1:29
“…being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness…”
It seems to me that these are not the first in the list, but a title over the list. “Sexual immorality” is not in more modern versions, following different Greek texts. But he does mention it in his lists in 1 Corinthians and Galatians. And need we say that he has definitely covered this subject matter quite well in the letter so far?
Another reason the translations follow a different Greek text here is that “unrighteousness” and “wickedness” seem to cover the rest of the list in a general way, and “sexual immorality” has already been covered.
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Regardless, following is a sample of all the unrighteous deeds men have committed. He is not saying that every man commits every vice, but collectively this is our pedigree. This is who we are. Stand by. Here is the darkest portion of the chapter, if not the whole letter.
And by the way, don’t cover your ears. Because you are now in the book of Romans. Your sin has found you out. You can’t get out of this chapter unscathed, un-convicted.
(You will see later that the Word does not do this to condemn you any further. You are already condemned. When God shows you your sin, you are being blessed. The next thing He shows you is the Saviour from sin!)
“…covetousness..”
Boom! Got most of the audience already! Ever wanted something you didn’t need? Ever visited a home and said, “Sure wish I had that”?
Covetousness is the national sin.
It’s the Greek word pleonexia (accent on “i”), from the basic idea of “more.” (pleon). Not satisfied. I want more. More stuff. More attention. More satisfaction with life. Greediness is the other way it’s translated. Scripture says, “Having food and clothing, let us be content.” But we’re not. We want more.
Isn’t it striking to you that covetousness is one of the ten restrictions God gives His people from the days of Moses? By the way, it is only one of the restrictions, not two, as the Catholic grouping has it. By putting commandments one and two together, they come up with only nine commandments, so they divide the tenth one into two. Voila! Ten commandments again.
But coveting, grouped together with adultery and murder and idolatry? People who want more are unhappy people. Always saying, “Well, once I get my raise, things are gonna be OK.” Or , “If I only had married that other woman, I wouldn’t be so messed up now.” Yes, you would. And so
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would she. “Once I get out of school and start a respectable job, life will be good.”
Not that “more” is an evil word. Tracing that same Greek word, pleon, I see Paul becoming all things to all men, that he might win more. More souls for Jesus, that’s good. I see that Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses. More praise to Jesus, that’s good. The church at Thyatira had more works now than before, and they are praised. More love for and working for Jesus, that’s good.
But more for me? How do I dare ask for more, when I have been promised eternal life with Christ? What more is there? The more of covetousness. Beware of it!
“… maliciousness…”
Malice. We don’t use the word that often. It means worthless. Depraved. Related to malignant. Now, that sounds familiar. A tumor, a cancer, that is so far gone as to be untreatable. Imagine a sin within mankind that is so far gone as to be untreatable, making the man worthless. Deep, deep evil. A conscience that is so seared that nothing touches it. No compassion. No caring. How can prison guards in Communist countries beat pregnant women until their child either dies or is deformed at birth? How can abortionist practitioners in our own nation vacuum out the remains of a live baby, the take the body parts and sell them to research labs? Hitler was malicious against six million Jews? Yes, six million people slaughtered because of their racial identity. How cruel, how senseless.
At least we live in a righteous holy nation? Since Roe V Wade, sixty million lives have been snuffed out by men calling themselves doctors.
Innocently. Legally. Inject the poison, suck out the remains of those unwanted pregnancies. How long can a nation be spared that kills its own children?
That, among many other American and human atrocities, is the very definition of “malicious.” If you wanted to know…
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“… full of envy…”
“painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another, joined with a desire to possess the same advantage.”
That person is pretty. I wish I was pretty like that. That person is smart. I wish I had a brain like that. That person is holy. I wish I had that person’s holiness.
Notice the subtle difference between envy and discipleship, in the church. What? The disciple wants to be like the teacher. Matthew 10:25, “It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher…”
The disciple patterns his life after the Master. He sees holiness and goes after it. He sees patience and desires it. He sees love and craves to be more loving. What’s the difference?
Motivation.
Envy wants things to gain an advantage for self. To be liked. To be accepted. To be lifted up. To be the center of attention. If I only had what he/she has, then they would praise me like they praise him/her.
Christian Discipleship, following a Master or Teacher, wants to glorify God. It sees rotting carnality within and abhors it. It desperately cries out to be more like Jesus, not to gain an advantage over Jesus or to be praised of men, but to obey God when He says, You will be holy, because I am holy: a promise, not only a command.
Envy wants to build me, but is frustrated in that attempt, because I can only copy external attributes of someone else, I can never be that person.
Discipleship, by the Spirit, creates an altogether new me, in the image of Christ. And one day when He comes, we will be like Him altogether.
To guard against envy, be filled with Him, and you’ll be satisfied with who He is in you.
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“… murder…”
In a 2010 listing of murders worldwide, I found there were nearly half a million. From human Cain killing human Abel we have advanced to half a million humans killing half a million humans. Largest number? Brazil.
50,000. India, 43,000. USA “only” 15,000. Close to 500 homicides were here in Chicago. Chicago is less than 1% of the US population, but accounts for 3% of its murders.
That was all in one year.
Murder is not just a number. It’s an outgrowth of anger and hate, and Jesus pronounced all such people as murderers. Jesus did not lighten the load of the law. He increased it. Made it unbearable. Made it so hard that you must cry out for mercy. And when you do, from the heart, you will be saved. And not until.
“…strife…”
That’s “debate” in KJV. Another word that needs clarification. Debate, polite discussion, sharing differences of interpretation, opinion, as long as this is done in love, is not a problem for Christians. But the Greek points to quarreling, wrangling, contention, fighting. We all know the difference.
Unfortunately, one can lead to the other, and with this, God is not pleased. Most of it stems from pride, and the desire to be number one, unassailable, perfect, correct.
Matthew 12:19, quoting the prophet, says that the One Who is coming will not strive. Same word.
But wait. Didn’t this same Jesus, meek and lowly and humble, strive with the Pharisees? Aren’t we to contend earnestly for the faith? Aren’t we to persuade men to come to Christ?
People who are of an inward nature to begin with will use Paul’s mention of “strife” as an excuse never to get involved with any disagreement of any kind, and just let the world go by…
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What’s the difference? Where do we draw the line? Back to motivation.
Why must you win this argument? Will it save a soul? Are you snatching a soul from the fire, as in Jude 23? Is this the last chance you will have to save your dying relative? Is this doctrine of the church something that is obviously Biblical, and must you challenge the false teacher now and strongly?
Or is your entrance into the discussion merely to show your stuff? How bright you are? How much you learned in college? Or worse yet, what you learned in the Bible itself? In proving your Biblical point, are you proving Paul’s also, who said, “The servant of the Lord must not argue?”
Can we ask ourselves in those heated moments, Where is this going? And why? And when we get there, will the Kingdom of God be benefited? Will we win a battle and lose the war?
Strife, arguing, contending, in this prideful way, is a sin, one of the many of man’s pitfalls, and it can lead to other sins. Beware. Church, don’t be intimidated by the man who always wins arguments. Only proves he knows how to argue well, not that he is right or in the right spirit.
“…deceit…”
Liars. They lie to themselves. They lie to you. “You are of your father the devil. He does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.
When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me.”
Why do we have trouble convincing people of the truth? Because they are liars. They believe the devil’s lies, and your truth seems like a lie to them. Only those who have been visited by the grace of God will hear you.
“…evil-mindedness…”
Malignity. Evil dispositions. Bad character. This person is just bad. Even the world will look at him and recognize, this is bad. This is evil.
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From CBN News: A young American couple was brutally murdered by alleged ISIS terrorists while biking along the Afghan border.
Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan quit their jobs last year and commenced a journey to see the world by bike. Austin wrote in his personal blog that he was tired of his ordinary life and wanted to see the beauty of the outdoors.
"I've grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of coloring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige. I've missed too many sunsets while my back was turned. Too many thunderstorms went unwatched, too many gentle breezes unnoticed." he wrote. "There's magic out there, in this great big beautiful world."
The couple went on a 369-day trip that took them from Cape Town, South Africa, all the way to Tajikistan. While in Morocco, Austin wrote on his blog that evil does not exist.
"You watch the news and you read the papers and you're led to believe that the world is a big, scary place. People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil. People are axe murderers and monsters and worse...I don't buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own," he wrote.
Tragically, on July 29, the couple and two other cyclists were stabbed to death by terrorists on the Tajikistan/Afghanistan border.
CBS News reported that, "ISIS followed an initial claim of responsibility in print with a video showing the five purported attackers pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi."
No, sorry, there is evil, and it dwells richly in some people in this world. What possible motive could these men have for taking the life of some cyclists on a holiday? Malignity. Cancer. Rotten thinking.
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“…whisperers…”
Translated “gossip” in newer versions of the Bible, and defined as “slander” by Paul. It is the employment of the human tongue to destroy someone you don’t particularly care for. “But I’m not gossiping, I’m just telling you the truth.” Yeah, how would you like it if I told everyone the “truth” about you.
This cowardly person is never given a microphone. He or she “whispers” this “truth” into your ear, to get a response, maybe even to get the reward of your shock and surprise. The most outrageous of these gossips are the ones that say they are telling you this “truth” so you can “pray” about the poor person. In your mind what you are often doing is placing the object of your venom lower than yourself.
Did you hear he was seen with her in the supermarket. And she, married all these years! Her poor husband. And the story builds from there. Some who have nothing more to do with their lives than talk about others all day need to have surgery to remove that phone from their ear and hand, for they have become addicted to talk. They need a life. Maybe a job.
The pastor can probably find some work for you to do around the church if your only employment all day is talk.
The whispering game, remember it, “Telephone”? I whisper into your ear, “Bobby has green socks,” and you must turn around to the person next to you and pass on the message. But you didn’t hear it correctly, and you pass on, “Bobby plays with green blocks,” then it becomes, “Bob lives around the block,” and “Bob left the door unlocked”, then “Bob left for Florida with his flocks,” and “Stop leaving floors un-mopped,” and so on…
Funny when it’s a game, but deadly in the mouth of a gossip. James says “The tongue is a world of iniquity… it defiles the whole body… it sets on fire the course of nature… it is set on fire by hell…” (James 3:6) Your little “prayer request” can turn into a scandal that will destroy a person’s life, even the life of a church. Keep your information to yourself. We don’t want to hear it.
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If you suspect evil, go to the person, or to the pastor. Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know. In old Italy we say, “keepa you mouf shut”… or something like that.
1:30
“… backbiters…”
The list continues in verse 30. “Backbiters” conjures up a strange image in our mind. But not far from literal truth. While a man’s back is turned, snap! That’s what vicious wolves do, I presume. They might be afraid to confront a man head-on, if the man is there to defend himself. But let him turn around for a moment…
The various translations seem a little confused over this word. The word translated “whisperers” in verse 29 actually carries with it the idea of “slander.” Yet this word in verse 30 is translated “slanderer” in many versions. And it means to “talk against” or “defame.” To accuse. To harm someone’s reputation. It would seem that this word is a bit more intense, at least from the English viewpoint.
Whispering is one thing. Planting subtle suggestions in someone’s ear and allowing that thought to be interpreted and passed on. Your typical church gossip from busybodies who aren’t too busy…
Biting is another thing. Cruel and vicious and public statements meant to harm and damage and kill. During days of persecution, one sees otherwise “good” church members turning on their brothers and sisters, to protect themselves. Even this sin is found among us.
“… haters of God…”
We see it in our culture now, more and more. Men who do not want to be ruled by anything but their own passions. They know what God demands from them, if He is there, and they do not like such a thought. They learn first to ignore Him, then resent Him, then hate Him. One day they will try to kill Him. Oh they were successful at Calvary, but when He returns, the
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gentle Jesus meek and mild will have become the Lion of Judah, and all their hatred will be turned into cringing fear.
Any haters of God among us, in the church? I think not, but beware those moments, those thoughts, when we say in our heart that His ways do not seem to be fair, when we “reply against God” as though we have a better way of doing things. Beware of bitterness against God for the loss of friend or family or health or wealth. Beware of blaming that can turn into a smoldering resentment.
Hebrews says it best: (3:12) “Beware, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin…”
Let God examine us, former sons of Adam, and remind us that Adam’s nature lurks in us and needs to be crucified daily.
“…violent…”
KJV has it “despiteful”. Other versions: insolent, contumelious. When a variety of words are used, our only solution is to go back to the Greek. And the Greek word means “to exercise violence.” It is translated elsewhere, “to treat spitefully.” And our word “despite” comes from the idea of “despising.” So while the KJV gives the motivation, the NKJV rightly suggests the action that comes from that motivation.
These haters of God must also hate, despise, all of God’s people. For some, it is a part of their religion to despise/hate/be violent against, followers of Christ. In the eyes of Islam, for example, Christians are “infidels.” That is, heretics from the Truth, worthy of death.
A man who leaves Islam for Christianity is given this prescription in the Koran: “whoever apostates among you, from his religion, so he will die as an infidel.” (2:217)
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There are peaceful verses in Koran, and warlike ones. This is because Muhammad lived in peace at first, then had to defend himself. His “god” changed his mind about violence when it was necessary, then came up with a “law” that covered such doublemindedness, called the “law of abrogation” which basically states that if Allah wants to change things in his book, he can, because he is god. But that study is for a different time.
We were talking about violence.
Nowhere in Scripture are God’s people of the New Covenant told to be violent against unbelief. The strongest thing we are allowed is excommunication, which delivers a man living in sin to the outside world, away from the protections that are inherent in church membership.
Paul said that this by itself could lead a man to have his body destroyed, but not by the church.
The later Roman church, alas, didn’t see it that way. It is true that the Church itself did not burn heretics, but delivered them to the “secular” arm. But the result was always the same. If the government was told by Papa that this man was a heretic, the government took immediate action. Romanism was responsible for the deaths of many of God’s finest, and those responsible will pay a price for it.
God’s intention in excommunicating is repentance and restoration, not execution. Not violence.
Rome stopped executing when the world around it became powerful enough to intervene. But she will do it again when permissible. Islam continues on wherever it is feasible. And other religions.
Violence is built into us. What did you do when you could not get your way? Tantrum? Yelling? Worse? If you could have gotten away with it and still kept your reputation…? Be aware that this is part of the genetic structure handed down from Adam. It started first with Cain. False religion, rejection by God, jealous of true religion and acceptance with God. Anger, hatred, violence. Beware.
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“…proud…”
Self explanatory, yes? Maybe. Maybe not. Huperephanos . The prefix huper means “above”. Phanos, an appearing, or shining. “Appearing above” others. Seeming to be above others. But not really above them in God’s sight. A feeling of superiority. I’m better than you are.
I think that if we asked most people in the room if they are proud, they would say, no, not me. Which might tell you something. If people don’t think they are proud, they must think they are humble. Which means they may be proud.
Pride is a tough one to deal with. When our family members do something special, we are “proud” of them. Especially when a person who wasn’t expected to do anything worthwhile, suddenly does something worthwhile, we say, “I’m really proud of you.” Right away we want to say, well, there’s a good pride and a bad pride.
Safer to say that all pride is bad, and this other thing we do is something other than pride. When you are happier about someone’s else’s achievements than you are your own, that’s a form of love, not evil pride. When all you can think about is your own achievements, you are proud.
And sometimes, that “pride” – which isn’t pride - of a family member starts to deteriorate into something selfish. My son is on the honor roll. What’s wrong with your son. Now it’s ugly pride.
Are we to be “proud” of /happy with, our own achievements? Depends on why you did it. The Pharisees did all that they did to be seen of men. Paul tells us that whatever we do, we are to do to glorify God.
So why did you teach that lesson, sing that song, give that offering, clean the church bathroom? Totally out of love and the glory of God, or was there something vain about it? Something that was hoping for a little reward, a little attention?
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Pride still goes before destruction. A haughty spirit before a fall. We may not see your inner motivation. Even you may not see it fully. But the next time you are before the Lord, ask Him to examine you fully. “See if there be some wicked way in me,” the Psalmist said.
Why do I do the things I do and who do I do them for? In our context here, will the church be blessed by what I do, or just me?
Some people pray in public because they like the sound of their voice, and they assume everyone else does. For some, public prayer is their entire prayer life. Some pray to inform God about things, like He doesn’t know what’s going on. Some pray because they want to preach, and they give you a little sermon every time they pray. The Pharisees prayed long vain prayers too, and Jesus called them out.
Others pray because they know that God is going to hear and answer them and the church is going to be blessed because of it.
Remember the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem? Donkeys don’t think human thoughts, thank goodness. They are not a fallen race, though one donkey in Scripture talked.
This one that brought Jesus was quiet. But people have tried to imagine what he might have been thinking, if he had been given a brain like ours:
Oh look at this crowd! They’ve all come out to honor me. Look, they’re cutting down branches of trees and laying them on my pathway so I don’t have to walk on that dusty road! They are shouting something. Don’t know the language, but it does seem they are very happy with me. They’re jumping up and down! What a wonderful donkey I must be!
In the church we have one job. Bringing Christ into the city. Our little city here, and the city outside our doors. People will say, good job, look at you! You pray so well, you give so sacrificially, you sing and preach like an angel. Fools will respond, whether outwardly or in their hearts, “Yes, it was a pretty good thing I did, wasn’t it,” and go off into foolish pride. And
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all pride is as foolish as a donkey receiving the praises that belong to Jesus Christ.
You who try to encourage your brothers and sisters need to remember how to word those encouragements, too. Anything that would possibly lift that brother or sister into pride is a dangerous word. Be careful. Pride destroys individuals, and churches.
“…boasters…”
To boast or rejoice in God and in good things, that’s acceptable to God. But this word is talking about the proud man who can’t keep his pride to himself. There are people who are very proud, but you don’t always know it, because they know how to keep it quiet. The boasters know no such hesitancy. They’re great and they’ll tell you they’re great. They are difficult to have a conversation with, because all they want to talk about is number one. They’ll never ask about you and your needs, or if they do, they’ll immediately start relating your response to something they did one time… You know the type.
This word is only used twice in the New Testament, and comes from a Greek word that means “vagrancy.” Wanderers. Moving from place to place. The only connection to travel I found in other commentaries was the idea of “swaggering”. Walking with obvious pride. So stuck on themselves that wherever they wander, they bring the message of their awesomeness.
“…inventors of evil things…”
Ingenuity can be a good thing. Creativity. Inventing. New ideas for ways of getting things done. All good.
But in the human heart there is the capacity for inventing evil. New ways to hurt God and man. The Nazis were well-known for their ingenious ways of experimentation. Many, many, sad stories are told of their inventiveness. They learned new ways to torture human beings, all in the name of science.
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In mid-1942 in Baranowicze, in occupied Poland, experiments were conducted in a small building behind the private home occupied by a known Nazi SD Security Service officer, in which "a young boy of eleven or twelve [was] strapped to a chair so he could not move. Above him was a mechanized hammer that every few seconds came down upon his head." The boy was driven insane from the torture.
Ah but we have advanced. We are not like those insane German people driving others to insanity, right? No, today, we take little children that have not been born, kill them, then boast about how safe the procedure is… to the mother: From a 2009 Journal Watch (NEJM publication).
Historically, surgical abortion required sterile metal instruments for manual removal of the pregnancy [a living child!] from the uterus. Even in skilled hands, this process often was fraught with risk for maternal infection, injury, or death. Since the introduction of vacuum suction [invention of evil], surgical abortion is considered to be among the safest procedures in medicine [for the mother, not for the child], with an overall mortality rate in the U.S. of 0.7 per 100,000 procedures.
Two types of vacuum suction are available: manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) and electric vacuum aspiration (EVA). MVA is quiet, requires no electricity, and can be used for pregnancies [children!] of 5 to 14 weeks’ gestation (however, for gestations [children!] beyond 10 weeks, most clinicians opt for EVA). The procedure can be done with local anesthesia, conscious sedation, or general anesthesia and typically requires less than 10 minutes to perform.
This is part of what Paul meant when he talked about “inventors of evil things.”
“…disobedient to parents…”
We do not shrink back in horror when we discover that children are disobedient. It’s in the DNA of Adam. His wife was disobedient. He was disobedient. His son was disobedient. And there’s a long chain of disobedience that follows in every family on the planet. It’s not
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disobedience that should shock us, but today, the response to disobedience is shocking.
We have entered a lawless age. Lawlessness starts in the home. With the breakdown of the family, whether Dads are gone, or two men or two women are in charge, or schools promoting godless lifestyles, lawlessness abounds.
It is a society like this, magnified to a universal degree, that will give the antichrist, the man of sin, the lawless one, a platform, a place to easily incorporate his program against the laws of God. He will find little opposition because, in my view, this spirit of lawlessness will have permeated not only the world but the church.
I’m saying that in an increasing number of homes throughout the nation, anything goes. Homes are upside down. Where before the parent gave out the rules and the children were made to obey them, now the children, blinded by the god of this world on TV and Ipad and smart phone and internet and all the rest of the enemy’s ways of getting in to small minds, the children come to their parents with demands. And the parents better meet them, because the world-crazed friends of these children put incredible pressure on them to conform.
Christian schools are somewhat better for children, but they too can get sucked into the world’s orbit.
Thank God for parents, usually Moms, who are able to school their own children in the home, teach them the ways of God, demand obedience, and form their children with God’s structuring.
If a plant, let’s say for example, a tomato plant, is not restricted, it just grows any old way. The branches fall to the ground, the tomatoes come out and are eaten by insects and squirrels. Restriction, which seems so unloving at the time, is rewarded later.
But caution! Restriction, and obedience is not equal to salvation. Restriction most of the time, means your child will not be the
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neighborhood pest, will not wind up in jail, will not destroy his body with evil substances.
My step-father discovered I had tried cigarettes and punished me immediately. Never tried that again. It wasn’t that pleasant anyway, to smoke.
Restriction, even in a non-Christian home like mine, kept me out of a lot of trouble. But it did not save me. For that I needed grace that came through neighbors and church members and friends who told me of Jesus. The ultimate answer for that disobedient child is Jesus. Even those who have been raised in unruly godless unrestricted lawless homes, many years later can experience grace.
But I’d rather live next door to a family that restrains its children. I’d rather meet children in the supermarket who have been trained. You’ve seen the other kind. What an embarrassment.
1:31
“…undiscerning…”
In the NKJV, all five of these descriptions of fallen man begin with “un” : undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. This sounds good linguistically, and even matches the negative prefix on each word in the Greek, but it will probably be better to follow the KJV and the actual English meaning of the Greek here, because some of these items don’t sound as awful as they really are.
So, what’s so bad about being undiscerning? Or as in the footnote, “without understanding”? Can a man be blamed because he might not understand something properly? Basic meaning: “unintelligent.” Again, what’s so bad about that?
The word is translated “foolish.” There are people who are unintelligent for a while, but they gain knowledge and then they are wise. But we’re talking about people who are willfully stupid. Deliberately ignorant of God
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and His ways. Again, that idea of suppressing the knowledge they have, and inventing their own system of intelligence which God calls foolishness.
Is it a sin then to be undiscerning of the ways of God? Yes. If the ways of God are out there to be learned and you don’t learn them, your continued ignorance is not an excuse, it’s a condemnation. Even pagan King Nebuchadnezzar was smart enough to say of God, “Everything he does is right and all His ways are just!” Job talks of people who turned from following God and had no regard for his ways. David says Godly people do no wrong, but follow His ways. Let us who are of the Light seek for more and more Light in His Word and among His people and in prayer. To be ignorant is a terrible thing.
“…untrustworthy…”
Covenant breakers. “Perfidious” is the older English word. “Treacherous” defines the Greek. Can’t keep their word. Promise breakers. The result of their action is basically lying. Do they mean to keep their promise at first? Don’t know. But they don’t keep it. You can’t trust anything that comes out of their mouth.
Might start out with little things. “See you at 10.” But “10” turns into “11” or later or not at all. The habit is formed. It says to anyone who is listening, “Don’t trust me.”
It can get worse. “I promise to uphold the Constitution of the United States.” Do you really? What happens when the pressures of office get to be too strong and enemies rise against you? Will you still keep our Constitution, or just your interpretation of it? Somewhere along the line, somebody didn’t keep the rules. Our country today is not what our Founding Fathers envisioned. Freedoms have been eroded. Someone broke his promise.
We promise in marriage. I’ll love for better or worse and everything in between. Unless someone prettier or nicer or richer comes along. And the courts agree with us now. Even the church agrees. You guys can’t get
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along? No problem. You made a mistake. God will forgive, move on with your life.
That was not God’s plan. Men and women have become promise- breakers, covenant-breakers. How shall these people be trusted to keep any promise in the future?
You see why this evil in the heart of man is listed here. It reveals that man is in love with himself. If being somewhere at 10 o’clock will fit his schedule, he’ll be there. If not, no. If upholding the Constitution makes him popular and get along with people, fine. If not, don’t count on it. If that marriage partner is meeting all of his or her needs, then viva la romance. If not, I’m gonna hit the road.
You can trust humans in one area only, and that is that they will honor number one over all the other numbers out there. Thank God for Jesus, who showed us how to honor others first.
“…unloving…”
KJV is closer to the truth here, “without natural affection”, hard-hearted toward kindred is the implication of the Greek. Stergo is to cherish affectionately. Astorgos is the opposite, in adjective form. From the creation, humans were made to cherish themselves and those closest to them. Mothers especially have this very normal natural affection. The bond is so strong that sometimes even good things can’t break it. But it is normal.
Paul says that fallen man isn’t like that as much. Over the course of time, men’s hearts, even women’s hearts, have become callous, and uncaring about people, even their own flesh and blood. Hence, abortion is on the rise. And homes are fatherless, as Dad goes off to greener pastures and cares not for the ones he leaves behind.
We talked about abortion. Let’s talk about those absent fathers. Do they know the trouble they are causing by leaving? From a blog online that featured a piece on “the fatherless generation”:
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63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (US Dept. Of Health/Census) – 5 times the average.
90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes – 32 times the average.
85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average. (Center for Disease Control)
80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes –14 times the average. (Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26)
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average. (National Principals Association Report)
Father Factor in Education – Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school.
Children with Fathers who are involved are 40% less likely to repeat a grade in school.
Children with Fathers who are involved are 70% less likely to drop out of school.
Children with Fathers who are involved are more likely to get A’s in school.
Children with Fathers who are involved are more likely to enjoy school and engage in extracurricular activities.
75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes – 10 times the average.
In Christ, a father can be reequipped to love his children and his wife as he ought to.
“…unforgiving…”
Or “implacable”. The Greek means “without libation.” A libation is the pouring out of water in an ancient sacrifice. It later came to mean simply
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drinking ceremoniously when making a truce, an agreement. “I’ll drink to that.” So the deal is sealed.
But the person Paul is talking about is just the opposite, as all these five in this verse are opposites. I’m not drinking to that. We have no agreement. Even if I drank to it once, you broke the covenant yourself, I’ll not drink to your words anymore. You trespassed. You’re done. Get out of my life.
You’ll never lie to me again. You’ll never hurt me again. I cut you off.
Men justify their unforgiving habits in a number of ways. Of course, in the light of God’s forgiveness, there is no justification for us to be unforgiving. And in fact, if we are that way, our own forgiveness is stalled. “Forgive us our trespasses, just as we forgive those who trespass against us.” A serious prayer that should bring us to repentance every time we pray it.
“…unmerciful…”
Last in this awful list of Paul, but equal in evil to all that have been mentioned, the quality of being unmerciful. Not just withholding mercy, but lacking mercy altogether. Merciful is full of mercy. Unmerciful means there is no mercy there. The ultimate result of an ever-hardening heart. No mercy.
us me of Lo-Ruhamah. Ring a bell? Hosea chapter 1. God tells Hosea to marry a wife of harlotry and have children by her, as a picture of God bringing forth fruit in an evil nation. And the very first child born of that Hosea union is to be called Lo-Ruhamah, “No Mercy.”
God says, “I’m done with Israel.” I had mercy for them all these years, from their complaining ways in the wilderness to their idolatry in the land I gave them. Seven hundred years of mercy. But no more. I’m done. Take them out of my sight, Sennacherib of Assyria. Take them away.
No mercy is an awful thing. No more forgiveness. No more answered prayers.
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But only One Person has that right of no mercy. And that is the One Who gives and forgives and loves and has patience and waits on his people with a tender kind hand. Only one.
When puny man says to his fellow-men, “Lo-Ruhamah”, no mercy, he must be a hardened fool. What, after all God has done for me, after all the good things I have received from men and from nature and from within myself, I will not show mercy?
The judgment of God rests on such a man, and on the men who have committed any one of the acts mentioned in verses 29-31. Oh, and they did one more thing.
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“who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death…”
Paul is still talking about humanity as a whole. The human race. How did/does humanity know the righteous judgment of God? How do we know that those who fall into the above sins are worthy of death?
The answer: conscience. Paul will talk of it more in the next chapter. I quote Macarthur:
“In most societies of the world, even in those considered uncivilized, most of the sins Paul lists here are considered wrong, and many are held to be crimes…”
It’s built into the human mind that certain things are right and certain things are wrong. Goes back to Adam and Eve, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When they partook of that forbidden fruit, evil became a part of their thought processes. That was passed on to their children and on down to us.
Cain was punished for his evil.
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The entire earth was wiped away in the flood, and that story was passed on. People know. And that includes every man woman and child today. To greater or lesser degree everyone has a system of right and wrong built in. It’s inescapable. We know there are punishments for everything bad we do. That’s why this last thing that man did and does may be the worst of all:
“…not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Approve? Oh my, they celebrate. The most spectacular local example of this is the Gay Pride Parade. And you thought it was just Chicago.
Wikipedia lists parades like this all over the world:
In Africa: Mauritius, South Africa, Uganda.
In Asia: Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam.
Europe: Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom.
In North America: Canada, United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico. In the Pacific: Australia, New Zealand.
In South America: Brazil, Argentina.
I calculated the top fifteen events in various cities , their estimated participation. Twenty-four million. Yes, our Chicago was in that top 15, with a million. Sadly, so was my home city of Columbus, Ohio, with an equal number. The only larger ones were in New York and of course San Francisco. Worldwide, Madrid is the hands-down favorite of the Gay Community. In three separate events they were able to attract nearly one-third of the total, eight million.
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Back to the US, 177 cities will have events. And in 31 of those cities, there will be multiple events. Five times in Chicago you can celebrate this abominable behavior. Well over two hundred times in a calendar year, mankind in my country alone will be shaking their fist in God’s face and saying, “We are proud of what we have become without you and your Word and those churches and those preachers. We’re doing it our way!”
This is what happens when man suppresses the knowledge of God and God gives the human race over to itself.
Notable in its absence, by the way, is any mention of an Islamic nation or city, in this list. To enter into this sin in those nations is to die a cruel death. Could it be that just as God raised up pagan Babylonia and pagan Assyria to destroy His own once-holy but now idolatrous people, Israel, God is going to use these warriors of Allah, a pagan god, to come against once-holy America?
Make America great again? Maybe. Better, make America holy again, or the handwriting is on the wall. Those who are looking to Donald Trump as their Savior may be in for an awful surprise.
