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by Katie Erickson

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 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.
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. 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, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 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.” (Romans 1:26-32)

When a passage starts with “because of this” like our passage does today, it should make you ask a question: Because of what? If we take this passage alone and out of context, it won’t make any sense because we don’t have the proper backstory to it. So the first thing we need to do with today’s passage is discover what that opening phrase links to. Fortunately, you can simply go here to look at last week’s post for that immediate context, or you can go back as far as reading all of Romans 1.

The key piece that ties in here is verse 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.” Because people did not glorify God, all of this evil happens in their lives. God doesn’t cause it to happen; people allow it to happen by choosing to follow the ways of the world rather than following God’s ways.

Paul continues this same thing in verse 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.” In the Greek (in which this letter was originally written) there is a common concept called “alpha privative.” This is similar to how in English we’ll put “un” or “im” on the front of a word; it gives it the opposite meaning. For example, possible because impossible; stoppable becomes unstoppable. There are two words in this verse where that happens. The first is translated in the NIV as “retain the knowledge,” and the second is “depraved mind.” These two are opposites; we can either retain the knowledge of God, or we can not retain it and our mind is depraved. It’s either one or the other; black or white. There’s no halfway on this one.

If you retain the knowledge of God, you will practice His ways. If your mind is depraved, you will follow the world’s ways instead. You may feel blessed for a brief time, but it will not last. For more on this, check out the concept of sowing and reaping.

Another interesting aspect of this text (when combined with last week’s) is some repeated phrases:

“They … exchanged” (v. 22- 23) — “Therefore God gave them over …” (v. 24)
“They exchanged” (v. 25) — “Because of this, God gave them over …” (v. 26)
“Their women exchanged … in the same way the men also” (v. 26b-27a) — “he gave them over …” (v. 28b)

Paul is establishing a pattern here; after 3 times, he’s surely hoping they get it! When “they” (the people) do whatever that sinful act it, God gives them the consequence that they deserve for that action. But does the “they” just refer to the people in Rome who Paul is writing to? Nope! The principle of this text still applies today. God still has the same natural law in place that existed back then. God made the world, so He sets the rules. When we disobey His rules, we face the consequences that we deserve.

In case we’re unaware of what those sinful actions might be, Paul provides a handy list here. He gives general terms for sin (every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity), relationship sins (envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice), and all sorts of other sinful conduct (gossips, slanderers, God- haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless). That pretty much covers it, don’t you think? In case you need more, there are additional lists of sins in Matthew 15:19, Galatians 5:19-21, Colossians 3:5, 1 Timothy 1:9-10, and 1 Peter 2:1, 4:3.

So, this first chapter of Romans does seem to end on a relatively negative note. We saw previously that nobody has any excuse to not know God’s truth; because of that, we all know right from wrong, and therefore we all know that all these things are evil. Yet, we still do them! Welcome to being human. So what should we do with that knowledge? Check back next week, as we continue on into Romans 2!