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The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching
1 Timothy 1:10 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine;
  • KJV For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
  • BSB for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching
  • NKJV for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
  • NASB for the sexually immoral, homosexuals, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Paul continues listing sins the law condemns, ending with whatever opposes sound doctrine. It ties moral law directly to the health of true teaching.

Overview

The catalog of sins includes sexual immorality, slave-trading, lying, and perjury, all 'contrary to the sound doctrine.' Paul shows that the law and the gospel agree in condemning such things. Faithful Christians read this list as describing categories of sin the moral law addresses, while debate continues over translating specific terms; the broad point is that the gospel upholds, not abolishes, God's moral standards.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 33

  • 1 Cor 6:9–10Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
  • Lev 18:22“‘You shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestable.
  • 2 Tim 4:3For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts;
  • Rom 1:26For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.
  • Gal 5:19–21Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,
  • Rev 21:27There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
  • 1 Tim 6:3If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness,
  • Jude 1:7Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
  • Titus 1:9holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him.
  • Heb 13:4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
  • Rev 21:8But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
  • Lev 20:13“‘If a man lies with a male, as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
  • Mark 7:21–22For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
  • Rev 22:15Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
  • Eph 5:3–6But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;
  • John 8:44You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.
  • Gen 19:5They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
  • Exod 21:16“Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
  • 2 Tim 1:13Hold the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
  • Exod 20:7“You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
  • Titus 1:13This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
  • Titus 2:1–2But say the things which fit sound doctrine,
  • Rev 18:13and cinnamon, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, sheep, horses, chariots, and people’s bodies and souls.
  • Hos 4:1–2Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
  • Deut 24:7If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deals with him as a slave, or sells him; then that thief shall die. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
  • Hos 10:4They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.
  • Matt 5:33–37“Again you have heard that it was said to them of old time, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,’
  • Mal 3:5I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
  • Zech 8:17and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate,” says Yahweh.
  • Zech 5:4I will cause it to go out,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the middle of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones.”
  • Gen 37:27Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him.
  • Ezek 17:16–19“‘As I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the middle of Babylon he will die.
  • Gen 40:15For indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (8)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — 1 Timothy videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on 1 Timothy 1:10YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on 1 TimothyMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

There is 'one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all' — the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.

How 1 Timothy 1:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.