Romans 1:24-32
Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Well, to begin with, our verses start with a ‘therefore’. And as my pastor says, ‘so what is the therefore, there for’. If you like, click the verse title above to read the verses in context (this is the same in all my posts), or look at my studies of the previous verses (18-23, which this refers to) here – Part 1 and Part 2.
I believe this section is summed up in the first sentence – they have exchange the Truth of God for a lie. We studied in the previous verses that God’s Creation is enough revelation of Him for anyone – and despite this revelation, we have ignored God willfully and chosen our own path – ie, exchanged the Truth of God for a lie! And not only done this, but approve of those that follow in the same path (vs 32).
So simply – we need to ensure that we hold God as God, and that we give Him the place in our lives that He deserves. Else, we will fall into the examples that are given all through this passage.
Some interesting things to note in there as well – whisperers and backbiters (if you read the NIV, that is gossips) are lumped in the same category as murderers, the sexually immoral, the untrustworthy, and those that are disobedient to parents. What does this mean? How can we read this? Simply – sin is sin. There are no ‘levels’ of sin – you can’t come before God and say ‘well, I didn’t murder anyone, and I sure didn’t commit adultery’. Murder, adultery, gossip, pride, backbiting; these things are all sin and have ‘equal value’ as sin. We are sinners and we need to be forgiven, no matter what the sin is. And that is before we take in some verses in Mathew where Jesus says looking at someone lustfully is adultery (Matthew 5:27-28).
That’s about all we have for our study on Romans 1! No doubt there is plenty more in there that we could delve into, but I think we have covered deep enough for this study. Next time – onto Romans 2!
Father God, thank you for your word. I pray you will guide us in our study of it, and reveal it to us through your Holy Spirit. Lead us to you, and teach us how not to sin. In Jesus Name. Amen.
[...] Today I hope to move more into the ’solution’ presented here to our sinful state. Many of us have heard the verse ‘for all have sinned’ – this is true and without question. In fact, I covered much on that topic back in Romans 1 – if you want some more context, please go back and read my post Sin is Sin. [...]