21 For 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. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
*Useful Definitions*
Oneism – A worship of creation. A belief that we are divine, and a denial of a creator.
Twoism – A worship of God the creator as the divine one.
Naturalistic Worldview – Views creation as accidental in nature and evolutionary in science. Humans began as single cells, that evolved through a chain of changes enroute to a supreme being.
Nihilism – Question everything, Ignore authority, faith is pointless, and social constructs must be broken.
*Commentary* Throughout history, man has repeated a cycle of “on and off” relationships with God. The book of Judges demonstrates this clearly. Faithfulness to God > Sin > Oppression > Repentance > Deliverance > Faithfulness.
What Paul is explaining, is how this cycle begins. (Verse 21) When man becomes complacent in his worship of God, he begins to take on a naturalistic worldview and sin. (Verse 22) Sin leads to Oneism as an excuse for sin. They take the creator out of the picture, so they will no longer are beholden. (Verse 23) They create their own Gods, so they can worship idols that represent their sins.
In the next phase of the cycle, God leaves them to their sin and allows them to suffer their consequences. They become weak, they destroy their own leadership, and allow themselves to be vulnerable. They become oppressed, as the Israelites did with the Egyptians. Their only way out, is repentance and back to the top of the cycle, where God the creator, the Almighty, resides.
Paul is giving warning to the Roman church, of what happens for complacency. He’s doing so as encouragement from a place of love. He is pointing out the history of both Gentiles and Jew of ignoring their moralities. C.S. Lewis pointed out, “Humans are the only beings that blush, or need to.” Morality is a God given gift to man. It’s what gives us our sense of right and wrong and separates us from the animal kingdom.
- Verse 22 states “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” What does Paul mean by this?
- Why do you think man would stop worshipping the one true God, only to then create his own idols to worship? If they’ve turned away their God, why would they want a different one?
They became fools because they KNEW God, but they denied him and replaced him with fake idols they themselves created that had no power. They created new gods to worship to excuse their sinfulness their new gods didnt have commandments or punishments their fake gods gave them permission to do whatever they wanted while still feeling righteous for worshipping something. We still see this kind of thing in churches today which is why their are so many denominations with people believing theirs is the true faith and the true way to live. Even though they claim to worship the same God, they all have different ways of doing so. …. they also became fooled not just fools, because the only thing giving these fake gods any power is the enemy, to lead them further from God.
Different denominations can be ok, as long as it follows the laws of God. Remember, receiving salvation is pretty simple. You must believe Jesus Christ was the savior and he was sent to be the recipient of punishment for our sins. You must believe this, and turn your life over to him. Repent for your sins and ask forgiveness. As well as, learn from your sins so you don’t repeat them.
Whether or not you wear skirts, die your hair, wear ear rings, etc.. isn’t necessarily going to prevent you from salvation.
yes, nothing wrong with different denominations but i think some people need to have these different rules and restrictions cause it makes them feel like they are closer to Godliness in some way, He gave his commandments pretty clear. there were ten of them.