I have the privilege of writing about Romans 1 today but I really want to focus on verses 18-32. It’s in those 14 verses that you can truly see the repercussions of the fall that happened way back in Genesis when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.
We live in a broken world. Every day the news comes up with new stories about death, hate, poverty, and sickness all over the world. We try to turn it off but we never can. People propose solutions for all of these problems and don’t understand when they don’t work. We are a people who rely on things, machines, and other people to be our saviors in times of need rather than falling on our knees and crying out to God.
We know there is a God but we find ourselves turning towards earthly pleasures because we lack self-discipline. God is knocking at the door but we still have to open it and invite him in. We can’t keep talking to him through the door or only letting him in when we need him. Romans 1:24-25 says,
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
It says specifically God gave them up. There always will be a choice and you can choose to continually choose early pleasures but will that ever satisfy your soul? God gave them up means to me that he had was trying to protect them for a while but they never turned from their ways. It was never his plan but when these unrighteous people kept doing what they wanted, he had to give them up to their desires. The true king of their lives.
How can we relate to this?
Think about your life. Do you find yourself at church scrolling, checking email, or even napping? Do you find yourself buying new things because you have to have them in your life? Are you doing the minimum to just get into heaven?
These 14 verses show us how easy it is to lose yourself in these early desires. These men and women KNEW God and they still desired these worldly things. It is easy to fall into Satan’s trap so guard your heart. If you lost everything but still have Jesus, could you say that you still had all that you need?
Reflect on your own lives today. Pray that the holy spirit will convict you so that you do not fall into the same trap as these unrighteous people did in these 14 verses.