It Starts Small

God’s Word provides detailed explanation of Heavenly wisdom, which leads to godliness, or earthy demonic wisdom which leads to corruption.

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In this passage, Paul has points out how mankind has no excuses for rejecting God. God has made Himself plain enough, in creation itself, that we ought to seek Him.

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. 

Romans 1:18-20

Paul says that those who twist their minds in order to ignore that evidence simply become more and more foolish.

²¹ For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools

Romans 1:21-22

Paul then says it leads to general idolity.

²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

Romans 1:23

Paul says that ignoring the truth, willfully and living in rebeliion leads to God’s wrath. In particular, this wrath is expressed when God steps aside and lets us suffer the natural consequences of our sin.

This begins with mankind’s most pervasive temptation: sexuality.

²⁴ Therefore God delivered them over in the desires 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 what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
²⁶ For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men 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 corrupt mind so that they do what is not right.

Romans 1:24-28

Then Paul begins to list other ways in which humanity expresses our rebellion against God. God has responded to our refusal to acknowledge Him by stepping aside and allowing us to indulge in all these sins and to experience the natural consequences to living outside His direction for us. The consequences are painful and no different than the above mentioned sins.

Humans that reject God become filled with all sorts of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness and malice. The desire to do wrong to get what we want rages within a person and goes unchecked. People become willing to hurt others to get what they want and it leads down a path of envy, murdering, strife, deceitfulness, and maliciousness. People gossip freely, which God’s Word holds this action as a great evil.

But Paul ends with an even greater sad warning:

³² Although they know 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.

Romans 1:32

Paul circles back at the end of this chapter to the idea that mankind does NOT do all these things out of ignorance. He declares again that human beings, by nature, know these things are wrong. Even someone who never set foot in a church knows by moral standards in society, these things are wrong. Even more, Paul insists that even when we directly know that God has announced that those who do these things deserve to die, we keep doing them and worse, we encourage and applaud others to do the same.

Paul continues this discussion in Romans 2. Remember, letters were not written by chapter and verse. This was a letter written to the Roman Christ followers. Paul says:

Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things. ² Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth. ³ Do you think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? ⁵ Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. ⁶ He will repay each one according to his works: ⁷ eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness. ⁹ There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek; ¹⁰ but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. ¹¹ For there is no favoritism with God.

Romans 2:1-11

Paul’s readers or in his day, listeners may have been tempted to think this list was just for the unbeliever. Paul is revealing that this list describes ALL OF US – believer and none believer. No, not all of us do all these sins, but it is the root of all sin Paul is pointing us to. Paul intended for the Christ followers then and now to find within themselves the sinful words, actions and lifestyles that are ungodly.

To turn away from it and remove it from our lives.

Lets take a moment in our day and prayerfully consider what Paul has listed? Are we struggling with habitual sin in our lives?

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If you are following along in the Journal, the back pages have a table of Heavenly Wisdom vs. Corrupted Wisdom. Today’s scripture is in the blocks under the column Corrupted Wisdom. If you get stuck, you can visit this page and see my example.