- God gave them over to shameful lusts: (1:26-27): Paul wrote this letter from the city of Corinth which was filled with every sort of sexual immorality and ritualistic prostitution was practiced freely. The city of Rome was more wicked than Corinth. The portion from (1:26ff) is a dreadful portion. “This first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is a dreadful portion of the Word of God. I should hardly like to read it all through aloud; it is not intended to be so used. Read it at home, and be startled at the awful vices of the Gentile world.” (Spurgeon)
Paul speaks of the sin and wickedness of the pagan world. God intended the sexual act to be an expression of the love between a husband and his wife. God unites them so that they become as one person (Gen.2:24; Matt.19:4-6). But both men and women chose to use their bodies in perversion. Women had sexual relationships with other women. Men wanted sexual relationships with other men. Some people say: Bible nowhere condemns homosexuality, but here Paul condemns this perversion. Homosexuality is clearly forbidden in O.T (Lev.18:22). Ex. the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were very wicked filled with homosexuals. God’s super-natural wrath poured upon them.
Paul recorded that human sexual behaviour was sometimes even worse than this. What Paul said about human bad behaviour was true. People were doing whatever they wanted to do. They did not care about God’s law. Paul lived in a culture that openly approved of homosexuality. For some 200 years (as the Historians say),men openly practiced homosexuality, often with young boys, ruled the Roman Empire. Men and women were inflamed with lust for one another. At that time, Roman Empire specifically approved homosexual prostitution and gave boy prostitutes a legal holiday. Legal marriage between same gender couples was recognized, and even some of the emperors married other men. When Paul was writing this letter, Nero was emperor. He took a boy named Sporus, had him castrated, then married him (with a full ceremony), brought him to the palace with a great procession, and made the boy his wife. Later, Nero lived with another man, and Nero became his wife.
When men committed such indecent and perverted acts, they received the due penalty for their perversion. The perverted sex has given to the rise of dreaded diseases, AIDS. Paul does not say what was the result of this bad behaviour. He said that “they received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” Perhaps he meant physical disease, social troubles and God’s final judgement.
- God gave them over to a depraved mind: (1:28-32): Men have rejected the knowledge of God despite His judgement against sin. they have now reached to the lowest level of their downfall. Just as the “fool said in his heart, there is no god” (Ps.14:1). The word depraved or debased or reprobate meant that “it had not stood the test” which was used for the substandard coins which are to be rejected. Since man did not approve to know God, they were given disapproved mind. In an attempt to be reasonable, man has become irrational, in an attempt to be free, he has become slave of himself.
Human sin is not confined to sexual sins. Paul gives a big list of sins of sins as a result rejecting God. the list is too vile to define or discuss, yet they are practiced today around the world with the approval of society. People know that sin will be judged, yet they take pleasure in it anyway. The rebellion against God is not only displayed in our actions, but in our thinking as well. The list contains 21-vile sins. They are:
- Wickedness:
- Greed:
- Depravity:
- Envy:
- Murder:
- Strife:
- Deceit:
- Malice:
- Gossips:
- Slander:
- God-haters:
- Insolent:
- Arrogant:
- Boastful
- Those invent new ways of doing evil:
- Disobeying parents:
- Senseless:
- Faithless:
- Heartless:
- Ruthless:
Those who practice or approve these vile sins are deserved for death. All these vile sins come because they have abandoned the true knowledge of God. All the above vile sins are very common these days. Men have become insane. Were it not for the Gospel of Christ, we would be in this slavery to sin. “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (2 Cor.9:15). It is the time that every Christian should realise the urgency of the call of Gospel and make conscious effort to reach the people with the Gospel of Christ. Jesus said: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Lk.19:10). Let’s all involve in the spreading of the Evangelism.
A few questions to answer before we move to next chapter:
- Are you ashamed of the Gospel or obligated to preach the Gospel?
- In what way does creation speak about God? (1:20)
- The evidences about God are enough or do we require spoon feeding?
- Why God gave the disobedient to over sinful desires of their hearts and what was the consequence?
- Which are the sins am I vulnerable to commit? (1:30-31)