Photo by Vlad Bagacian on Pexels.com

“… inventors of evil things …” (Romans 1:30/KJV).

Two days ago I wrote the first draft for this post. Of course, I thought I could publish what I had written. I had included various thoughts and ideas that I really like. Yet upon rereading yesterday I found that nothing was well explained. Readers might find it difficult to capture my strain of thought.

I needed to be more creative for this post. Obviously, blogging does require a good deal of creativity.

For this text, I have picked out one item from a list of attitudes and activities given by the apostle Paul. Here he mentions people that would be creative too. Yet Paul did question the value of what they did. They were “inventors of evil things”.

Inventing something requires fantasy and endurance. Generally serious thinking and careful investigation are needed.

Currently, I am studying the Greek word for “evil” used here. We find the same Greek word also in 1 Corinthians 13:5. Here Paul says: Love “thinketh no evil”. (KJV). This word could also be translated: worthless, harmful, injurious, perverted of morally corrupt.

When Paul speaks of “inventors of evil things” the idea is that these people put some effort into bringing forth results that are questionable. What they are labouring for is not really beneficial to others. What they are doing is not in line with God’s standards as laid out in the bible.

This again sheds light on the phrase in 1 Corinthians 13: Love “thinketh no evil”. We are challenged to ask ourselves what we dwell on.

Our thoughts will determine our deeds. Our deeds will bring about certain results.