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.
Sexual impurity is mentioned here
and again in 1:26,27.
In both cases “God gave them
over”.
Why is sexual impurity mentioned
twice?
In 1:24 it is in reference to cultic
practices in pagan temples that goes along with idol worship.
In 1:26, 27 it refers to immorality
in society and culture in ordinary life.
This is an example of false
religious beliefs and false religious practices infecting the lives of the people and destroying their
culture.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped
and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 this same
pattern repeats itself for the final time.
It involves idol worship,
honor of a man above God, a strong delusion, God giving the people over to their sin and ultimately destruction for
the people involved.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful
lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
“Women” is the Greek word “thelus”
that means “female”.
It is not the word “gune” /gun –ay/
which is usually used for “women”.
In 1:27 the word for “man” is not
“anthropos” or “aner” which refers to a male member of the human race but is the word “arsen” which refers
simply to a male as distinguished
from a female.
This is because the only distinction
these people make is the sex.
A true man is a man for more than
the fact he is male.
A true woman is a woman for more
than the fact she is female.
But, these people are only
distinguishable from each other because they are physically of a certain sex. Otherwise their manhood and womanhood has
been destroyed and they are
indistinguishable.
Because of their actions in verse 24
and 25 God gave them over again.
The first time he gave them over to
false religion or false philosophy,
They did not reject the lies of
false religion and false philosophy but instead
embraced them.
Because they embraced the lie God gave
them over to the fruit of those false views which is immorality.
The Pattern:
1)Reject the Obvious
Truth (1:18-20)
2)Replace the
Emptiness (Vacuum) for false philosophies (1:21-23)
3)Engage in worship
of idol and advancement of false philosophy (1:24-25)
4)Incorporate the
values and practice the morals and ethics of the idols in society.
5)They are left to
live with out restrain of the sin nature.
Only God’s grace, God’s Spirit and
God’s word can save a man’s spirit, soul and body from the decaying effects of the sin nature.
If man rejects the revelation of God
he is doomed to the sin nature.
27 In 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.
“Burned” or “inflamed” is the word
for “burned out” which refers to excessive lust and consumption by it.
“Kaio” means burn, or to light. Here the word is “exkaio”. The “ex-“ prefix intensifies the word.
“Indecent” means “want of form,
disfigurement, deformed, one’s nakedness, shame.”
“due penalty” means “recompense” or
the “reward given”
Man is not presented here as a
victim.
Man is responsible for his own over
throw because he rejected the answer.
Man rejected the light, no matter
how small it was, in the dark cave of sin.
·
Sin comes from the nature of
man.
·
Man’s judgment is perverted.
·
Man then is abandoned to that
perverted mind. (This is the punishment,
or retribution
·
The result: man is destroyed by his
own actions
1:28-32
Describes the total corruption of any human relationship for
men who have abandoned God.
28
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of
God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
Romans
1:28 kai AND
kaqwV ACCORDING AS ouk THEY edokimasan ton DID NOT APPROVE qeon GOD ecein TO HAVE en
IN THEIR epignwsei KNOWLEDGE paredwken GAVE UP autouV
o THEM qeoV
GOD eiV TO AN adokimon UNAPPROVING noun MIND poiein TO DO
ta THINGS mh NOT kaqhkonta FITTING
Notice: Man did not “approve” of God, so God gave them over
to a mind that was not “approved.”
(Notice underlined Greek words)
“dokimazo” means to approve or to test.
The human race had put God to the test and did not approve,
thus the word “edokimasan” or “adokimzo”.
They disapproved of God.
“Not Fitting” was a technical term for the stoics.
This is the third time that “God gave them over.”
1st time he gave them over to the lie and to the
practices of idol worship (1:24)
2nd time he gave them over to lusts and immoral
acts (1:26)
3rd time he gave them over to a depraved mind.
(1:28)
1- Reject God
2- Accept lie
3- Given to lie to practice it
4- Given over to lusts
5- Given over to a depraved mind
6- Result is personal, family, social and cultural chaos
29
They 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,
“Being Filled” is a perfect participle.
The perfect tense means this is a completed action in the
past but yet having present results
in the present.
Those who “disapproved” of God and exchanged the truth for a
lie in the past are now in the
present completely filled with these 21 sins.
30
slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of
doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31
they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
It is difficult to find structure in this list.
Many words overlap in meaning and many are synonyms.
The best break down is this:
1) the
list falls into three parts
a. “filled
with all manner of:
i.
Unrighteousness
ii.
Evil
iii.
Greed
iv.
Wickedness
b. full
of:
i.
envy
ii.
murder
iii.
strife
iv.
deceit
v.
malice
c. (the
rest)
i.
Gossips
ii.
Maligners
iii.
Haters of God
iv.
Proud
v.
Arrogant
vi.
Overbearing
vii.
Devisers of evil
viii.
Disobedient to parents
ix.
Without understanding
x.
Without faithfulness
xi.
Without affection
xii.
Without mercy
2) A
General Sequence
a. First
Four are general nouns
b. Next
five are about envy and the result of envy
c. The
final twelve:
i.
Two words about slander
ii.
Four about arrogance
iii.
Six unrelated
3) These
are basically social evils
4) They
are not sexual sins
5) They
are not sins against God
6) The
point of the list is to show that the result of being given to a depraved mind
is the destruction of society by man.
This is damaged mankind destroying other people.
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.
“God’s righteous
decree” is not linked by Paul to the Law of Moses but again to general revelation referred to in 1:18