seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
This is from the commentary.The wrath of God: We sometimes object to the idea of the wrath of God because we equate it with human anger, which is motivated by selfish personal reasons or by a desire for revenge. We must not forget that the wrath of God is completely righteous in character.
The wrath of God: In this portion of the letter (Romans 1:18-3:20), Paul’s goal is not to proclaim the good news, but to demonstrate the absolute necessity of the good news of salvation from God’s righteous wrath.
Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God: The problem is not that man did not know God, but that he did know Him — yet refused to glorify Him as God. Therefore, mankind is without excuse. Instead of glorifying God we transformed our idea of Him into forms and images more comfortable to our corrupt and darkened hearts.
As further judgment, God gives man over to a debased mind, so that things that are disgraceful and sickening are readily accepted and approved.
The list in Romans 1:29-31 gives concrete examples of the kind of things which are not fitting. Notice how “socially acceptable” sins (such as covetousness, envy and pride) are included right along with “socially unacceptable” sins (such as murder and being unloving).
i. Covetousness: This word literally describes the itch for more.
ii. Whisperers: “Secret detractors; those who, under pretended secrecy, carry about accusations against their neighbours, whether true or false; blasting their reputation by clandestine tittle-tattle.” (Clarke)
iii. Envy: Is this a small sin? Envy is so powerful that there is a sense in which it put Jesus on the cross. Pilate knew that they had handed Him over because of envy (Matthew 27:18).
iv. Proud: “They who are continually exalting themselves and depressing others; magnifying themselves at the expense of their neighbor's; and wishing all men to receive their sayings as oracles.” (Clarke)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.... These verses do address homosexuality. These verses have been used to clobber some while others used them to say "I'm not as bad as them"!I am the wrong person to be commenting on these verses. I've used them to clobber people and then I found out that I'm as guilty as they are. Does the guy who guards the door, or drives the getaway car for the robber, deserve as much blame for the robbery as the guy how actually enters the vault and bags the cash? That's the real question here.
God created us so that we could discuss the meaning of the universe with Him in a beautiful garden created for us. Instead, we decided to go on a picnic with Satan. It doesn't matter if we slaughtered the cow for the beef in the burgers, or if we only pulled up one onion from the garden, we all went to the picnic rather than wait for God.
God even started over with Noah and the boat. Noah and his three kids, with all their built-in sin knowledge, were set aside to replenish the earth with the human species. We made it but the dinosaurs didn't. We made it... but all those people from all those families... who thought they were doing it right enough... didn't make it. Lot's family ran from Sodom and then perished in the flood. God knew what Noah's family would do before he instructed Noah on how to build the boat.
Who's more guilty? The woman who gets an abortion and kills the baby or the person who refused to let the woman have an abortion, killing the mother. Who's more guilty, the woman who gets an abortion or the woman who points at the indigent woman with babies who are hungry and says "you should have kept your knees together". We all sin....
Yes... Homosexual relations do not result in procreation. Sex for fun was a sin back then. Sex for fun was what Herod liked. That made homosexual relations a sin. It's the spilling of seed that makes it wicked. Gossiping about it, well that gives it feet and others will try it out to see what all the hubbub is about. We've accepted sex for fun as a normal part of life. We all sin....
I wonder.... of all the sins Paul listed, how many of those did he have first-hand knowledge?
We all sin... and God has to correct us.
God has to correct us.
It's for our own good!
Last edited:
