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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Romans 1:21 - 1:21
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Knowing - glorified not
“I think it may be proved from facts that any given people, down to the lowest savages, has at any period of its life known far more than it has done: known quite enough to have enabled it to have got on comfortably, thriven and developed, if it had only done what no man does, all that it knew it ought to do and could do” (Charles Kingsley, “The Roman and the Teuton”).
Became vain (ἐματαιώθησαν)
Vain things (μάταια) was the Jews' name for idols. Compare Act 4:15. Their ideas and conceptions of God had no intrinsic value corresponding with the truth. “The understanding was reduced to work in vacuo. It rendered itself in a way futile” (Godet).
Imaginations (διαλογισμοῖς)
Rev., better, reasonings. See on Mat 15:19; see on Mar 7:21; see on Jam 2:4.
Foolish (ἀσύνετος)
See on συνετός prudent, Mat 11:25, and the kindred word σύνεσις understanding, see on Mar 12:33; see on Luk 2:47. They did not combine the facts which were patent to their observation.
Heart (καρδία)
The heart is, first, the physical organ, the center of the circulation of the blood. Hence, the seat and center of physical life. In the former sense it does not occur in the New Testament. As denoting the vigor and sense of physical life, see Act 14:17; Jam 5:5; Luk 21:34. It is used fifty-two times by Paul.
Never used like ψυχή, soul, to denote the individual subject of personal life, so that it can be exchanged with the personal pronoun (Act 2:43; Act 3:23; Rom 13:1); nor like πνεῦμα spirit, to denote the divinely-given principle of life.
It is the central seat and organ of the personal life (ψυχή) of man regarded in and by himself. Hence it is commonly accompanied with the possessive pronouns, my, his, thy, etc.
Like our heart it denotes the seat of feeling as contrasted with intelligence. 2Co 2:4; Rom 9:2; Rom 10:1; 2Co 6:11; Phi 1:7. But it is not limited to this. It is also the seat of mental action, feeling, thinking, willing. It is used -
1. Of intelligence, Rom 1:21; 2Co 3:15; 2Co 4:6; Eph 1:18.
2. Of moral choice, 1Co 7:37; 2Co 9:7.
3. As giving impulse and character to action, Rom 6:17; Eph 6:5; Col 3:22; 1Ti 1:5; 2Ti 2:22. The work of the law is written on the heart, Rom 2:15. The Corinthian Church is inscribed as Christ's epistle on hearts of flesh, 2Co 3:2-3.
4. Specially, it is the seat of the divine Spirit, Gal 4:6; Rom 5:5; 2Co 1:22. It is the sphere of His various operations, directing, comforting, establishing, etc., Phi 4:7; Col 3:15; 1Th 3:13; 2Th 2:17; 2Th 3:5. It is the seat of faith, and the organ of spiritual praise, Rom 10:9; Eph 5:19; Col 3:16.
It is equivalent to the inner man, Eph 3:16, Eph 3:17. Its characteristic is being hidden, Rom 2:28, Rom 2:29; Rom 8:27; 1Co 4:5; 1Co 14:25.
It is contrasted with the face, 1Th 2:17; 2Co 5:12; and with the mouth, Rom 10:8.