Romans 1:26-27 - 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
Message: Giving up what is natural
Time: Written sometime in AD 57-58, probably from Corinth, at the end of Paul's third missionary journey.
What the Lord is Saying:
These verse are on the heels of verse 24 where it states that God gave the people over to their sins. Basically that is the thought. People had been given an awareness of God in their life, but exchanged it for a lie and worshiped the creature rather than the creator. Verse 24 mentions that "their bodies might be dishonored among them." John MacArthur states, "The more he (man) exalts himself, the more he declines. The more he magnifies himself the more he diminishes. The more he honors himself, the more he becomes dishonored." And so this verse that speaks of bodies being dishonored among them partly seems to speak of sexual sin. Preceptaustin.org states on this verse, "Remember that Paul was writing Romans from the city of Corinth, where every sort of sexual immorality and ritualistic prostitution was practiced promiscuously. In fact things were so vile in Corinth that the expression “to live like a Corinthian” came to mean “to live a life of moral degradation”! Corinth’s idol temple had more than one thousand so called priestesses dedicated to gratification of lust."
Thus, we come to verse 26 and 27, two verses that I have always spoke of homosexuality or practicing the gay lifestyle. The homosexual would say that these verses instead speak more of idolatry that has been referenced in the verses previously stated in Romans 1:19-23. My thinking, however, is the words that are being used, specifically the words found in the New American Standard translation. In 24, it is "lust of their hearts to impurity" and "bodies dishonored." And even in 25, it gives the idea that the relationship with a person supersedes the relationship with God.
And verse 26 refers to passions.The Greek word for passions is pathos and has 2 other references in the new testament in Colossians 3:5 and I Thessalonians 4:5 and both instances refer to sexual passions. Again, Paul is writing from Corinth which was a mecca of sexual sin and in Greece homosexuality was rampant and even because a lifestyle that people that was cool. I believe now we are seeing the same thing to do. It has become almost cool to be gay.
I don't know how this passage could be anything but about homosexuality but I am sure many will try to make it out to be something different. Homosexuality is against nature. It is a choice people make. Over time, men and women may have a predisposition to that choice, but it is still a choice. One thing I notice about my life is the more time I spend in the Word, the more time I spend reading the things of God and praying and engaging in communication with others, the more I become aware of the sin in my life and the wrongdoing. The closer I get to God, the more I see how awful of a person I am. So, for people to not see this in themselves must mean that they are not reading the Bible or not reading it to conform to God and His ways, but instead just read it like a school book. God's word must be read with an eye toward change and conforming to the will of God. As we do, God changes us. This entire chapter of Romans is a progression from being near God to being away from God and it is a chapter that describes what happens to a man that over time exchanges the truth of God for a lie. But, that lie ends up becoming that person's truth. We can't be surprised at sin in the world and the way people embrace it. They are spending their days without God so they are naturally moving in that direction. The challenge of the disciple is to continually help people see that their is a God and Gospel and God does care about us and our entire life and how it is lived. It is so easy to get comfortable in life and feel like all you are doing is okay and decent. But, God is just not on the throne so clearly. And more and more we need Him and He needs to be in the center of our life. O wretched man that I am. Lord, bring people to their knees. Yes, we need a revival, but that revival needs to start within the Body of Christ. Yes, the masses of Society need to change, but God, change me. Change us.
Promise: God has an order and a way for male and females. Don't adjust it or change it. Accept it and God will bless us.
No comments:
Post a Comment