Good weekend my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
One of the most difficult aspects of parenting is watching children we love turn away from our wise advice and best efforts to help them avoid painful traps of selfish, self-destructive choices, right?
Did you know God shares that same painful experience? As God watches humanity, which He has lovingly designed with free will AND the capacity to know and love God; it’s also true we are free to pursue those things which lead us AWAY from God, right? God also has given us the ability to think and foresee disaster, yet sometimes people intentionally CHOOSE self-destructive paths, and I believe Ephesians 4:20 and 2 Peter 3:9 tell us, God then grieves!
From the wild city of Corinth, where Paul was surrounded by these types of tragic, self-destructive decisions every day, Paul was writing a warning to the Christians in the great city of Rome. Led by the Holy Spirit of God, Paul described the downward moral spiral many people were ensnared in. Sadly, many of these deceived people believed there was euphoric enlightenment in pushing God away and pursuing selfish pleasure with abandonment of conscience.
So, Paul wrote: “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” (Rom. 1:26,27)
Do you see that terrifying phrase: “God gave them over”? Do we understand that God has woven into the fabric of the human species a natural, personal CONSCIENCE, no matter where you live in the world? We all have innate basic awareness of civility and morality. Every human being feels a natural inclination to protect infants and the elderly from abuse. Every human being can see God’s design for natural heterosexual relations.
But the dark kingdom always tempts humanity to reject God’s orderly, moral design and lust after selfish dysfunction. When God removes His hand of restraint and allows moral chaos to overwhelm our sin nature, the result is decadence, homosexuality, incest, unrestrained sexual gluttony and perversion. Do you recognize such moral implosion all around our world, throughout history?
Did you notice Paul used a specific phrase to describe the tragic end result of this perversion: “Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” Have you heard of such diseases as syphilis or HIV? In fact, did you know, there is an entire category of diseases called “STDs”. (sexually transmitted disease) These diseases are only part of the consequences of this unbridled sexual perversion.
God wants us to understand this path of rejecting God’s morality and pursuing such dysfunction is not accidental. What Paul describes here is the intentional pursuit of morally rebellious people who know full well the dangerous risks.
So, the Holy Spirit led Paul to write these words: “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity …they invent ways of doing evil.” (Rom. 1:28-31)
I think I see three specific examples of this in our current world: Child sex traffickers; deadly, addictive drug distributors; and internet security hackers. These and other criminals continually develop new ways to accomplish their terrible wickedness which enslaves and destroys many people.
It reminds me of another time in human history when God’s assessment of the out-of-control wickedness was this: “The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (Gen. 6:5)
Believe it or not, that was only a few generations after Adam and Eve!! Do you remember what God did about that unbridled wickedness? God declared: “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created…” (Gen. 6:7) And God sent a global flood which destroyed every human being except those on the Ark with Noah. (Gen. 7,8)
The apostle Paul was not warning the Roman Christians that such a global disaster was coming, rather Paul had a different warning: “Although people know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but they also approve of those who practice them.“ (Rom. 1:32)
Have you noticed a significant shift in the morality standards and immorality tolerance of our world? Do you see, in many parts of our world, that decadent, wicked, evil behavior is not simply tolerated, it is actually celebrated? But more, I notice a growing attempt to shame those people who oppose evil. In fact, I see those who call for God honoring behavior are often publicly vilified!
Isn’t it amazing, my friends, that Paul’s letter written almost 2000 years ago could be read in any city in our world today, as a contemporary evaluation of the moral decay and decline. So, we need to pause right here, and I urge you to re-read Romans 1:18-32 carefully and slowly asking the Holy Spirit to give you a fresh understanding of how these truths are destroying our world today.
The “lessons learned” study notes will be very helpful to you and the worship song will be a blessing to your heart. I hope you have a great weekend with Jesus, and I look forward to meeting with you right here on Monday as we look for God’s answers to this moral decay.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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