Here, for the third time, he repeats the same thought and uses the same word, saying: "gave over." As the cause of their being abandoned by God, he everywhere presents the impiety of people, as he does now as well. "And even as they did not care to retain God in their knowledge, He gave them over" to passions. The offense they committed against God, he says, was not a sin of ignorance, but an intentional one. For he did not say: since they did not know, but says: "and even as they did not care," that is, they resolved not to retain God in their knowledge and voluntarily chose impiety. Therefore, their sins are not sins of the flesh, as certain heretics assert, but of wrong judgments. First they rejected the knowledge of God, and only then did God allow them to fall into a debased mind. To better explain the expression "God gave them over," some of the Fathers made use of an excellent illustration. They reason as follows: when someone, not wishing to see the sun, closes his eyes and then falls into a pit, we say that it was not the sun, which he did not see, that cast him into the pit, that the man did not fall into the pit because the sun cast him there in anger, but because it did not illuminate his eyes. And why did it not illuminate his eyes? Because he closed his eyes. So too God gave them over to shameful passions. Why? Because people did not know Him. And why did they not know Him? Because they did not consider and did not resolve to know Him.
Rom. 1:29. so that they are filled with all unrighteousness.
Notice how he intensifies the speech; he calls them filled, and moreover with "all" unrighteousness, that is, having reached the utmost degree of every vice. Then he enumerates the kinds of vice as well.
Rom. 1:29. fornication,
By the name "fornication" he denotes every kind of impurity in general.
Rom. 1:29. wickedness,
This is treachery against one's neighbor.
Rom. 1:29. covetousness,
This is the desire for possessions.
Rom. 1:29. malice,
This is vindictiveness.
Rom. 1:29. Filled with envy, murder,
Murder always comes from envy. Thus Abel was killed out of envy. And Joseph too they wanted to kill out of envy.
Rom. 1:29. Quarrels, deceit,
From envy arise both strife and deceit, to the destruction of the one who is envied.
Rom. 1:29. maliciousness.
A deeply hidden malice, forgotten through some kindness.
Rom. 1:30. slanderers,
Secret whisperers.
Rom. 1:30. backbiters,
Obvious revilers.
Rom. 1:30. God-haters,
Haters of God, or hated by God.
Rom. 1:30. Insolent, boastful, proud,
He ascends to the stronghold of evils. For if one who takes pride in a good deed destroys it by pride, how much more does he destroy it when he does evil? Such a person is incapable of repentance. Know, then, that haughtiness is contempt of God, while pride is contempt of people, from which insult is born; for he who despises people insults and tramples upon all. Pride by nature precedes insult; but to us the insult first becomes apparent, and only afterward does its mother — pride — become known.