Being filled with all unrighteousness
From hence, to the end of the chapter, follows a large and black list and catalogue of the sad characters of the Gentiles, and of the best men they had among them; for the apostle is all along speaking, not of the common people, but of their wise professors, and moral instructors; than which there never was a more wicked set of men that ever lived upon the face of the earth; who under the guise of morality were guilty of the greatest pride and covetousness, and of the most filthy debaucheries imaginable: they were "filled with all unrighteousness". This word includes in it all manner of sin and wickedness in general; fitly expresses the condition of fallen men, destitute of a righteousness; designs every violation of the law respecting our neighbour; and is opposed to that vain conceit of righteousness which these men had: particular branches of it follow; as,
fornication;
which sometimes includes adultery and an unchastity; simple fornication was not reckoned a sin among the Gentiles:
wickedness;
or mischief, which intends not so much the internal wickedness of the heart, as that particular vice, by which a man is inclined and studies to do hurt, to others, as Satan does:
covetousness;
this may intend every insatiable lust, and particularly the sin which goes by this name, and is the root of all evil, and was a reigning sin among the Gentiles. Seneca, the famous moralist, was notoriously guilty of this vice, being one of the greatest usurers that ever lived:
maliciousness;
the word denotes either the iniquity of nature in which men are conceived and born; or that desire of revenge in men, for which some are very notorious:
envy;
at the superior knowledge and learning, wealth and riches, happiness, and outward prosperity of others:
murder:
which sometimes arose from envy, wherefore they are put together. There is an elegant "paranomasia" in the Greek text:
debate;
strife about words more than things, and more for vain glory, and a desire of victory, than for truth:
deceit;
through their empty notions of philosophy; hence "philosophy and vain deceit" go together, ( Colossians 2:8 ) ; making large pretences to morality, when they were the vilest of creatures:
malignity;
moroseness; having no courteousness nor affability in them, guilty of very ill manners; as particularly they were who were of the sect of the Cynics. Now they are said to be "filled with", and "full of", these things; not filled by God, but by Satan and themselves; and it denotes the aboundings of wickedness in them, and which was insatiable. The apostle goes on to describe them, as
whisperers;
who made mischief among friends, by privately suggesting, and secretly insinuating things into the mind of one to the prejudice of another.