24 So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshipped the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved.
28 When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and unforgiving. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
I can't think of a more controversial passage of scripture than this one, today. Paul chose to focus on homosexuality, and in doing so, we often allow this to become an anti-gay message. Let me start by saying that it is not an anti-gay message - it is an anti-God message.
The key verse in this passage is verse 25, "Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshipped the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen."
Sin is a conscious rebellion against God - not against me, or you, or the establishment, or even the church - it is a rebellion against God. We all instinctively know what God expects, and we all make the deliberate choice to go against God's will. We believe lies. We sin. And, it doesn't matter what path our sin takes us down, sin's path will always leads us away from God. That is the reality that we live in.
God’s presence in our lives is the only thing that keeps us from destroying ourselves. It is our choice to allow God into our lives, or to push Him away.
In verses 24-27, Paul reminds us of what happens when God steps aside and allows us to live our lives as we wish. We are all sinners, and if we take God out of our decision making process, we will sin. 100% guaranteed.
The context of this passage of scripture is sexual sin. I don't want to side-step this issue or water it down to a point that it seems OK. God has made it perfectly clear that he wants us to enjoy the benefits of a personal sexual relationship, but only within the confines of a heterosexual marriage covenant. Any sex outside of that relationship is sin. That not only means gay sex, but also sex before marriage, adultery, pornography, and even lust. I would be doing us all a great injustice if I said anything to the contrary.
We all struggle with sin in our lives. We all have at least one area of weakness that we need to overcome. We look at this list, that Paul describes in verses 28-31, and we see ourselves. Hopefully not in all of them, but definitely in some.
We even argue that God created us this way, and therefore, we have no choice but to be this way. Unfortunately, that is not the way it works. Even if God did create one person with a bent to steal, and another to lie, another to lust, and still another to desire a person of the same sex, it doesn't mean that we can act on those desires without offending God.
That truly is the bottom line: Are we offending God, or honoring God, by the choices that we make? We can't look at civil law as our guide. Just because our action is not against civil law, doesn't mean that it is not against God's law.
When it comes to the subject of sin, God is the only one that we offend.
We tend to forget that Paul wrote this letter to the Christian believers in Rome. He was asking these fellow Christians to stop living this way. It's easy for us to grab ahold of this passage and point our fingers at non-believers - to tell them to repent of their sins - to tell them to live like us. Why should they?
The single biggest reason that non-believers give for not coming to faith in Christ is the hypocrisy of Christians that they know. They look at us and see us living in sin, and at the same time, we tell them to stop. Is that how non-believers see you? Are you openly living in sin? Look closely at this list and let the Holy Spirit open your eyes. Are you unforgiving? Heartless and uncaring? A backstabber? A gossiper? Are you bent towards deception? Are you argumentative? Are you greedy, proud, or boastful?
This is not only about homosexuality. This is about sin. It is about our sin, as well as the sin of the world.
Ultimately, this message is about forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope. It is about asking for His forgiveness, resting in the peace of His love, and knowing that He has an awesome plan for your life. It is about bringing what little we may have left to offer, laying it at the feet of Christ, and allowing the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to overcome our weaknesses. And, ultimately, guide us in the life that we were individually designed by our creator to live.
The key verse in this passage is verse 25, "Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshipped the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen."
Sin is a conscious rebellion against God - not against me, or you, or the establishment, or even the church - it is a rebellion against God. We all instinctively know what God expects, and we all make the deliberate choice to go against God's will. We believe lies. We sin. And, it doesn't matter what path our sin takes us down, sin's path will always leads us away from God. That is the reality that we live in.
God’s presence in our lives is the only thing that keeps us from destroying ourselves. It is our choice to allow God into our lives, or to push Him away.
In verses 24-27, Paul reminds us of what happens when God steps aside and allows us to live our lives as we wish. We are all sinners, and if we take God out of our decision making process, we will sin. 100% guaranteed.
The context of this passage of scripture is sexual sin. I don't want to side-step this issue or water it down to a point that it seems OK. God has made it perfectly clear that he wants us to enjoy the benefits of a personal sexual relationship, but only within the confines of a heterosexual marriage covenant. Any sex outside of that relationship is sin. That not only means gay sex, but also sex before marriage, adultery, pornography, and even lust. I would be doing us all a great injustice if I said anything to the contrary.
We all struggle with sin in our lives. We all have at least one area of weakness that we need to overcome. We look at this list, that Paul describes in verses 28-31, and we see ourselves. Hopefully not in all of them, but definitely in some.
We even argue that God created us this way, and therefore, we have no choice but to be this way. Unfortunately, that is not the way it works. Even if God did create one person with a bent to steal, and another to lie, another to lust, and still another to desire a person of the same sex, it doesn't mean that we can act on those desires without offending God.
That truly is the bottom line: Are we offending God, or honoring God, by the choices that we make? We can't look at civil law as our guide. Just because our action is not against civil law, doesn't mean that it is not against God's law.
When it comes to the subject of sin, God is the only one that we offend.
We tend to forget that Paul wrote this letter to the Christian believers in Rome. He was asking these fellow Christians to stop living this way. It's easy for us to grab ahold of this passage and point our fingers at non-believers - to tell them to repent of their sins - to tell them to live like us. Why should they?
The single biggest reason that non-believers give for not coming to faith in Christ is the hypocrisy of Christians that they know. They look at us and see us living in sin, and at the same time, we tell them to stop. Is that how non-believers see you? Are you openly living in sin? Look closely at this list and let the Holy Spirit open your eyes. Are you unforgiving? Heartless and uncaring? A backstabber? A gossiper? Are you bent towards deception? Are you argumentative? Are you greedy, proud, or boastful?
This is not only about homosexuality. This is about sin. It is about our sin, as well as the sin of the world.
Ultimately, this message is about forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope. It is about asking for His forgiveness, resting in the peace of His love, and knowing that He has an awesome plan for your life. It is about bringing what little we may have left to offer, laying it at the feet of Christ, and allowing the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to overcome our weaknesses. And, ultimately, guide us in the life that we were individually designed by our creator to live.
We all instinctively know God’s law. It is our basic knowledge of right and wrong. In order for us to act against it, we must first “push the truth of God away”. It is a conscious decision. We choose to separate ourselves from God. And when we do, God will not stand in our way.
Jesus said, “Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you here me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.” (Revelation 3:20 NLT) We all hear Him calling. The question is; do we ignore Him and continue to pretend that we don’t hear Him, or do we open the door of our hearts and invite Him in? Life with Christ is so much more fulfilling, rewarding, and purpose driven, than life without Him.
As a show of His infinite love, God made a way for us to be made right with Him, by sending His Son to die for our sins. It's ours to accept or reject.
This life that God has given us is the time that we have to decide where we want to spend eternity. With Him, or without Him - the choice is ours.
Jesus said, “Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you here me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.” (Revelation 3:20 NLT) We all hear Him calling. The question is; do we ignore Him and continue to pretend that we don’t hear Him, or do we open the door of our hearts and invite Him in? Life with Christ is so much more fulfilling, rewarding, and purpose driven, than life without Him.
As a show of His infinite love, God made a way for us to be made right with Him, by sending His Son to die for our sins. It's ours to accept or reject.
This life that God has given us is the time that we have to decide where we want to spend eternity. With Him, or without Him - the choice is ours.
Study Questions:
Are you doing things God's way, or are you doing them your own way?
It's not easy to live by God's standard. Even as Christians, we fall into sin. Search your heart and find a couple of areas that you can improve in, to grow your relationship with God. Do the next right thing.
Think about Paul's list in verses 28-32. How many are you guilty of right now?
We need to make a conscious effort to keep these items out of our hearts. Greed, hate, envy, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, gossip, backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, boastful, disobey their parents, break their promises, are heartless, and unforgiving. All of these are perfectly acceptable by our world's standard. But, not by God's standard. In contrast, "When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT) Are you tired of doing it your own way? Try God's way.
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