospel is the highest display of the divine glory in the richest display of sovereign grace to man.
- Glory, first. The phrase is "the gospel of the glory," not just a glorious gospel. The message carries God's own excellence on display.
- Happy God, next. "Blessed" means happy: with atonement accomplished, God acts freely in love to the lost, and the good news drops into the middle of two dark pictures of man.
- Grace outreaches law. The law declared God's righteous judgment. Only this gospel reveals the love and grace of His heart — and it excludes evil no less.
- Doctrine becomes life. Sound teaching here is not correct opinion alone but practical godliness; a holy life comes out of it.
- Held in trust. The Lord commits this gospel to His servants; carrying it is privilege and responsibility together.