Another common rendering of adikia is the translation iniquity. When the Lord banishes evildoers from His presence at the judgment, He calls them “all ye workers of iniquity” (Luke 13:27). Luke also uses the same word for the “unjust steward” (16:8), and in the parable of the unjust judge (18:6). We get a glimpse of …
Truth or Unrighteousness
The word adikia is used multiple times in the New Testament, and is rendered by different words like unrighteousness or iniquity. In order to not burden ourselves, we will take it in several installments. Jesus claimed to have “no unrighteousness” in Him, because He was seeking the glory of the one who sent Him (John. …
Kindness in Authority
Peter tells Christian servants to work for their masters with a clean conscience (1 Pet. 2:19). He knows that the sinfulness of the human heart meant that a certain amount of mistreatment was inevitable — he calls it “suffering wrongfully” (adikos). But he also knows that this same human heart was found in the servants …
Iniquities
Gallio said that if Paul had been brought up on charges for some “matter of wrong” (Acts 18:14), then he would have been willing to hear the case. But as it was, he threw the thing out of his courtroom — showing incidentally that a shrewd pagan had a better grasp of justice than many …
Another Angle On Culpable Ignorance
The New Testament contains two other words that are rendered as ignorance — agnoia and agnosia. The former is used to describe the sinful condition of the people when they went along with their leaders in the crucifixion of Jesus (Acts 3:17). Idolatry was a condition of spiritual ignorance that God winked at (Acts 17:30), …
Do No Wrong
The verb adikeo means to “do wrong,” and in the passive voice it indicates that the subject has been wronged. The basic sense here has to do with justice. As we see the verb used in the New Testament, it generally refers to the practice of screwing people, and, on the flip side, getting screwed. …
Natural Antipathy
The word agon is rendered as contention in 1 Thess. 2:2 — “we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.” Everywhere else in the New Testament it is used in a positive sense. It usually means conflict or fight (Phil. 1:30; Col. 2:1; 1 Tim. 6:12; …
Envy’s Cat’s Paw
When Paul and Silas came to Thessaloncia, they preached very effectively in the synagogue for three sabbaths running. When the leaders of the Jews there saw just how effective they were, they were stirred up by envy, and assembled a mob (Acts 17:5). The KJV renders their raw material for the uproar as “lewd fellows …
Culpable Ignorance
Although ignorance is sometimes exculpatory, the Scriptures frequently describe spiritual ignorance or blindness as both causing sin and exacerbating the fault of it. The word is agnoeo. Christians can struggle with blameworthy ignorance. Paul warns the Romans that he does not want them to be ignorant of the mystery of Christ, which would result in …
Sins of Ignorance
Once a year, on the day of atonement, the high priest of Israel would enter into the holiest sanctuary in order to offer blood for his own sins, and for the errors of the people (Heb. 9:7). The word rendered errors here is agnoema. It is a broad term, encompassing sins generally, and has reference …