Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
This list of evils belongs to the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and women who hold the truth in unrighteousness, against which the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, and it must be weighed, particularly noticed, and read until its particular meaning is grasped. It must be given in its full force to ministers, churches, and families.
It belongs to the picture of humanity's moral decline, for as people ceased to recognize and remember God they turned more strongly toward evil. Truth, honor, integrity, compassion, and respect for human dignity gave way to greed and distrust. Love of sin distorted their conception of God, and that false picture in turn strengthened sin. It belongs to the description of the moral results of rejecting God's requirements and precepts, marking a lawless and licentious society that brings the judgment that came upon the heathen. When God's rule is rejected sin no longer appears sinful and righteousness no longer seems desirable, mockery of obedience gives way to lust, and insubordination is fostered among children and youth.
It shows part of the conduct to which God gives people over when they do not like to retain God in their knowledge and resist the Holy Spirit until He departs. Step by step, almost imperceptibly, resistance in unbelief, envy, and criticism turns light once enjoyed into spiritual blindness, while Satan standing close perverts counsel, reproof, and evidence into suspicion and distrust. Those in this reprobate mind do without perceiving it the evil things they once saw in a correct light to be decidedly sin, following Satan step by step. They misconstrue every appeal through God's servants, laugh at and ridicule solemn warnings of Scripture, despise entreaties of the Spirit, and disobey commandments they once vindicated and exalted, and though knowing the judgment of God that such deeds are worthy of death they not only do them but have pleasure in those who do them.
Romans 1:18-32 gives a true description of the world just before the second coming of Christ, and the vile habits described include corrupt self-indulgence that destroys body and mind and brings a person into subjection to Satan. The only hope for one who practices them, if he values health in this life and salvation in the next, is to leave them forever, since long indulgence takes away self-control and requires determined effort to resist and refuse. A person can go so far as to be left of God to work his own ruin, with prayers unheard when he asks God to do for him what is in his own power to do, and with vows to God repeatedly broken. Those who destroy themselves by their own acts are self-murderers who will never have eternal life nor mar heaven's purity with their society, for one who continues to abuse God-given health and life here would not make right use of health and immortal life in God's everlasting kingdom.
The whole first chapter gives a true outline of the experience of fathers, mothers, and families who claim to be sons and daughters of God and have their names on the church record but are not laborers together with God. It exposes their failure to meet accountability as faithful, exemplary believers, their strange neglect of religion in home life, and their holding the truth as supposed belief while in works denying the practical truth. It belongs to the solemn charge to those who have failed to obey the truth in righteousness, showing that churches need a thorough work done in them, ministers who preach the Word must be sanctified through belief of the truth, and every family must be converted. Fathers and mothers must seek the Lord and awaken to their strangely neglected work in the home, since mere knowledge of the truth will not cleanse from every species of iniquity, but only the sanctifying grace of God working in the home to sanctify the heart, a work they cannot neglect and be guiltless.
It places backbiters among those who hate God and practice other evils, including inventing evil things, and these sins fall under God's judgment as conduct worthy of death, showing that malicious speech is condemned and is not a harmless fault. By contrast, a citizen of Zion speaks truth in the heart and does not slander or bring reproach against a neighbor. Backbiting is a terrible wrong, so ministers must reach a higher standard by refusing in any place to listen to evil things said of their brethren until they first talk with those spoken against to learn whether the reports are just or most cruelly unjust. They must not believe disparaging things said of fellow workers and then tell them from place to place all over the field, leaving impressions on minds that are false in every respect. Those who make this their message and work as they travel from place to place would better engage in hard manual labor until they are converted and their spirituality is strengthened until they are charged with the Holy Spirit.
This list of evils belongs to the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and women who hold the truth in unrighteousness, against which the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, and it must be weighed, particularly noticed, and read until its particular meaning is grasped. It must be given in its full force to ministers, churches, and families.
It belongs to the picture of humanity's moral decline, for as people ceased to recognize and remember God they turned more strongly toward evil. Truth, honor, integrity, compassion, and respect for human dignity gave way to greed and distrust. Love of sin distorted their conception of God, and that false picture in turn strengthened sin. It belongs to the description of the moral results of rejecting God's requirements and precepts, marking a lawless and licentious society that brings the judgment that came upon the heathen. When God's rule is rejected sin no longer appears sinful and righteousness no longer seems desirable, mockery of obedience gives way to lust, and insubordination is fostered among children and youth.
It shows part of the conduct to which God gives people over when they do not like to retain God in their knowledge and resist the Holy Spirit until He departs. Step by step, almost imperceptibly, resistance in unbelief, envy, and criticism turns light once enjoyed into spiritual blindness, while Satan standing close perverts counsel, reproof, and evidence into suspicion and distrust. Those in this reprobate mind do without perceiving it the evil things they once saw in a correct light to be decidedly sin, following Satan step by step. They misconstrue every appeal through God's servants, laugh at and ridicule solemn warnings of Scripture, despise entreaties of the Spirit, and disobey commandments they once vindicated and exalted, and though knowing the judgment of God that such deeds are worthy of death they not only do them but have pleasure in those who do them.
Romans 1:18-32 gives a true description of the world just before the second coming of Christ, and the vile habits described include corrupt self-indulgence that destroys body and mind and brings a person into subjection to Satan. The only hope for one who practices them, if he values health in this life and salvation in the next, is to leave them forever, since long indulgence takes away self-control and requires determined effort to resist and refuse. A person can go so far as to be left of God to work his own ruin, with prayers unheard when he asks God to do for him what is in his own power to do, and with vows to God repeatedly broken. Those who destroy themselves by their own acts are self-murderers who will never have eternal life nor mar heaven's purity with their society, for one who continues to abuse God-given health and life here would not make right use of health and immortal life in God's everlasting kingdom.
The whole first chapter gives a true outline of the experience of fathers, mothers, and families who claim to be sons and daughters of God and have their names on the church record but are not laborers together with God. It exposes their failure to meet accountability as faithful, exemplary believers, their strange neglect of religion in home life, and their holding the truth as supposed belief while in works denying the practical truth. It belongs to the solemn charge to those who have failed to obey the truth in righteousness, showing that churches need a thorough work done in them, ministers who preach the Word must be sanctified through belief of the truth, and every family must be converted. Fathers and mothers must seek the Lord and awaken to their strangely neglected work in the home, since mere knowledge of the truth will not cleanse from every species of iniquity, but only the sanctifying grace of God working in the home to sanctify the heart, a work they cannot neglect and be guiltless.
It places backbiters among those who hate God and practice other evils, including inventing evil things, and these sins fall under God's judgment as conduct worthy of death, showing that malicious speech is condemned and is not a harmless fault. By contrast, a citizen of Zion speaks truth in the heart and does not slander or bring reproach against a neighbor. Backbiting is a terrible wrong, so ministers must reach a higher standard by refusing in any place to listen to evil things said of their brethren until they first talk with those spoken against to learn whether the reports are just or most cruelly unjust. They must not believe disparaging things said of fellow workers and then tell them from place to place all over the field, leaving impressions on minds that are false in every respect. Those who make this their message and work as they travel from place to place would better engage in hard manual labor until they are converted and their spirituality is strengthened until they are charged with the Holy Spirit.