All Manner Of Unrighteousness

We live in a sinful world which, ironically, can make it hard to remain aware of the sin that is all around us and, indeed, in us. If you could ask a fish what water feels like they probably can't tell you, since it’s all they’ve ever known. There is a danger that we might become like this as we swim through this sinful world. We need passages like Rom 1:18-32 to remind us of what the world is really like.
In the last few verses of that chapter Paul gives an extensive list of sins, or fruits of the debased mind, which we ought not to skip over. Unfortunately we must skip over many of them, but let's consider three. The sin of strife, the sin of disobedience to parents, and the sin of heartlessness.
Strife
Strife is that sin of argumentativeness. It’s the attitude of the heart and the pattern of life which constantly leads to conflict. Paul gives us very helpful instruction on this issue in 2 Tim 2:22-25 “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.”
Strife is a sin that we must be aware of in ourselves and must mortify at every opportunity. John Owen said “be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” So be killing your argumentative spirit or it will be killing you.
Disobedience to parents
In many ways this is the strangest sin in Paul’s list. It doesn't seem to fit. However, we should remember that this sin is really referring to more than just children to parents, as indeed all the ten commandments have a wider application than first assumed. This is a warning to children, yes, but it is also a warning to all of us to mortify our insolent and insubordinate hearts and be willing to submit to God ordained authorities. We need to be killing out insubordination or our insubordination will be killing us!
Heartlessness
The third sin I’d like to consider is heartlessness. Heartlessness is a sin like any other. The world may teach that we are not required to love everybody, but only the people we choose to love. This is not the teaching of the Bible. We are commanded to love everybody, even our enemies.
The Christian also has no excuse for heartlessness, as we know how much love has been shown to us.
1 John 4:7-12 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
The power to overcome heartlessness is found in seeing the tenderhearted care of our Father toward us. When we see this, heartlessness becomes unthinkable!