John Calvin Commentary Romans 1:29

"being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers," — Romans 1:29 (ASV)

Understand unrighteousness as the violation of justice among people, by not giving to each what is due. I have translated πονηρίαν as wickedness, according to the opinion of Ammonius; for he teaches us that πονηρόν, the wicked, is δραστικὸν κακοῦ, the doer of evil. The word (nequitia) then means practiced wickedness, or licentiousness in doing mischief; but maliciousness (malitia) is that depravity and perversity of mind that leads us to harm our neighbor.

For the word πορνείαν, which Paul uses, I have used 'lust,' (libidinem). I do not, however, object if one prefers to translate it as 'fornication'; but he means the inward passion as well as the outward act. The words avarice, envy, and murder have nothing doubtful in their meaning.

Under the word strife, (contentione), he includes quarrels, fights, and seditions. We have translated κακοηθείαν as perversity, (perversitatem); which is a notorious and uncommon wickedness; that is, when a person, covered over, as it were, with hardness, has become hardened in a corrupt course of life by custom and evil habit.