When men choose
not to worship and honor God, they lose control of themselves. In His wrath,
God gave man over to depravity. And this depravity is seen in three aspects:
sensual, mental and ultimate.
In verse 24,
we see that man chose to change love into lust. Sexual intimacy, the expression
of deep love between a man and his wife, had been changed into inordinate lust.
Now in verses 26-27, Paul tells us that God gave them over to sexual depravity
and unruly passion. The un-regenerated chose to indulge in aberrant sex
instead. Whether male or female, their sexual orientation was changed and they
chose to engage in perverse sex. They began to lust for people of the same
gender. Women became lesbians and men, homosexuals. Paul specifically singled
out homosexuality so that we can see that this sin leads one to live unnaturally.
Today, they are those who propagate homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle. But
regardless of how one calls it, homosexuality is sin, pure and simple. Unwittingly,
homosexual practice had brought harm to their bodies as a just desert for their
indecent acts. This is the first kind of depravity, sensual depravity.
Then Paul dealt
with the second kind of depravity, it’s the mental depravity or depravity of
the mind. Verse 28 tells us that God gave fallen men over to their corrupt mental
attitude. This state of mind then led man to all kinds of degenerated acts.
Losing all moral compass, plus a sheared conscience, man began to indulge in all
kinds of wicked and unrighteous deeds. Paul had a whole catalogue of them in verses
29-31. Fallen man are now “…filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of
envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent,
arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without
understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful…”
In verse 32 Paul
mentioned the ultimate depravity of man, “…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.” Man reached the pinnacle of their depravity when they not only
continue to live sinful lives but they also gave hearty support to those who
practice sin that would bring death. This approving of another’s sin shows us
how low mankind had become.
As Christians,
living in the midst of sinful people with the propensity to embrace a depraved
life, what can we do? Be mindful that we are called to be the salt of this
earth and light to the world. By our testimony, behaviors and conducts, we need
to live out a God glorifying life. We point others to God and the right way to
live life, when we ourselves live a God honoring lifestyle.
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