September 4, 2024

Romans 1:18-32  (HCSB)
The Guilt of the Gentile World
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. 24 Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
From Idolatry to Depravity
26 This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 The males in the same way also left natural relations with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. 28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. 32 Although they know full well God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

Haley Dorris
This week’s theme is “The Downward Spiral of Sin.” These verses show that downward spiral. Verse 25 pretty much sums it up by saying, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator...” We live in a world that applauds self-seeking and criticizes God-seeking. All the unrighteousness listed by Paul in these verses shows self-seeking tendencies because none of those things come from God. Earlier this week, we talked about mutually encouraging one another. We can either do this in a positive or negative manner by encouraging someone’s faith (positive) or their sin (negative). Here we see negative encouragement because the people are supporting one another in their sins. This sounds very similar to the world we live in today, doesn’t it? To get out of this downward spiral, we must stop worshiping and serving what has been created instead of the Creator. We must also share our Creator with those who may not know Him. Are you self-seeking like the people Paul is talking about in these verses or are you God-seeking?