³⁰ … slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; ³² and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

The inspired apostle continues the list of characteristics of those who stray from acknowledging God. Essentially Paul fleshes out Jeremiah’s comment centuries earlier, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9). This list desperately begs for a solution. Yet we cannot cut from this list too soon—it must get worse before it can get better. We must plumb the depths of our depravity in order to fully appreciate the heights of God’s grace.

Slanderers are those who deliberately spread lies about others, literally “to speak evil of others”—going beyond gossip and attributing to another the worst evil intentions. “Haters of God” is used only here in Scripture, and expresses an intense dislike for God. This is followed by “insolent,” which is the expression of that dislike in completely disrespectful language or behavior. One thinks here of people using the name “Jesus Christ” as a common swear word in anger.

The list goes on to include “arrogant” and “boastful,” the attitude and expression of highest praise for oneself, which goes hand-in-hand with disdain for God—stark evidence of replacing Him with ourselves as the chief object of our attention and worship. “Inventors of evil” speaks of the imagination of the fallen human mind to come up with all sorts of evil behavior and thoughts, be it terrorists trying to outdo one another in destruction, or pornographers coming up with new ways to spread their poison.

Interesting is the inclusion of “disobedient to parents” in this list. We fail to recognize that childhood is the staging arena for life and that rejecting parental instruction represents the epitome of rejecting God’s instructions. It will render them “without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.” What an indictment of those who reject the knowledge of God!

Paul has in mind those who clearly know God’s standard on these things and are fully aware of the consequences, namely being worthy of death. This must refer to Jews and those who are aware of God’s revelation through the Jews. But notice that it is not just those who do all these things, but includes those who give “hearty approval.” We might say today that this includes those who enjoy entertainment in the media involving such lifestyles.

Lord, I confess to You my entertaining myself with movies or TV shows that focus on sinful lifestyles. For when I do this, I implicitly approve of those things.