Message: On the heels of a people having no reason in their life to even acknowledge God, the result is not something good, but instead bad behavior.
Time: Written sometime in AD 57-58, probably from Corinth, at the end of Paul's third missionary journey.
What the Lord is Saying:
Left to their own devices, this is the result,
being filled with all:
- unrighteousness
- wickedness
- greed
- evil
- envy
- murder
- strife
- deceit
- malice
- gossips
- slanderers
- haters of God
- insolent
- arrogant
- boastful
- inventors of evil
- disobedient to parents
- without understanding
- untrustworthy
- unloving
- unmerciful
Unrighteousness - if faith in God through Jesus Christ makes us righteous, then anything that is not this is unrighteousness. I don't think I need to try to get more clever with that first sin. All of man's vain attempts to be good are in fact, unrighteousness. That is probably hard for anyone to accept for man wants to believe he is good. And I think it is interesting that what begins here in this list is the simple, overarching category of unrighteousness.
Wickedness - And isn't it interesting that wickedness is then called out here. What is interesting about this list is that each one has been selected and is there to describe something different from everything else in the list. The other thing to realize in all of these sins is that they are often not mentioned in our lives as sins. Wickedness here is the deliberate act to destroy the goodness of man. We are often so cavalier in pushing out the goodness in any person.
Greed - The inordinate desire for something at any cost. Sometimes, there is greed for money, but I think it goes beyond that in that the greed is to have things. And often to have more things than another person. I think the big problem with greed is it is selfish and does not care about others. God provides and then I respond often by saying, "That isn't good enough." He provides for people differently. I think of this in marriage. God provides a wife, but man often wants more that the woman God has provided and instead of getting to know better what God has provided, the man looks outside the wife to get what he wants. Man is so quick to not trust God.
Evil - How could evil not already have been covered? Evil is the general meaning of being bad or badness. But, evil needs to be covered here because this simply describes a person that is only bad. What a horrible state this would be, that anyone could look at a person and state they are evil. An evil person takes pleasure in doing wrong.
Envy - this begins the second set of 5 sins. Envy is the displeasure we feel in seeing something that another person has and then begrudging them for this. We might say, "Why does that person have what they do? I deserve it more than that person does." Jealousy is desiring what another person has, envy in contrast is wants to deprive another person of what they have.
Murder - The result of envy is murder. Murder can be outward, but it can also be inward when it looks like anger (I John 3:15). To the Romans, murder was very familiar to them as they would often put to death slaves for the slightest offenses.
Strife - Strife is another sin of selfishness. It comes about through quarrelsome and rivalry, deceit, tricking and lying to get what you want. This word is mentioned 9 times in the NT. The gift of God is take as much pleasure in others as we do in ourselves.
Deceit - It is misleading someone for my own advantage. In advertising, this is "bait and switch" in which a person is lured in to something that looks too good to be true. This word is used 36 times in the OT and 9 times in the NT.
Malice - This is the desire to harm another person. It is the opposite of biblical love which thinks of the best of others.
Gossips - I destroy another person's reputation by sharing a secret. The one being spoken against does not have the ability to defend oneself because they don't know what is being said. In the work environment, gossip is all to clear as employees speak of their supervisors in an ill way; in the church we gossip about the pastor, as a citizen, we gossip about our president. Anytime we can change a person's judgment upon another person just by whispering we have done great harm.
Slanderer - A slanderer acts in the same way as the gossip, but the accused often hears what the slanderer is saying.
Haters of God - The God Hater doesn't just hate God, but works to exclude God from their thinking. I do this at times when God gives me an opportunity for people to see I am a Christian, but I decide I don't want people to know I'm a Christian because I'm nervous about what people will then think of me. And yet this person also sees God as the one who will spoil his fun. People do reject God often because they assume things about Him that may not be true, so they push Him outside of their life. My challenge is not respond to haters of God with hate, but love. We have seen the 10 commandments removed, prayer removed from school, abortion uplifted, marriage redefined, intolerance toward Christians -- all of these are God-haters winning and yet our response is not to belittle these people, but to continue to love them.
Insolent - This is a person who sees himself as superior to other people and because of his position can be cruel and insulting to others. I might say I would never be that type of boss, but have I been that type of parent at times? Have I mistreated my kids and said things to them because I am their parent and therefore, I can say things to them that I would never say to other people I supervise? I can be cruel and insulting with them. In this respect, I am shaming them. But, that is my temptation. Here, for the person that has denied God, the insolent person puts himself above God and then acts like God in his life. This person can do whatever he wants to other people because he has no authoritative accountability.
Arrogant - The arrogant is the proud person that has a problem with everyone else, but never themselves. Others do wrong, but not me. I think there is a real danger among Christians to make themselves out to be arrogant amongst everyone else in society. People can act like the faith they have in God is because of something great in themselves as people. And so they come off in society as being greater than others. Religious people do it with the nice clothes they wear (like JW's that dress up when going door to door) or the special garments that papal people wear (to clearly set themselves apart from others). This is fine if our motive is genuine piety, but there is also such a danger of then thinking we are better than others. But, the hater of God is arrogant because God has become his servant and a made up deity and the person is then arrogant. And it is even clearer here how the haughty or proud person can't even see their sin. They are blind to it because they are blind to who God really is. This can be an inward sin because a person has the outward display, but inside has different agenda's. But, we clearly know from scripture that God hates the arrogant and proud.
Boastful - This words comes from a word meaning “wandering.” It referred to wandering merchants who would make extravagant claims for their products that could not be substantiated. This person brags about oneself, often in a way that can't be substantiated. There is a element of lying here because a person is lying about who they really are as they show themselves to be greater than they are. It is interesting that this is the word used in Ephesians 2:8-9 to explain the person who declares himself good before God rather than repenting by faith. We can't come before God boasting in ourselves because in essence we are trying to show God ourselves that isn't true. We are bragging that we are a good person and yet we aren't.
Inventors of evil - What a tragedy when sin comes mundane and a person needs to develop news way of sinning. This is the result of any addiction. Sin is never happy with just a one time occurrence. Pornography can lead to unmentionable things. Gambling, lying, stealing. I think the danger of sin is the quest people get to think of ways to achieve it. I guess I have a tendency to think of the sexual sins: rape, incest, sex trafficking, pornography of minors.
Disobedient to parents - At first, it is a little puzzling that this made this list. Is it unnatural then to disobey our parents? God sets up marriage and then family. A good family is God's intention for mankind. And so when a person is disobedient to a parent, that good purpose has dark results. The Greek word for disobedient conveys the idea of one that will not be persuaded by. I think one clear thing that must be looked at hear is the real purpose of the parent. The parent is to teach and train and mold and love and support and encourage. The child should be responsive to this. Going in the opposite direction is clearly the beginning of other disobedience. I do think that a child is not disobedient if the parents is acting in a way that is not according to God's directive for the parent. If a parent is leading a child into sin, then there is not disobedience when a child desires to go a different direction.
Without understanding - This because the final charge of the opposites. Up to this point the words have been affirmative descriptions of sins and now we turn to the opposites. Understanding is the goal, the problem is the person without understanding. God is clearly described in man and in creation (verse 19-21), but here the person has left that understanding. To think of a Christian and going to church, reading one's Bible, praying, fellowship with others, confession, evangelizing -- these are all disciplines of understanding. The person that is not a Christian is without understanding. And yet they are deceived and can't see it. And so the only true understanding that matters is knowing God.
Untrustworthy - A person here has broken a covenant. Life is about relationships and doing those relationships correctly. And yet we are so flippant in a charge to do things according to God's standards. I was at a wedding recently and it was so refreshing to see the message of permanence at the wedding. There was a message of making a covenant before God. There was a complete recognition that this was a union and they were making a commitment to honor that covenant. It is so easy to make promises. I even see this at work. It is so easy to tell someone that this is what I am going to do. It rolls off our tongue, but if I am going to be a man of my Word, I must follow through on those promises, even if that means a painful experience. I must be a man of His Word. Help me Lord to not be about excuses.
Unloving - Literally, this is without family love. Storge is used for family love or the love of a parent for a child or a child for a parent. I am called to this kind of love and to love this sort of way means my life is marked by something different. Man can clearly see God through creation, but man does not quickly love God, but the love of a father and mother and child is instinctive and inborn. So, what better picture here of the disintegration of man than the person that does not love father or mother or child.
Unmerciful - And finally, the unmerciful. It is only used here in the New Testament and it means someone that is without compassion for others. If there is one thing even the degenerate man gets is the need to be merciful to the needy. There are dark people everywhere that still recognize that compassion for the needy is necessary. I see this through the natural disasters that occur, the tsunami's and tornadoes and hurricanes and the desire for people to assist others in need. And so this list concludes with this very dark moment when man is without compassion. What is horrible is the all the sins that have been preceded this one or unfortunately so clearly seen in the world, but this one is rare and yet when it occurs, as it did with Hitler and other dictators, that person is long gone. The unmerciful person acts in an unconscionable manner. In some ways, there is nothing uglier. There is nothing more selfish.
Promise: Know God; Follow Him; Stay Close.
