Rm1:18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. - NIV
Rm1:26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful
lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In
the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were
inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men,
and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore,
since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of
God, he gave
them over to a depraved2 mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They
have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.
They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers,
God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil;
they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless,
heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that
those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very
things but also approve of those who practice them. - NIV
Rm3:9What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have
already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10As
it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
11there
is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one." (Psa14:1-3;53:1-3
Ecc7:20)
13"Their throats are
open graves;
their tongues practice deceit." (Psa5:9)
"The poison of vipers is on their lips." (Psa140:3)
14"Their
mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." (Psa10:7)
15"Their feet are swift
to shed blood;
16ruin
and misery mark their ways,
17and the way of peace they
do not know." (Isa59:7,8)
18"There
is no fear of God before their eyes." (Psa36:1)
19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those
who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced
and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore
no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather,
through the law we become conscious of sin. - NIV
2 - deprave: to make bad, to corrupt morally, degrade with unsound
principles or moral values. ^
Challenge: True Life