The Pagan Gentile
1: 18-32
These verses depict the dreadful consequences of rejecting God. And the picture Paul paints is not pretty. One must understand the “Bad News” before one can properly appreciate the “Good News” and the central role of faith/trust/belief in accepting it. This situation persisted in the pagan world of the Gentiles as distinct from the Jews. Paul uses three generally parallel sequences to make his point.
Romans 1:21-24: People “exchange” the truth of God for idols, and God has given them up to the vileness of their hearts’ lusts, to the shameful misuse of each other’s bodies.
Romans 1:25-26a: People “exchange” the truth of God for a lie, and God has given them up to degrading passions; so that they exchange natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
Romans 1:26b-32: People “exchange” natural sexual practices for the unnatural, and God has given them up to worthless ways of thinking; so, they do improper things.32
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