The second key word in verse 18, "unrighteousness"(v. 29), reappears at the head of this list of man's sinful practices. It is a general word describing the evil effects in human relations that man's suppressing the knowledge of God produces. In the Greek text there is a word play that highlights God's just retribution. As people disapproved of the idea of retaining God in their thinking, so God gave them over to a disapproved mind (v. 28). This letting loose has led to all kinds of illogical and irrational behavior.
"People who have refused to acknowledge God end up with minds that are disqualified' from being able to understand and acknowledge the will of God. The result, of course, is that they do things that are not proper.' As in 1:21, Paul stresses that people who have turned from God are fundamentally unable to think and decide correctly about God and his will. This tragic incapacity is the explanation for the apparently inexplicable failure of people to comprehend, let alone practice, biblical ethical principles. Only the work of the Spirit in renewing the mind [nous]' (Rom. 12:2) can overcome this deep-seated blindness and perversity."54
Unrighteousness (v. 29; wickedness, NIV) is what is contrary to what is right or just. Wickedness (v. 29; evil, NIV) is what is vile and sinister. Greed (v. 29) is the drive to obtain more. Malice (depravity, NIV) describes resident moral evil. "Insolent"focuses on activities, "arrogant"on thoughts, and "boastful"on words.55The rest of these characteristics are self-evident.
The final step down in man's degradation is his promotion of wickedness (v. 32).56It is bad to practice these things, but it is worse to encourage others to practice them.
"Granted that commending evil is not, in the ultimate sense, worse than doing it, it is also true that in a certain respect the person who commits a sin under the influence of strong temptation is less reprehensible than the one who dispassionately agrees with and encourages a sin for which he or she feels no strong attraction him- or herself."57
Paul's use of the past tense in verses 18-32 suggests that he was viewing humanity historically. Nevertheless his occasional use of the present tense shows that he observed many of these conditions in his own day. He was viewing mankind as a whole, not that every individual has followed this general pattern of departure from God.58One expositor labeled the four stages in man's tragic devolution that Paul explained as follows: intelligence (vv. 18-20), ignorance (vv. 21-23), indulgence (vv. 24-27), and impenitence (vv. 28-32).59
