“Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:”
They have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. The final entries of the vice catalogue highlight the absence of virtues: no understanding, faithfulness, love, or mercy. These negations reveal the impoverishment of character that results from idolatry and rebellion. The human heart, turned away from God, becomes incapable of the virtues that bind community together.
Church Fathers on Romans 1:31
“Without natural affection, implacable.” For this Christ Himself also pronounces to be the cause of wickedness, saying, “When iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Matthew 24:12. This too St. Paul here says, calling them “covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful,” and showing that they were traitors even to the gift of nature. For we have a sort of family feeling even by nature towards one another, which even beasts have got…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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