The word hairesis is where we get our word heresy. Initially it simply meant faction or sect, but over time it became closely identified with that which helps sects to form — a distinctive false doctrine or teaching, which the sectarians use to distinguish themselves. The faction or “sect” of the Saducees (Acts 5:17) is …
Officially Controversial
The apostle Peter uses the word athesmos twice, and our translators have rendered it as wicked. In the first instance (2 Pet. 2:7), he is treating the subject of Lot, and how he was continually exasperated by the filthy behavior of the inhabitants of Sodom. In the second (3:17), he is warning the recipients of …
Godless
Our word atheist refers to a person who either denies that there is a God, or denies that we can know if there is or not. The word atheos is used once in Scripture, in Ephesians 2:12. There it refers to those who are “without God,” that is, godless. But certain things go with being …
Moral and Moralistic
The word athemitos occurs twice in the New Testament. The first time, in Acts 10:28, it is rendered as “unlawful thing.” 1 Peter 4:3 contains the word also, where it is translated as abominable. In the former instance, Peter uses the word to describe how it had been “unlawful” for Jews to keep close company …
Thistles on Reprobate Land
The word adokimos is rendered as reprobate, castaway, or rejected. It represents the condition of sin itself, but not a particular sinful action. Those who do not want to retain a knowledge of God in their thoughts are given over to a reprobate mind (Rom. 1:28). This is the kind of mind that refuses to …
The Just and the Unjust
The adjective adikos is rendered as unjust or unrighteous. There are two kinds of people, the just and the unjust, and God gives rain and sunshine to both (Matt. 5:45). The faith of Israel was fixed on this, that at the end of history there would be a resurrection of both kinds of men, the …
The Broad Range of Iniquity
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 …