Romans 1:28-32

Then in verses 18 the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.

Then through verses 19 to 20 God’s revealed through the conscience because His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that man is without excuse.

From verse 21 (Romans 1:21) we see the pitiful fall of humanity because even though they knew God they weren’t grateful to Him and wouldn’t glorify him as God. See they knew He was here, that He existed and that they couldn’t do as much as draw a single breath without Him but, they rejected Him. The natural result of that was that became futile in their thoughts, the Kings James says, “vain in their imaginations”, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

This state they’ve fallen into makes them profess to be wise, but the reality was that they became fools, Romans 1:22 says.

Then Romans 1:23 tells us that in that state of foolishness they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Then Romans 1:24-25 tells us that because they exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator the result was that God also gave them up, just as they’d given God up. That resulted in them living in uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves.

Then from Romans 1:26-27 it was almost as if God’s making sure we know why this happened when again the words are “For this reason”. What reason?

Because they exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. These are the passions and affections that were the result of God’s giving them over.

For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 

Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 

There’s no way to soft soap these verses. They say what they say.

For this same reason God gave people up to erotic activity with members of their own sex.

We should remember that God revealed to mankind, through the law, just what His standard is when it comes to the practice of homosexuality.

Leviticus 20:13

If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. 

Thank God that today we can use the law to discern God’s standard of righteousness, but Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (Galatians 3:13).

Both men and women turned against their natural functions and from the marriage relationship ordained by God, and instead, and because God had given them over, they burned with lust for others of the same sex.

In the last sentence of verse 27 we see this addition, “receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”

What is this referring to?

Well remember last episode we pointed out that Paul uses the pronouns “them” and “they” when categorising who these people were, or are.

They and them are the members of humanity from creation until Paul writes this letter to the Romans.

Included in that history we see the judgement of God in the destruction and complete annihilation of the cities that were riddled with homosexuality, Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis 19.

They certainly received quote “the penalty of their error”. Back then God judged harshly but according to His righteousness. We see this in the flood and in the destruction of these cities and many other places in the Old Testament.

When Paul’s writing this letter to the Romans he’s in Corinth. Corinth was a bustling and diverse city, known for its wealth and trade, and, because it was a major hub for commerce between Europe and Asia it had a vibrant cultural mix.

But Corinth was also home to numerous temples, and many manmade gods including;

• Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.
• Apollo, the god of music, prophecy, and healing.
• Poseidon, the god of the sea
• Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare.
• Hera, the queen of the gods, often associated with marriage and family

The temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was infamous for its temple prostitution.

Corinth was materially very prosperous, but morally corrupt. Even in the pagan world the city was known for its moral corruption. “Corinth” came to imply to live in debauchery.

Corinth was a perfect picture of Romans 1:21,

because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions.

Where did those vile passions come from? Not from God!

We saw in verse 28 (Romans 1:28),

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased (or reprobate) mind,

See how it was their mind, their thinking, that was debased.

Verse 21 reveals that they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Why? Because even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.

Retain means to have hold of, to hold as a possession of the mind.

They knew God. They knew He existed and was the creator of all things, yet they didn’t hold Him in their knowledge. They disregarded the knowledge of Him.

The mind of man is not a vacuum. It’s never empty. If it’s not filled with one thing it’s filled with another. The debased and reprobate mind was what took the place of the knowledge of God because, without the knowledge of God there, the only thing that could take its place was their own thoughts of the heart.

And, back in Genesis 6:5 we see what that was;

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 

God simply gave them up to those thoughts and their state of heart. He just let them do what they wanted to do.

Just quickly, In verse 28 the word used to describe the state of mind of these people is “debased” in the NKJV and reprobate in the KJV.

Although these words are related they’re not the same.

Debased describes someone that’s been lowered in quality, character, or value. It’s a degradation or a loss of integrity, often due to corruption or immoral behaviour.

Reprobate refers to a person who’s morally corrupt, unprincipled, or beyond hope of redemption. It also implies rejection by God.

“Reprobate” tends to label the person or their state of being, while “debased” focuses on the result of falling from a higher standard.

The outworking, the physical result of that state of mind was what’s defined in the rest of the verse,

to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. 

This is humanity in freefall!

Now here’s the vital aspect of all this. When God “gave them over” to their debased, reprobate minds did He say that they were beyond redemption?

No!

This is what the whole book of Romans is about. This is the whole point of the dispensation of grace that God dispensed on the world through the apostle Paul, that mankind, for the moment, is under grace and is not condemned to death by the law that condemns these practices.

As Christians we avoid those practices but when we do fall we have a mediator between us and God, Jesus Christ who has already paid the price for those sins.

The law no longer determines our eternal state, our faith does. Our faith in the finished work by Jesus Christ on the cross, his burial and resurrection, or the gospel, is what saves us, not the law.

Likewise, our rejection of that gospel puts us right back under the law where condemnation for our works is very real.

Thank God for Romans 8:1-2;

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 

And thank God for the Words He spoke in John 10:10;

…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 

And thank God for John 3:17

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Christians, the members of the Body of Christ, those saved by faith in the gospel of salvation, often forget where we came from, that we were once these people that Romans describes.

We frown on the ones carrying out the acts that Romans 1:26-32 describes without remembering that we ourselves either did or were capable of doing every act described and, in fact, we actually still are.

The body of Christ is made up of exactly the ones who practiced these things. Remember what Jesus said about breaking even one law in the sermon on the mount In Matthew 5, and James 2:10,

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 makes this plain,

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 

And verse 11 is the kicker,

And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 

Now just another quick sidebar.

“The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God” does not mean the kingdom of God on earth, which belongs to Israel and the earthly nations.

This is the kingdom of God universal. God’s dominion is not limited to the jurisdiction of the earth, but includes the rest of the universe, what the Bible calls heaven.

Part of the mystery of God’s will, revealed to Paul, was how all things would be gathered together in one in Christ, and we see that in Ephesians 1:9-10,

…having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 

Ephesians 5:8-10 confirms this further,

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

That darkness spoken of here is the darkened heart and the debased mind in Romans. That’s what we were too, but now we’re light in the Lord.

It’s our duty now to find out what is acceptable to God and walk as children of light.

Now how did we become the light in the Lord?

It’s by the Glorious light of the Gospel of the grace of God that we trusted in.

Christ saved us by grace through faith. It’s not that we turned our life around or we saw the light or somehow we’ve made ourselves shiny and washed our robes or something. No! God saved us by grace and now we’re children of light and we’re to walk in that light.

What does that look like?

Simply that we keep in mind, moment by moment, who we really are now that we’ve believed. It’s doing the opposite to the folks previously described. It’s retaining, or holding on to the knowledge of God.

We’re saved, we have eternal life and an eternal home and every circumstance we face in this life is temporary and we can live through it because of our eternal hope, the blessed hope as Titus 2:13 says,

…looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ

“Looking for the blessed hope”—this is the next happening in the program of God: Christ is coming to take His church out of this world.

So, in verse 28 (Romans 1:28), we see that the effect of not retaining God in their knowledge was that God simply let mankind do what their hearts wanted to do, to act out what now filled their hearts, that were darkened, and their minds, that were debased and reprobate, because they disregarded Him, even though they Knew Him as God.

This throws a light on the subject of why God sends people to hell.

People say, “That sounds like a very hateful and evil thing to do. Why doesn’t God just show more love and kindness?”

These are questions many Christians recoil at because they’re not sure how to answer.

Well, in Romans 5:8 we see,

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

He shows His love in that, from the creation of the world, He’s been long suffering, meaning patient and persevering.

He demonstrates His love in that He revealed Himself to mankind who didn’t deserve to know God—but He did anyway. He’s always done that. But mankind rejects that knowledge. They don’t want to retain God in their knowledge.

So why does God send people to hell? Well, why does a judge send people to prison? Because people transgress the laws that everyone should know? They did something that was contrary to what’s good and right. Same reason.

In God’s case mankind doesn’t even enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. Instead they question His authority. But a just and righteous judge cannot let the guilty go unpunished or He’d be corrupt and unrighteous.

So, God gave them over.

He didn’t push them down into the fiery pit. He gave them over from His gracious provision and longsuffering to their own desired destruction.

God is good. We are not. God is good for us. He’s what we need and that’s the truth of it. And doing what’s contrary to our good is what characterises sin.

Even as Christians, we realise this.

Sin is present within us. We trust the Gospel to save us from the penalty of our sin, and the power of sin to condemn us. But sin is still present in each one of us. We see that same struggle in Paul himself in Romans 7:18-25,

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 

For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not do, that I practice. 

Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 

I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 

For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 

I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. 

So, like Paul our mind has been changed to recognise that God is good, His law is good, and we want the good now.

Just like Paul I don’t want to be in sin. I don’t want to do wrong. I want to do right. But I don’t.

Now, why in the world don’t I do good when I want to do good?

I want to be disciplined. I want to be peaceful. I want to be loving to my neighbour. I want to be joyful, and be patient, longsuffering. I want to be kind and charitable. I want this.

If we say we want this then at least we know what’s good, which means maybe we know God, because that’s the definition of what God would want.

But do we do this as Christians?

Sometimes we don’t desire that good, but in other times, we want to do good, and yet we do what’s wrong. Why?

Because sin is still present with us while we’re here in this world and we can’t escape its presence and that’s why we do what’s opposed to our good, which is defined by God. God is all good and He tells us that.

So this is where Romans 1:28 is leaving humanity at, to do those things that’re not convenient because they desire to do them and they’re going to lead to destruction because they’re not natural, the way God made us to operate in this world. It’s contrary to nature itself, it’s contrary to Him, it’s contrary to our own creation. But we desire to do them.

Romans 1:29 goes on to describe the things that are not convenient: “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, and wickedness…”

He goes on to describe 25 things that people are filled with after having been given over to a debased and reprobate mind.

Now, this is not the new standard of righteousness such as here’s the laws and don’t break them. This is a description of debased humanity.

This becomes frightfully personal as we read this list of 25 things because we, recognise them in ourselves.

Thank God for His grace.

Without Christ retained in our knowledge, we’re reprobate and debased in our thinking, and we’re given over to these things. But we’ve been given salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ Jesus.

Notice the first three words in Romans 1:29, are “Being filled with.”

It’s not that these reprobates—which is all humanity with no exception, it’s not that they do a little bit of wrong.

It’s not like they’re generally good, but we’ve all got some imperfections, some of us more than others.

Paul says, “Being filled with…” which is pretty hard to swallow. It makes our flesh jump up and say, “Wait a minute! I’m not filled with it. I mean, before I was saved, I wasn’t filled with all of this stuff.”

Yes, we were! We were totally corrupt and reprobate.

People want to convince themselves that, “I wasn’t that bad. I mean, compared to other people…”

Wait! We can’t do that. We can’t compare ourselves to other people! We compare ourselves to God’s standard of righteousness and when we do we have to admit that there’s nothing in this list we’re not capable of.

Were we thanking God and glorifying Him before we were saved?

Now, this list of sins here wasn’t why God gave them up!

In Romans 1:24, He gave them up because they didn’t retain Him in their knowledge and glorify Him as God or thank Him. It wasn’t because of these 25 things.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam sinned, bringing death into the world. And still, God provided clothes and a sacrifice for him, didn’t He? He provided protection for Cain, after he murdered his brother Able. So God’s graciously providing things, even in the midst of people’s sins.

The sins themselves—though they’re the problem for us—are not necessarily a problem for God, because God knows that Christ will die for sins, and He’s gracious to forgive sins and merciful. And yet, we have this list—a description of what sin looks like.

God can deal with the sin, but He can’t deal with us not recognising that sin in us and not acknowledging and recognising that He is God, and that He has provided the solution for us.

So when God shows His grace and mercy and reveals Himself, and we say, “I’m not listening! I don’t want it! I’m glad you saved me, and You’re not pouring wrath on me at the moment, but I’m not going to acknowledge that and be grateful for it…”

You know, not being thankful for salvation, rejecting it entirely—this is what this breeds: the lack of gratitude, the lack of glorifying God as God. It gets worse and worse. And this is the final description of it.

The bible makes it crystal clear that there’s none righteous, no, not one, There’s none that does good or seeks after God (Romans 3:10-11).  God had to run after us, we weren’t running after Him.

Through His Word and by His Spirit is how we get saved.

We must see ourselves as God sees us through Genesis 6:5 if we’re to see the need for a saviour. Genesis 6:5:

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 

That sounds pretty bad.

We say surely that can’t be like today. That’s pre-Flood! Those folk were terribly wicked, not like us today; we’re a lot better now.

But that’s what the Bible describes, even today. Reprobate and debased humanity has continued, even post-Flood.

But didn’t He kill all those depraved people in the Flood, and Noah, after that, was the most righteous, and we come from him.

No. We see the same decline as in Romans 1.

We see it in Israel. We see it in the Gentiles. We see it in every civilization, and we see it in ourselves.

It wasn’t just that, they did some bad things and made some mistakes.

It was that every imagination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. Why? Because they didn’t like to retain God in their knowledge.

In this dispensation, the dispensation of grace that we live in today, God is not judging the world.

So, what’s going to happen?

Things will get worse and worse among people. They’ll cry out on the one hand saying, “God’s hateful for judging!” And, on the other hand, “Why doesn’t He judge?”

Because judgment hasn’t come on the world in this dispensation of grace, people mock God saying, “I can do what I want! Look, He doesn’t do anything!” No, because He’s offering grace today. But that will change.

So, this section of Romans 1 is proving that all are sinners, that we’re without excuse before God, that judgment is just, and that the wrath of God is revealed upon all who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

It’s not simply to condemn, it’s to show that salvation is needed, and this is the purpose of these passages. They teach the reality that natural man is wicked and reprobate and that we need God and His grace and they’re intended to lead us to that grace.

They show us the need to cry out to God, saying, “God, if I’m going to be saved, You’ve got to do it.”

First on this awful list in Romans 1:29-32 is unrighteousness. “Being filled with all unrighteousness…” It’s fitting that this is the first on the list, because this was the problem with man’s rejection God. That’s not a right thing to do and that’s what “unrighteousness” means—it’s doing something wrong.

“Righteousness,” simply means doing what’s right.

Of course, Paul says in Romans 3:10

As it is written: “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE;

He quotes Psalm 14:3 when he says, “There’s none righteous,”

David says in Psalm 14:1-3

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good. 

The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. 

They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. 

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

The result is that they declare themselves wise, but become fools.

God didn’t find any that were good. There was Noah back there with the flood, and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, but He didn’t say Noah was the only perfect man there.

No, he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. No doubt because Noah was pleading for mercy, but he wasn’t a perfect man, either.

Number two on the list is sexual immorality. The King James calls it fornication.

People don’t think fornication is a real thing anymore but who can deny the existence of sexual immorality?

Fornication or sexual immorality simply means disregarding God’s order for things and the idea of commitment to another person.

It’s a rampant sin because we’re all confronted with it, that desire for some of the acts of marriage without the spiritual or the lifetime commitment, or being in subjection to God’s order and righteousness.  In other words, we all lust. That’s sexual immorality or fornication.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 is one of those verses that’s very clear about God’s will.  For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;

And so, if you’re wondering, “What’s God’s will for me?” Well, there’s one right here, and it’s very clear. Our sanctification.

Now, Christ is our sanctification. What’s sanctification?

1 Corinthians 1:30,

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…

It’s not simply us living our best and most holy life. That’s not what it is at all. Sanctification has to do with a position. It has to do with you being set apart for God’s purpose. All humanity was set apart for God’s purpose until they rejected Him and chose their own purpose.

So we took that sidebar to see how sanctification and abstaining from sexual immorality are closely linked.

Wicked is next. What is wickedness?

Wickedness is to be crooked and corrupt. If right is what’s straight, wickedness is what’s crooked, it’s bent, it doesn’t work right.

2 Thessalonians 2:8, talks about the Lord coming back and destroying him who’s coming after the working of Satan, the antichrist.  What name is he called?

And then the lawless one (the King James calls him “That Wicked”)

will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 

Why is he called “That Wicked, The lawless one”?

He declared himself to be God, and he wasn’t. That’s an antichrist, a corrupt Christ. That’s wicked. That’s why he’s given the name, “That Wicked.” Which means the lawless one.

Covetousness is next on the list which Colossians 3:5 calls idolatry.

Once again, a lot of these sins are resulting from idolatry, which is why that’s the first commandment in Exodus 20:3-4, God speaking,

You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

We’ve seen at length in Romans 1: “They didn’t glorify Him as God.” They changed the image of God. That’s idolatry, and that led to these sins.

Colossians 3:5 says,

Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 

See that? That’s how you get that fornication definition as well. It’s the result of idolatry. It’s the craving, the desire to obtain something contrary to God.

Paul also uses the word “covet” in a good way

1 Corinthians 12:31 says

But earnestly desire the best gifts (the King James renders the word “covet”).

To Covet means to desire or to crave after something.

Maliciousness is next on the list.

While forgiveness is to not seek ill will towards someone, maliciousness is the opposite. Thayer’s concordance has it as meaning, among other things, wickedness that is not ashamed to break laws and a desire to injure.

Maliciousness is the idea that “I’m going to be your enemy.”

In Titus 3:2-3 we read,

to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 

One of the problems with reading through these lists of sins when we’re saved, is to think that we’re better now than before and better than quote, “them”. But if we don’t add, “I’m better now in Christ” then we’re wrong, because it’s only in Christ. It’s the Christ part that puts us in a better position. Otherwise, we’re still in the same flesh and in that flesh could commit these same things.

Envy is next.

Look at Proverbs 27:4

Wrath is cruel and anger a torrent, But who is able to stand before jealousy?

The King James has the word envy rather that jealousy.

Envy is jealousy on steroids.

God is jealous, and we see this many times in scripture, but God is never envious.

God’s jealous because jealousy has different definitions and usages. Jealousy is a desire for something that’s yours. And so, God is jealous over Israel when they start running away and committing fornication because, “That’s my people,” He says.

Or we’re jealous for our spouse because, “That’s my spouse,” and we don’t want anyone to hurt or take away our spouse. We’re jealous of our children. We’re protective of them and it’s a good jealousy, like God’s jealousy.

A bad jealousy is coveting what’s someone else’s. That’s a bad jealousy.

Envy probably most fits the heart of Satan now that he knows that he’s unconditionally bound for eternal destruction. Envy doesn’t care about the end. Envy says, “If I can’t have it, nobody can.”

We see envy in certain social circles that say, “Since we’re poor and not rich, nobody can be rich.” Envy, social envy, is where that comes from and it’s very dark and dangerous.

Being filled with murder is on the list.

This is where most people say, “Well, I’m not that bad. I haven’t committed murder.” But then Jesus gives the sermon on the mount and in Matthew 5:21-22 He says, “Well, if you’re angry at someone without a cause, it’s like murder. It’s like killing him in your heart.” Anger is the source of murder, of course.

Going back to Genesis chapter 9, God said, ” “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.”

Here we have capital punishment.

We justify many of our sins today because of mental health reasons. We think we can discredit and minimise God’s standard of righteousness and justify any sin by pleading the psychological and sociological teachings today.

Pride? Envy? Well, it’s just a mental illness. Your psychological profile is a little twisted.

No, it’s called sin. There are, of course, biological factors to things, but there’s also sin and even if it is biology, it’s still sin.

You say you can’t help it. You’re right, that’s exactly what the Bible says, but It doesn’t justify the action. Romans 1 says it’s because of a debased, a reprobate mind, and Romans 3 defines it in a frightful way.

Paul lists strife or debate next.

Do we stand for the truth by being argumentative, critical, quarrelsome, and always starting a verbal fight.

Maybe some humility? It is possible to make a right choice, even though sin abounds.

In Proverbs 13:10, Solomon writes,

By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom. 

Contentions, arguments, and strife come by pride and only by pride. You can’t have two humble people fighting each other. It doesn’t work.

Deceit is next on the list, lies and deceit, and of course many books have been and still can be written about deception.

Satan is the father of lies in John 8. And we know right back in Genesis 3 he lied to Eve, and she believed and was deceived by the lie. Adam, of course, did it willingly.

Deceit is any sort of dishonesty: half-truths, white lies, omitted truths, deceptions, all which abound even more today than they have in the past just because of our technologies.

Public relations and advertising are so often built around deception. “What does it appear like? What’s the optics on this?” What does that mean? Does it appear truthful and honest.

Deceit abounds everywhere today.

Evil mindedness or malignity as the King James renders it is next.

This is hatred, anger, and a desire to destroy and to change the truth of God into a lie and preaching it as normal and true.

Whisperers are next.

This is speaking in private things that shouldn’t be spoken in private. They should either be spoken out loud or not spoken at all. So either speak up or be quiet. Whisperers are people who will talk about someone behind their back. Even if it’s true, if it were something that can be known publicly, then why not make it public?

If something’s not intended to be made public and we’re talking to people about it, it’s usually without the permission of the person who would like it to be private, or maybe it’s against that person. The reason we’re not talking to them is because we know that we’ll reap some wrath from them. We’re talking to other people to expose this thing we found, but not to that person.

In 1 Timothy 5:13, Paul talks about those who are idle, and tell tales, and go around from house to house being busybodies and gossips.

In Psalm 41:7 David says,

All who hate me whisper together against me; Against me they devise my hurt.

Proverbs 20 gives a warning:

He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; Therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips. 

Whisperers abound in Christianity—gossip, telling secrets, spreading rumours.

If it needs to be public, then speak out. Don’t whisper about it. That’s God’s way.

Backbiters follow whisperers quite closely because, instead of just whispering things that may or may not be true, backbiters stab you in the back.

Haters of God is on the list.

This displays in any rebellion against God and his righteousness.

In Romans 8:7 Paul says that the carnal mind is enmity against God.

You can’t say you love someone without knowing who they are, what their will is, and what they desire, and participating in it.

Abusers talk like that. “I love you, even though I beat you and hit you and don’t do anything for you, never say anything nice to you. I still love you.”

That’s not how love is defined. So, we say we love God, but don’t ever do anything for him. Do we know his will? Do we say things against Him? Do we defend people over and against him? That’s hating God, and Christians do that all the time.

Violent or despiteful is next. Getting even is what this is all about. We’re not the judge to get even. There are judges God placed in society as a system of government that are supposed to seek justice, but God himself will bring justice to all.

Proud, of course, would be pretty obvious. That’s the first sin of Satan, pride and arrogance to lift himself up to be as God. As we’ve already seen in Proverbs 20, contention, strife, comes from pride.

Of course, we know pride is one of the things God hates. You know, people think, “Well, God’s a loving God. He doesn’t hate anything.” Well, there’s lots of things in the Bible God says he hates. In Proverbs 6, there are six things—seven things—that God hates and first on the list is a proud look. Pride. Romans 12:3 Paul says, “Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought.” That’s pride.

Boasters or building yourself up over other people.

Philippians 2:3 talks about you esteeming others better than yourself. That’s a hard thing to do but it’s a grace.

Inventors of evil things.

What makes them evil?

In Jeremiah 19:5 God speaking,

…they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind…

That would be an evil invention.

Some technologies and inventions exist today for an evil end. Interestingly, the number one use of the internet today is for pornography.

It doesn’t mean these technologies and inventions are evil in themselves, it’s the evil purposes that they’re used for.

So, we have the reprobate, debased mind.

This list of 25 descriptions of sin that characterises the debased, reprobate mind that rejects God. They’re the result of professing ourselves to be wise but making ourselves fools and In Romans 1 Paul’s left no one with an excuse.

That concludes our Romans chapter 1 study.