Catalog of Vices: Rom 1:29-31
The text lists 21 sins. Paul isn’t saying that every sinner is guilty of every one of these sins, but rather that the human race is guilty of sin in thought, word and deed. The list contains representative examples. All of the sins except for “haters of God” are relationally destructive sins. Paul has many other such lists (Rom. 13:13; 1 Cor. 5:10-11; 6:9-10; 2 Cor. 12:20; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 4:19, 31; 5:3-5; Col. 3:5, 8; 1 Tim. 1:9-10; 6:4-5; 2 Tim. 3:2-5; Titus 3:3) (Cole).
1) Unrighteousness – Gk adikia literally a- not and dike; not right or not just, unrighteousness of heart and life. Since what is right is determined by the character or law of God this terms denotes everything that is opposed to that divine law or character (Boice). It means the man who robs both man and God of their rights. He has so erected an altar to himself in the center of things that he worships himself to the exclusion of God and man. (Barcley)
2) Evil- Gk poneria It is evil purposes and desires, wickedness. The word means those who delight in doing wrong. (Mac Arthur)
3) Covetousness –Gk pleonexia It is greed, craving more than you have and wishing you had what somebody else had, never being satisfied with your possessions but lusting for other things. (Mac Arthur). There are proper ambitions and . . . desires to improve one’s self, particularly to benefit others, but this is not what is referred by this term. It is the “passion for more”. (Boice)
4) Malice- Gk kakia- ill-will, desire to injure. It is wickedness that delights in doing other people harm (Boice).
5) Envy –Gk phthonos -envy wants to deprive the other man of the desired thing more than to gain it for oneself. (Field) It is hating someone because they have what you want or they are what you want to be. (Mac Arthur) It is pain felt and malignity conceived at the sight of excellence or happiness in another. (Clarke)
6) Murder –Gk phonos -the word used here denotes all manslaughter, or taking human life, except what occurs as the punishment of crime. this was common among the Gentiles. It has prevailed in all communities, but it was particularly prevalent in Rome. It is necessary only to refer the reader to the common events in the Roman history of assassinations, deaths by poison, and the destruction of slaves. But in a special manner the charge was properly alleged against them, on account of the inhuman contests of the gladiators in the amphitheaters. (Barnes) Jesus extended this sin to being angry with someone else (Matt. 5:21-22).
7) Strife – Gk Eris It means contention, discord, strife, argumentative, fighting, and quarrelsome. (Mac Arthur) The original word means debate (Boice).
8) Deceit: Gk dolos It literally is a term for a fish hook, a treacherous lie. (Mac Arthur). It refers to any deliberate attempt to mislead someone for your own advantage (Cole).
9) Malignity- Gk kakoetheia. kakia –a bad nature, troublesome and ethos – a custom or habit. This is spite, a desire to hurt or harm someone, to get back at them. It has the implication of a revenge. (Mac Arthur) One who is normally set against other people and is out to harm them (Boice). The spirit that always supposes the worst of people. (Aristotle).
10). Gossips – Gk psithuristes- literally whisperer (only uses here in NT) It refers to the one who likes secretly to spread malicious stories about others (Cole) It refers to slanderous gossip that is often spread in secret and is harmful to another’s reputation (Boice). It is “underground”. It is like the wind that creeps in the chinks and crevices in a wall, or the cracks in a window, prove commonly more dangerous than a storm that meets a man in the face (Trapp). It refers to that sort of evil speaking which is communicated in secret, and not spoken in society. It is called whispering, not from the tone of the voice, but from the secrecy. It is common to speak of a thing being whispered, not from being communicated in a low voice, but from being privately spoken to individuals. It refers to sowing divisions. (Haldene). Private slander
11). Slanderer Gk katalalos from kata – against and laleo – to speak or talk. So, to speak against someone (Boice). Refers to someone who openly speaks evil against someone, intending to hurt his reputation. (Cole). Open slander (Mac Arthur),
12) God-haters Gk Theostuges –from Theos meaning God and stugnetos meaning hated or detestable. This is the only sin listed that is not a relational sin against others, but against God himself. It means they don't want any rules, they don't want any accountability, they don't want anybody telling them what to do. (Mac Arthur). Man hates God because he is a barrier between him and his pleasures (Barkley)
13) Insolent Gk –hubristes- it means to give insult. It is from the word for pride (Boice). It refers to a lofty sense of superiority out of which the insolent person treats all others as beneath him. (Morris). They have a contempt for everybody (Mac Arthur)
14) Haughty – Gk huperephanos from huper –meaning over, beyond or more than and phaino –meaning to cause to shine. It means to be seen, to show one's self above others. It arises from a feeling of personal superiority that regards others with haughtiness (Boice). It is someone who is puffed up with a high opinion of themselves (Haldane). It is to appear above others, to be arrogant in thought and conduct, basically “stuck up.” (Robertson)
15) Boastful- Gk alazon - an empty pretender, a boaster. Comes from a word meaning wandering. It referred to wondering merchants who would make extravagant claims for their products that could not be substantiated. (Morris). It is to seek admiration by claiming to be or have what one actually is not or does not possess (Boice).
16) Inventors of Evil Gk epheuretas kakōn an inventor, with evil. Those are not content with usual ways of sinning, so they invent new, outrageous sins that push the limit. It is used to describe the evil a Greek ruler, Antiochus, who desecrated the temple (Boice) So intent were they on practicing evil, so resolved to gratify their passions, that the mind was excited to discover new modes of gratification. The passions cease to be gratified with old forms of indulgence, and consequently people are obliged to resort to new devices to pamper their appetites, and to rekindle their dying passions to a flame. This was eminently true of ancient Rome; a place where all the arts of luxury, all the devices of passion, all the designs of splendid gratification, were called forth to excite and pamper the evil passions of people. Their splendid entertainments, their games, their theaters, their sports - cruel and bloody - were little else than new and ever-varying inventions of evil things to gratify the desires of lust and of pride. (Barnes).
17) Disobedient to parents- Gk -goneusin apeitheis This expresses the idea that they did not show to parents that honor, respect, and attention which was due. Obedience to parents is here considered as a duty taught by the light of nature, the breach of which condemns the heathens. It is a part of the law originally inscribed on the heart, the traces of which are still to be found in the natural love of children to their parents. When the heathens, then, disregarded this duty, they departed from the original constitution of their nature, and disregarded the voice of God in their hearts. (Haldane)
18) Foolish Gk Asunetos, from a, negative, and sunetos, having understanding; persons incapable of comprehending what was spoken; destitute of capacity for spiritual things. (Clarke) Without understanding in a moral sense of the things of God (Boice)
19) Faithless-Gk asunthetos from a, negative, and suntithemaito put together- not together , covenant breaking. It is persons who could be bound by no oath, because, properly speaking, they had no God to witness or avenge their misconduct. (Clarke) It literally means “breaking faith” It refers to people who solemnly commit themselves, but can’t be trusted (Boice). Those who are untrustworthy referring to those who don’t keep their word (Cole).
20) Heartless-Gk astorgos from a, negative, and stergo meaning to cherish affectionately. Thus, without natural affections, inhuman. It refers to those without that attachment which nature teaches the young of all animals to have to their mothers, and the mothers to have for their young. (Clarke). This expression denotes the lack of affectionate regard toward their children He doubtless refers here to the practice so common among pagans of exposing their children, or putting them to death. (Psalm 106:37-38, 2 Chronicles 33:6). Tertullian, in his apology, expresses himself boldly on this subject. “How many of you (addressing himself to the Roman people, and to the governors of cities and provinces) might I deservedly charge with infant murder; and not only so, but among the different kinds of death, for choosing some of the cruelest for their own children, such as drowning, or starving with cold or hunger, or exposing to the mercy of dogs; dying by the sword being too sweet a death for children. (Barnes). It can be seen in the mother who intentionally aborts or abandons her child or the father who abandons the family (Boice).
21) Ruthless-Gk aneleemon from a –negative and eleemon meaning mercy. Literally “without mercy” (Boice). those who were incapable, through the deep-rooted wickedness of their own nature, of showing mercy to an enemy when brought under their power, or doing any thing for the necessitous, from the principle of benevolence or commiseration. (Clarke) Destitute of compassion. As a proof of this, we may remark that no provisions for the poor or the infirm were made among the pagan. The sick and the infirm were cast out, and doomed to depend on the stinted charity of individuals (Barnes).
The point, I think, is to give us enough examples to show that virtually every form of evil has to do with God and comes from failing to know him and approve him and love him above all things. In other words, he gives us a sweeping array of evils to waken us to the fact that the ruin of any area of life is owing to the abandonment of God.” (Piper)
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