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;