Romans 1:28-32
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. [NASB]
We come now to the third of the three “handed over” passages. Again, this is how God demonstrates His wrath against the unrighteous, or non-Christians. I’ll deal with this briefly, and leave it up to you in the comments to dig deeper and ask questions.
Literally the passage starts: “And just as they did not reckon to have God in consciousness…” In other words, God did not factor at all in their thinking. Love of God, honoring God, God’s law, God’s righteousness, the glory of God–none of these things played a part in anything these people said or did. For the Christian, the glory of God is (or should be) the number one motivating factor behind everything he or she does. Granted, even the best of us cannot claim to always do everything for God’s glory. But these people had made a lifestyle choice to ignore God. And that is both their sin, and the judgment against them, since God simply hands them over completely to the consequences of such a mindset. The “depraved mind” is literally a “worthless mind” (Greek: adokimon noun). It is a mind that is not fulfilling it’s created function, i.e., to honor its maker. Hence it is worthless and leads the unrighteous to actions that are not proper, or fitting.
Paul cites examples of such deeds. These examples fall into three lists:
(1) unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil
(2) full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice
(3) they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.
List (1) appears to consist of fairly broad categories of sin. List (2) is a bit more specific, and seem to key off of envy, since this can lead to murder, strife, deceit, and malice. List (3) is even more specific and seem to be largely sins of the tongue, though these can also translate into attitudes and actions. Of particular interest in this list is “disobedient to parents.” And before we think too quickly of children, there is nothing in here that suggests Paul intends only children by this. The commandment to honor one’s father and mother applied to all of God’s people. Then, rather poetically, the last four in the list all begin the same way in Greek: asunetous, asunthetous, astorgous, analeêmonas. The NASB tries to replicate this in English with three of the four words. While “unloving” is a perfectly acceptable translation of astorgous, there is a dimension to this term to do with a lack of affection, particularly to members of one’s own family.
Paul closes the passage by saying that these unrighteous people know the ordinances of God and that those who do these things are worthy of death. I think this is recalling 1:18-20, where these people are suppressing the knowledge of God. They know right from wrong, because they are created in the image of God, and hence deep down they know they shouldn’t do these things. However, they do them anyway, because they are God-haters, and they are working hard to suppress what they know to be true. And not only do they do these things, but they approve of those who do them. They are not off the hook even if they don’t actually do these things themselves.
So, we have seen the pervasiveness of sin, the fact that all people are created with a knowledge of God, and because of sin, all men suppress that knowledge. While I believe these words apply to all men, of Paul’s time and ours, whether Jew or Gentile, I think Paul has the Gentiles particularly in mind, especially since the Jews would not have practiced homosexuality and blatant idol worship. In chapter 2 Paul will primarily address the Jews.
Thoughts from the passage: consider our society, and examine your own heart. Do you see examples of people not considering God in their thinking, acting, and decision making? Can you see the result of that in your life, the lives of those around you, the world as a whole?
