Romans 1:18-31

God's Wrath on Unrighteousness [Paul’s aim in this section is to show the whole of humanity is morally bankrupt, desperately in need of God’s mercy and grace.]

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed [in the facts of human existence] from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness [moral decay follows theological rebellion] of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [Fallen humanity seeks to hinder and obstruct the truth of God.] ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ 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. [The invisible God has been revealed to them through visible creation.] ²¹ 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. [The consequence of rejecting God is darkened hearts and minds with all intellectual pursuits leading to frustration.] ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools [moral obtuseness as opposed to intellectual deficiency], ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. [Paul is speaking of idolatry. We are to reflect the image of God, not the images of pagan worship.]

²⁴ Therefore God gave them up [a removal of divine restraints] in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie [that which contradicts God’s truth] and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error [the fitting wage of such perversion]. [The effect of perverting the instinct to worship God is the perversion of other instincts from their proper functions. The consequence is degradation of the body (v.24), domination by lust, the disintegration of what is truly “natural” (v.26), and bondage to uncontrollable passions (v.27). God designed them male and female in physical bodies that have a natural way of interacting and reproducing more images of God.]

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind [their own debased, counterfeit reason] to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³² 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. [Verse 32 is a concluding summary of human perversity. People do not generally sin in innocent ignorance but know what they do is wrong. This is Paul’s diagnosis of Gentile society, one that he shared with other Greek and Roman authors, who knew the depravity of their fellow citizens and how they encouraged the worst in each other.]