The Church At Brierfield

slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

In verse 29 a list was started of the kinds of sin people’s lives are filled with when God gives them over to the control of their sinful minds.  The list is continued in this verse and the next.

Slanderers are people who publicly speak lies against people, defaming them with evil accusations.

Haters of God are people who despise God’s righteous demands on their lives and His condemnation of their sin.

Insolent people are convinced of their superior view of life and are insulting, rude and disrespectful to others as a result.

Haughty is to be proud and arrogant with a condescending attitude, showing contempt and disdain for others.

Boastful is to represent yourself as something more than you are, to be a pretender, faker or impostor.

Inventors of evil indicates a mindset of always coming up with new ways to fulfill one’s self with no regard for the lifestyle God wants us to live.  As a result, they keep coming of with new ways of sinning.  As those new sins stop being fulfilling, they come up with new ones not realizing that fulfillment in life only comes from a right relationship with God.

Disobedience to parents is a result of sinful pride.  Parents generally have the best interest of their children in mind, so disobeying them is foolish and wrong.

Romans 1:29 – Romans 1:31

being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,

When God gives people over to the control of their own sinful minds their lives become full of all kinds of sin.

Unrighteousness is a general word that includes every act that is contrary to God and His moral law.

Sexual immorality includes all kinds of sexual sin such as pre-marital sex, adultery, incest, homosexuality, and sex with an improperly divorced person.  This Greek word is the basis for our English word pornography.

Wickedness is a general word that includes all kinds of evil and depraved desires and purposes.

Covetousness is greed, the strong desire to have more money and possessions than we need.

Maliciousness is the desire to be hurtful to other people.  A malicious person is mean, hateful, ill-willed, nasty, spiteful, and vicious.

Envy is the discontent, resentment, and displeasure we feel when we see or hear that someone else has something we want.  An envious person does not celebrate the success and prosperity of others.

Murder is to kill someone, to commit homicide.

Strife is to have conflict, fights, and quarrels. A strife filled person is contentious and always in conflicts with others.

Deceit is being cunning, deceptive, subtle and tricky in order to trap or take advantage of someone.

Evil-mindedness is to have bad character and to live a depraved life.  Malice and guile saturate everything an evil-minded person does.

Whisperers are gossips who secretly slander people based on hearsay, rumor and exaggeration.

Romans 1:28 – Romans 1:30

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

When people don’t think it is worthwhile to acknowledge God in their lives and that life is better off not worrying about what God thinks of them then God leaves them.  He delivers them over to the control of their own mind.  The foolish mind that has already decided to reject the knowledge of God.

The mind that rejects the knowledge of God is thinking backwardly, has been proven unfit, and has failed the test.  One of the worst things God could do to such a person is allow them to have full control of their lives.

When God gives them over to the control of their own minds they do things they ought not do, things that are unfit for a person who was created to glorify God.

Romans 1:27 – Romans 1:29

Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

Verses 18-25 state that God made Himself known to all people, yet most still reject Him and exchange the truth of God for the lie of Satan.  Verse 26 states that there is a point where God turns people over to their sinful desires, no longer restraining them.  This is illustrated by the sin of homosexuality and that illustration carries over into this verse (see vs. 26).

In error, people stray down a path in life that leads them away from God.  As a result, they receive the penalty, payment, or wages they have earned and are due.  When God cursed mankind and creation because of sin, He built in negative consequences to sin, which are emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual.  These consequences are the penalty we are due when we sin against God and include things like guilt, unhappiness, sickness, and even death.

Romans 1:26 – Romans 1:28

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions.  For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

God has made Himself known to all people, yet most still reject Him and exchange the truth of God for the lie of Satan.  “For this reason”, at some point God turns people over to their sinful desires.  He stops restraining them and gives their passions complete control of their lives. The end result is a shameful lifestyle.

God made people to worship and serve Him in righteousness.  The lifestyle that naturally fits us is one of godliness.  Any other use of our lives and bodies is shameful and unnatural.

Ungodliness is so normal now that it seems like a natural use of our bodies. Lesbianism is used in this verse to illustrate how unnatural our sinful desires are.  Homosexuality is a lifestyle that is obviously not natural to the human body, which is clearly designed for heterosexual relationships.

When God removes His restraining influence from a person or nation the result will always be an unnatural use of the bodies He created to worship and serve Him forever.

Romans 1:25 – Romans 1:27

who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Satan is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).  His first recorded lie was to Eve in the garden of Eden.

Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the LORD God had made.

“Really?” he asked the woman. “Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?”

“Of course we may eat it,” the woman told him. “It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die.”

“You won’t die!” the serpent hissed. “God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5)

Eve believed Satan and ate the fruit, “[exchanging] the truth of God for the lie.”  This was the original sin and has been the continual sin ever since.

Satan told her that she would be like God if she ate the fruit.  Then she, the creature, would be worthy of being worshiped and served rather than the Creator.  She could take His place in her life, worshiping and serving her own desires.  It is not surprising that Satan, who was also created, would tempt in this way.  His own sin was an attempt to be like the Creator God and take His throne. (Isaiah 14:12-14)

Regardless of how many creatures try to take the Creator’s place, He is the only one worthy of being blessed and praised forever.

When a statement ends with amen, it means that the statement is sure, true, trustworthy and dependable.  The speaker or writer is basically putting their personal guarantee on the truth of the statement.

Romans 1:24 – Romans 1:26

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,

When people reject God and exchange Him for other things, God will give up on them and let them do what ever they want.  At first this may sound like fun, God will let you do what ever you want, but the end result is not good.  The problem is that what people naturally want is impure, immoral, and selfish.  These are the sorts of things that God will punish.

The basic problem with people is that our hearts are full of lusts, desires and cravings for what is forbidden.  As a result, when God stops restraining us and lets us follow our hearts, we always destroy ourselves with sin.

The result of God turning people over to the desires of their lustful hearts is that they dishonor, despise and shame their own bodies.  They all get together in groups to do things that are disrespectful and shameful to their bodies that God created in His own image.

Romans 1:23 – Romans 1:25

and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

People who reject God tend to exchange Him for something else.  He is perfect and never fails or diminishes in any way.  Yet, what ever we exchange Him for always fails or diminishes over time.  Trading God for anything or everything is always a net loss.

Throughout history, from primitive to modern times, people who reject God present themselves as the wise ones.  Their supposed wisdom is usually focused on man or nature.  Today, many people who reject God focus on humanism or environmentalism.  Humanism is exchanging God for man and environmentalism is exchanging Him for birds, animals, and creeping things.

Romans 1:22 – Romans 1:24

Professing to be wise, they became fools,

Interestingly, many people who reject God do so from a position of wisdom.  They are too sophisticated, educated, intelligent, modern, and scientific to believe in a supernatural God.  They declare people who do to be ignorant, foolish, and weak.

The irony is that their supposed wisdom is really foolishness.  By their “wise” declarations and philosophies they prove themselves to be fools.

Fool is a harsh word but all who reject God will one day meet with the much harsher reality of His judgment.  Would that all people be truly wise, believing on Jesus and repenting of their sin.

Romans 1:21 – Romans 1:23

because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Even though God intentionally revealed Himself to mankind in creation and everyone can clearly see Him there (Rom. 1:19, 20), people still do not glorify and honor Him as God.  Instead, they choose to give the glory to random chance.

He has blessed us with life, love, children, friendship, pleasure, creativity, beauty, food, and every other good thing.  Yet, people are not thankful to Him for His blessings.

Refusing to glorify and thank God for creation people become foolish in their thinking.  Rather than acknowledge Him they come up with new explanations of how the universe came into existence.  The result is an empty view of life.  A life full of futility rather than hope.

The end result of refusing to acknowledge God is a dark heart, an inability to see and understand God in His creation.

Romans 1:20 – Romans 1:22