Irreconcilable (786) (Aspondos from a = without + sponde = libation or drink offering, truce or an agreement) so literally not pouring out a libation (an act or instance of drinking often ceremoniously). This picture later came to mean “without a truce” because in the ancient world the making of treaties and agreements was accompanied by a pouring out a ceremonial libation. These men are unwilling to negotiate a solution to a problem involving a second party. Like the "Hatfield's and McCoy's", their feuds never end! The thought is not that these men break a truce but that they resist all efforts to reconciliation. They cannot be persuaded to enter into a covenant or agreement. This is the picture of the absolutely irreconcilable person who, being at war, refuses to lay aside their enmity or even to listen to terms of reconciliation. It means "hostility which refuses truce." It is hatred and unforgiveness "set in cement". Irreconcilable describes a person who is implacably hostile or uncompromisingly opposed. It is one who is unwilling to negotiate a solution to a problem involving a second party. Hendriksen writes that... "Their feuds never end. In their camp no libation is ever poured out to signify that those who had been at variance with each other have consented to a truce" The breaking of the marriage covenant (see related topic Covenant: As It Relates to Marriage) between husband and wife and the consequent skyrocketing divorce rate is one good example of this sin, because in it's "purest" form, divorce is a resolute refusal to forgive the other party, producing an unforgiveness "set in cement". Both parties refuse to change, no matter how desperate their own situation becomes, and are determined to have their own way regardless of the consequences, even to the point of knowingly destroying their own lives and the lives of their families. They do not forgive and do not want to be forgiven. They are beyond reasoning and inevitably self-destructive. As far as they are concerned, there is no compromise, no reconciliation, no court of appeal. The only other NT use of aspondos is Ro1:31 where it occurs as one of a list of unrighteous traits characteristic of those who "did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer" and who God therefore "gave... over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper" (see note on Romans 1:28), one of those things being to be "irreconcilable" Trench adds that aspondos are not those who are only difficult to be reconciled with but are those who are absolutely irreconcilable; those who will not be atoned, or set at one, who being at war refuse to lay aside their enmity, or to listen to terms of accommodation... (in war aspondos is those who want) "no herald, no flag of truce, as we should now say, being allowed to pass between the parties, no terms of reconcilement listened to; such a war, for example, as that which the Carthaginians in the interval between the first and second Punic Wars waged with their revolted mercenaries. (Trench, R. C. Synonyms of the New Testament. Page 193) Barclay - Aspondos can mean two things. It can mean that a man is so bitter in his hatred that he will never come to terms with the man with whom he has quarreled. Or it can mean that a man is so dishonorable that he breaks the terms of the agreement he has made. In either case the word describes a certain harshness of mind which separates a man from his fellow-men in unrelenting bitterness. It may be that, since we are only human, we cannot live entirely without differences with our fellow-men, but to perpetuate these differences is one of the worst—and also one of the commonest—of all sins. When we are tempted to do so, we should hear again the voice of our blessed Lord saying on the Cross: “Father, forgive them.” (The Daily Study Bible Online) MALICIOUS GOSSIPS: diaboloi: (Mt 4:1; Jn 6:70; 1Ti 3:11; Titus 2:3) devils (literal) false accusers slanderous men of unscrupulous speech.