Bible Study on Romans 1, verses 19 to 32, part 13, without understanding

 

Those who are without understanding have not submitted themselves to God’s word as the Holy Spirit gives those who do understand. Jeremiah defined those without understanding.

 

Jeremiah 5:20 ¶  Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, 21  Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see  not; which have ears, and hear not: 22  Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? 23  But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. 24  Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth  rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

 

    25 ¶  Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. 26  For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. 27  As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. 28  They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. 29  Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 30  A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31  The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

 

Covenantbreakers, mentioned as such only here, cannot be trusted to keep an agreement, a contract, or a truce. They are faithless persons. The trucebreakers of 2Timothy 3:3 who cannot be trusted to keep an agreement either and the implacable coming up who cannot be enticed to enter into any agreement or compromise are similar.

 

Those without natural affection, as Strong notes, are unsociable, unloving, and inhuman. They have no regard for the members of their own family, as they should, as typically is expected of a parent or child. They are cold to those natural affections. I think of the countless women who use abortion as birth control, so much so that at present more Black babies in New York City are aborted than are allowed to be born.

 

The implacable mind or spirit is unwilling and, as a result, incapable of mercy or justice by God’s standard or of having peace with God. He cannot be persuaded into a covenant with God. His case seems hopeless.

 

The unmerciful seems easy to understand. Jesus had noted one of the characteristics of those who would see and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and God.

 

Matthew 5:7  Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

 

And James made the following very clear, that mercy is superior to judgment;

 

James 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

 

Mercy is first defined in Genesis 19 in regard to sparing a person’s life.

 

Genesis 19:19  Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die:

 

The unmerciful will show no mercy although God is willing to grant him or her unlimited mercy. And although it is in God’s nature to be merciful and His mercy is long-lasting as per dozens of verses in the Psalms, the people whose lives are characterized by these character flaws listed here in Romans, chapter one, merit death. You see, they not only do these things but have pleasure in others who do them as well.

 

Isaiah 5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

 

There is no shame in their hearts or conscience holding them back and they are at one with others as wicked as themselves. Next, Paul turns this condemnation of mankind around on the reader himself.

Bible Study on Isaiah 8, verses 16 to 22, they shall be driven to darkness

 

Isaiah 8:16 ¶  Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. 17  And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. 18  Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion. 19  And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? 20  To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21  And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. 22  And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

 

God tells Isaiah to bind up, to take care of, the testimony, the prophecy, he has been given. Notice how in the previous passage broken in pieces is repeated three times to underscore the determination of God to see it happen. See how Jesus repeated verily to underscore the truth of a doctrine.

 

John 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

 

It is to be sealed, made apparent to the people of God but not understandable to unbelievers as we examine this passage from a Christian perspective rather than a first millennium BC Israelite perspective. Jesus spoke in parables which He explained to His disciples but left others clueless, those who had no understanding or wish to know the truth.

 

Matthew 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?...13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

 

Mark 4:11  And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: 12  That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

 

The people of God, whether they were Israelites in the Old Testament or Christians after Christ have a tremendous blessing in being entrusted with the oracles of God and we must be faithful to them, not like some of whom we were forewarned by Paul.

 

2Corinthians 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

 

For verse 17 John Gill interpreted this as not only patiently waiting for the Lord God’s will to be done but actually awaiting the Messiah to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah says that God has turned His back on Israel but Isaiah will seek Him out anyway. Christ will come to present Himself to Israel.

 

Isaiah 45:15  Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.

 

2Timothy 1:10  But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

 

The promises made by God to Israel are to be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ and God, at that time, gives Israel and the entire world of men the opportunity to reconcile with Him.

 

See verse 18. Are not these the words of Christ Himself as reported by Paul?

 

Hebrews 2:10 ¶  For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

11  For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12  Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. 13  And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

 

See how this can be viewed forward in prophecy as Isaiah laments the then condition of Israel but the Holy Spirit makes it clear that this can be applied to Christ.

 

Christ, as Immanuel, God with us, has spiritual offspring that declare God’s glory and mercy through Him. They are, we are, signs and wonders given by God. See in the Psalm Jesus quoted the first verse of from the Cross.

 

Psalm 22:30  A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

 

Galatians 3:26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

 

But, essentially, in context Isaiah declares that he and his children are declarations from God for the proof of His promise. They are signs and wonders.

 

12  Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

 

So, while this has an immediate application, commentators have moved it forward and applied it to Christ.

 

Why do the people seek after these wizards who make unintelligible noises (perhaps like charismatic “tongues” of today”) who pretend to communicate with the dead and not after the living God? Familiar spirits is an interesting topic. This calling of the dead that God hates has a root in mankind’s developed religion and turn from God before the Flood of Noah. This began with Cain, Adam and Eve’s son.

 

Cain’s wife, who would have been his sister as genetically humanity had just begun its slow deterioration that lent deleterious mutations to every generation and made sexual union between brother and sister very dangerous today for their offspring, gave him a son named Enoch, whose name was given to the first city.

Here is the birthplace of ancient religion as the ancient city was a religious entity, a type of church, started all at once with invited families who would share in the same worship and the same gods, although the individual family would have its own singular worship and gods which represented their lars familiaris or familiar spirits (see Leviticus 20:27), the guiding divinities of ancestors dead.[1]  It is likely that Cain’s false religion was carried on and evolved through his city.

For the sentiment expressed in verse 20 see this;

 

John 11:10  But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

 

Jesus is the light of mankind, the light of salvation, the light that fills the universe.

 

John 1:1 ¶  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2  The same was in the beginning with God. 3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

 

5 ¶  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7  The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

By comparison, in type, we can think of Christ as we think of physical light, whose basic particle the physicists presume is a photon. The universe is bathed in that light. For every estimated proton around the nucleus of an atom they say there are a billion photons.[2] Of course, photons might not even exist except as theoretical entities to explain things that can be seen by mathematical constructs.

Psalm 19:1  « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

We can safely dismiss theoretical entities, as said previously, which exist only as having explanatory power to envision a universe without God, and understand that this is the Word of God working in our universe. And, He holds it together, not non-existent Dark Matter or Dark Energy, but God Himself, as the Word, Christ.

Colossians 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Evidence of God is everywhere so they have no excuse and those who reject Christ and His gospel have no light in them. They are willfully ignorant and blind. Christ is the Word of God, by whom all things were created and His gospel is our salvation and if humans do not walk in the light of His Word and His words there is no light in them.

 

The context here, though, is the Law given to Moses, the Law that bound a disobedient Israel to God, the Creator of all things.

 

Disobedient Judah and Israel will pass through a time of great trouble. This prophesies immediate trouble for the people of Israel and Judah and the long term consequences for the Jews in general. Commentators say they will be hungry not only for food but for God’s word, and they shall be anxious and worried and disquieted and will defy God and then, by extension, their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking toward heaven they will seek another Messiah but there is no other, not in any personage or the false prophet that will come from the desert centuries after Christ. Rejecting their Messiah they will have trouble and anguish for two thousands years.

 

Matthew 27:24  When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. 25  Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

 

John 19:15  But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

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[1] Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges, The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (1864, repr. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006), 134.

[2] Lee Smolin, The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, and Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006), 75.

 

Bible Study on Romans 1, verses 19 to 32, part 12, hateful, proud, and boasters

 

Hate in the Bible reveals contempt, to despise someone, to hold them in low regard. One example is;

 

Matthew 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

 

Despiteful hearts and mouths are filled with contempt and bitterness, tearing down, not building up.

 

Ezekiel 25:15  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred;

 

Ezekiel 36:5  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.

 

The proud stand against God and His standards for humanity.

 

Psalm 12:3  The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: 4  Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?

 

Psalm 119:21  Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.

 

James and Peter both noted that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humanism and its child, atheism, exalting a wicked mankind, are examples of pride that contends against God.

 

Boasters in this context are not those who boast of God.

 

Psalm 34:1 ¶  «A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.» I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2  My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. 3  O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.

 

Boasters in this context in Romans are those that boast of their lusts, their riches, themselves, and their false gods.

 

Psalm 10:3  For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.

 

Psalm 49:6  They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

 

Psalm 94:4  How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

 

Psalm 97:7  Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

 

Inventors of evil things cannot be defined properly by us without the context of evil as an act of malice or hatred. We see that an animal intent on doing violence is called an evil beast in Genesis 37. We see that trouble and suffering in a day is evil from Matthew 6:34. Wicked people are always inciting strife and controversy contriving or inventing evil situations, with malice and hatred toward God as their ultimate, if even unconscious, purpose.

 

Honoring one’s parents is a fundamental of the Laws of God. Being disobedient to parents is a rejection of God’s moral law and a sign of fallen mankind. Under the Law given to Moses this attitude merited death.

 

Deuteronomy 21:18 ¶  If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 19  Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 20  And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21  And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

 

The Law given to Moses said;

 

Exodus 20:12  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

 

Deuteronomy 5:16  Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

 

And Paul said to Christians;

 

Ephesians 6:1 ¶  Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2  Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3  That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

Bible Study on Exodus 31, verses 12 to 18, sabbath, a day of rest, not work

 

Exodus 31:12 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 13  Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. 14  Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15  Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16  Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17  It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. 18  And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

 

Before I comment on sabbaths I wanted to say something about the use of the word verily. It means, “truly,” or, “certainly,” or, “truthfully.” The apostle, John, reports that Jesus used it twice for emphasis quite often. Examples of the 25 verses in John’s gospel that state this use of verily are;

 

John 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

 

John 10:7  Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

 

For the Hebrew the seventh day was set apart as holy to God. This symbolizes the seventh day of creation when God rested.

 

Genesis 2:1 ¶  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3  And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

 

It was a day of rest made for man.

 

Mark 2:27  And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

 

People are always remembering their rights under the U.S. Constitution. What Christians forget is that having one day off a week to rest is the right of God’s people afforded to them by God.

 

The observance of the Sabbath under pain of death was a sign of Hebrew identity. Circumcision was a personal sign for men that they had a covenant with God. But, the observance of the Sabbath was something the entire community; man and woman, child and beast, could participate in. Our hunger for material possessions and our false post-World War 2 middle class values created by business advertising and propaganda prevent us from taking advantage of our God-given right to a day of rest.

Now, what about exceptions? Apply common-sense and God’s character of mercy to the rule.

Luke 14:1 ¶  And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. 2  And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. 3  And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4  And they held their peace. And he took him, and

healed him, and let him go; 5  And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? 6  And they could not answer him again to these things.

 

Notice here that the Pharisees and Jesus were having a meal on the Sabbath which someone had to prepare and serve, to serve at least if they prepared it the day before. There was no refrigerator or microwave. Notice also that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, which upset the religious elite, all the while pointing out that they would have no hesitation in rescuing a valuable farm animal from a pit on the Sabbath day.

So, keeping that in mind what do you make of the command to do no work? Clearly, there was room for common-sense and mercy in God’s command. But, it was not to be a day of commerce, a day just like any other day of the week. Labor ceased on that day which was clearly a mercy to the hireling or the servant and the beast.

Nehemiah 13:15 ¶  In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. 16  There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 17  Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? 18  Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath. 19  And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day. 20  So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without

Jerusalem once or twice. 21  Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath. 22  And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the sabbath day.

Bible Study on Romans 1, verses 19 to 32, part 11, Maliciousness and envy

 

Maliciousness is at the very heart of evil. Malice is what we get the word maliciousness from. Peter warned Christians, as did Paul.

 

1Peter 2:1  Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,…16  As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

 

Ephesians 4:31  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

 

Colossians 3:8  But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

 

Titus 3:3  For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

 

Envy, which is also a form of jealousy, is a very common and desperately wicked character trait.

 

Proverbs 27:4  Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

 

We hate and despise someone for their position or good fortune, the blessings God has bestowed on them, their place in God’s plan. Envy over the approval of the many people who followed Christ is one reason the first century Jews wanted Christ killed.

 

Matthew 27:18  For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

 

Mark 15:10  For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.

 

We know what a heart filled with murder is. We know the commandment from God and how Jesus’ defined it.

 

Exodus 20:13  Thou shalt not kill.

 

Matthew 19:18  He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,

 

We can see by cross-referencing that thou shalt not kill was not a reference to self-defense or defending one’s home or land from attack.  

 

Murder requires malignant hate, a thirst and lust to extinguish the life of another who has done nothing to merit such contempt. The murderer kills because of the wickedness of his heart, a wickedness that God has permitted to reveal the depths of that person’s depravity. Christ Himself was murdered, being innocent.

 

Debate comes from a Greek word meaning strife and contention and it is defined as such in Isaiah.

 

Isaiah 58:4a  Behold, ye fast for strife and debate…

 

At the time of the King James translation it was linked to contention and controversy, to disputing. We see these endless, pointless arguments in politics that underscore this evil.

 

Debate goes hand-in-hand with deceit, linked with vanity, wickedness, cursing, mischief, fraud, guile, violence, and falsehood in several verses. Just some examples;

 

Job 27:4  My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

 

Psalm 10:7  His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

 

Psalm 119:118  Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit is falsehood.

 

Malignity is very similar to maliciousness but used only here reflects more of an evil disposition of the heart, an extremely sinful attitude, and a very bad character.

 

Whisperers secretly backstab, sew strife, and spread rumors to deliberately impugn another’s reputation or cause discord. They are tellers of false tales as the men who spoke lies about Christ at the show trials He suffered.

 

Proverbs16:28  A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

 

Backbiters are evil, malicious speakers, persons who defame others. We see them all the time in politics, even church politics, where a weak-minded but dominating individual tries to underhandedly tear down other people. In Early Modern English they were also known as slanderers.

 

Haters of God would neither obey His commandments, submit themselves to Him, or receive Christ, and their hatred of Christ extends to the Father because Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

 

Romans 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

 

Psalm 81:15  The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.

 

John 7:7  The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.

 

John 15:23  He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

 

Exodus 20:5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;