In the following passage, the apostle Paul describes the state of humanity and the consequences of their ungodliness and unrighteousness.
He asserts that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all who suppress the truth and encourage others to indulge in sinful behavior.
According to Paul, God has made Himself known to humanity through the visible creation, allowing them to perceive His eternal power and divine nature.
Therefore, people are without excuse for their rejection of God.
Instead of honoring and giving thanks to Him, they become futile in their thinking and their hearts are darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they become fools, worshiping and serving created things rather than the Creator.
As a result of their idolatry and rejection of God, God gives them over to the fruit of their sinful, empty desires.
So they engage in impurity, dishonor their Spiritual bodies, and exchange the truth about God for a lie.
Paul specifically mentions the distortion of natural relations, with women and men engaging in same-sex unions that are contrary to obvious nature.
He highlights that they received the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, since they refuse to acknowledge God, He gives them over to a debased mind, leading them to engage in all sorts of unrighteousness, including envy, murder, deceit, gossip, and disobedience.
They not only practice these things but also give approval to others who do the same. They have a seared conscious.
This passage vividly depicts the profound deterioration caused by humanity’s rejection of God.
Even though individuals possess an inherent understanding of God’s existence, they choose to stifle this truth and immerse themselves in godlessness and moral deficiency.
Consequently, God permits them to indulge in their sinful inclinations, ultimately allowing them to bear the dire consequences of their choices.
… “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
So they are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.
… They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them... “
Romans 1:18-32
