All Manner of Unrighteousness
Romans 1:29-31
“They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” -Romans 1:29–31
As we have been following Paul’s logic, God gave up those who refused to acknowledge him as God and proceeded to darken their minds with idolatry to the lusts of their perverted hearts. As they embraced their immorality, he gave the up to the kind of mind that would allow them to go further than a moral conscious could have thought possible, to do things that ought not to be done.
What Paul is describing is similar to the way God dealt with Pharaoh when he said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2). From that point, with each new exchange, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh by giving himself up to the tyranny of his own wicked heart (Exodus 8:32 Cf. 10:20).
Another way of saying this is that God withdraws his sustaining grace, the common grace all humanity has received that prevents them from doing all their depraved hearts are capable of doing.
Ballor and Charles explain,
After the fall into sin, it is on the one hand clear that humanity continues to exist, but that it does so not on the basis of any inherent merit or desert. God deigns to forbear, and his patience is an unmerited gift. It seems entirely appropriate to describe this divine preservation as grace. “In the day when Adam and his wife ate of the forbidden tree, they did not die, which would have happened if no grace had been granted them,” concludes Kuyper.34 Likewise, this grace is not limited to a chosen few. It applies to everyone who lives, whether or not they will ultimately be saved or damned. It again seems entirely appropriate to identify the extension of such graciousness to everyone as common.
If common grace were completely withdrawn mankind would not live. So, here is what mankind with just a measure of common grace withdrawn is filled with:
all manner of unrighteousness (wickedness and injustice)
evil (state or condition of a lack of moral or social values)
covetousness (desiring to have more than one’s due)
malice (the state of wickedness that is the opposite of ἀρετή [virtue])
envy (having an evil eye, desiring others lose what you don’t have)
murder (unwarranted killing)
strife (rivalry, discord)
deceit (taking advantage through craft and underhanded methods)
maliciousness (hurtful to others, mean-spiritedness)
From the above described state of being follows consistent actions, behaviors that become characteristic of the individual.They are:
gossips (rumormonger, tale-bearer)
slanderers (speaking ill of others)
haters of God (The Greek is one compound word, θεοστυγεῖς, from theos, meaning God and stygetos, meaning despicable. It is usually translated in the passive form, such as godforsaken or despised by God. Here, the construction of the sentence puts it in the active form. Thus, these are godforsaken God-haters.)
insolent (violent disrespectfulness)
haughty (arrogant, proud)
boastful (braggart)
inventors of evil (one who forms strategies or tactics to effect what is morally reprehensible)
disobedient to parents (unpersuadable, contumacious)
foolish (void of understanding, senseless)
faithless (one to renege on their word)
heartless (without regard or feeling for others)
ruthless (unmerciful)
In other words, they are fill with all manner of unrighteousness.
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