Verse 18: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. After beginning his epistle on a gentle note, Paul now launches into a series of ominous warnings. In this verse, Paul is speaking of the return of Christ and the Day of Judgment.
Jesus prophesied about this, saying, "Immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory." Wrath of God.
When we think of the wrath of God, we should not picture God being carried away with rage, as happens with humans. Origen comments, "When we read of the wrath of God in either the Old Testament or in the New, we should not take such expressions literally." And again, indeed, we Christians speak of the wrath of God. However, we do not mean that it suggests any fury on his part; rather, it is a posture. He assumes to sternly discipline those sinners who have committed many grievous sins.
What we call the wrath or anger of God is actually his means of discipline. Novatian writes, "We read of God's wrath, and we see certain descriptions of his indignation. In fact, even hatred is attributed to him." However, we are not to imagine these things are said of him in the sense in which these things are human vices. For when God is said to be angry, this does not arise from any evil in him; rather, he is angry for our advantage. For even when he threatens humans, he is always merciful.
Actually, it is by these threats that he calls man back to righteousness. Fear is necessary to rouse those humans who lack the motivation to live a virtuous life. Since they have forsaken reason, perhaps they may at least be spurred on by dread. In summary, all these things, either the anger of God or his hatred or anything else of this kind, are displayed for our reformation.
Theodoret adds, "Paul calls the punishment of God wrath." However, it is not that God punishes with any frenzy of mind; rather, Paul gives it such a fear-inspiring name to alarm those who oppose God. Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Theophylact observes, "There is only one true worship and godliness. However, there are many forms of ungodliness. That is why he says, 'All ungodliness.'" Who hold the truth in unrighteousness?
Paul does not say that the wrath of God is revealed against those who are ignorant of the truth, but against those who hold it in unrighteousness. What does Paul mean by that? Origen answers, "Through divine revelation, the Gentiles possessed limited truth. However, they turned away from the truth because of their wicked deeds. Through creation, God had revealed to them sufficient knowledge about his basic attributes. The Gentiles also suppressed the truth by denying man's free will.
For that reason, in accord with God's covenant with man, those who lived before Christ deserved God's righteous condemnation, for they rejected the worship of God. Even though they had sufficient revelation to recognize God, they instead embraced the worship of idols of both men and beasts." Natural Law, Chapter 1, Verse 19: "For that which may be known about God is evident to them, for God has showed it to them." Here Paul introduces the topic of natural law.
God has implanted in all humans the knowledge of certain basic moral truths. Justin Martyr writes, "God sets before every race of mankind that which is always and universally just and righteous. Every race knows that adultery, fornication, murder, and similar things are sinful. Even though they all commit such practices, they know that they are acting unrighteously whenever they do so." Paul says these truths are evident to all humans, even though they may choose to deny them or violate them.
This natural law includes the innate knowledge that there is a Creator and God. Arnobius writes, "Is there any human being who has not entered on the first day of his life with an idea of the Great Ruler? Is there anyone in whom there has not been implanted by nature the fact that God is King and Lord, the Ruler of all things?" To be sure, natural law does not include all of God's teachings, nor does it instill a complete knowledge about God.
The Mosaic Law provided far more revelation than natural law, and the New Testament gives the complete revelation that has been made available to humans. Nevertheless, natural law reveals enough about God and his morality to provide a basis for God's judgment on the Gentiles who violate it. Tertullian writes, "The people of Israel transgressed God's laws, and the rest of mankind neglected natural law.
So both groups have sinned and rebelled against the Creator." Theodoret adds, "Paul begins his accusation against all the Gentile nations, saying that they had recklessly violated the law implanted in their nature by their Maker. And this censure of them includes a vindication of the Creator. For when God formed humans, he did not allow them to live like irrational animals.
Rather, he dignified them with reason, and he gave them a measure of discernment about right and wrong." Chapter 1, Verse 20: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and deity. So they are without excuse. Humans can discern the deity and majesty of God through his creation. As David declares, 'The heavens declare the glory of God.' The expanse shows his handiwork.
Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge." Nations like the Greeks, Chaldeans, and Egyptians had discovered much about the physical universe. They recognized its grandeur, its orderliness, and its unvarying cycles and laws. Therefore, they could easily recognize that a being vastly greater than anything on earth must have created the universe. Yet they made images of God in the form of mere men, mammals, and even creeping reptiles.
Not only that, but they worshipped these absurd images. As Paul exclaims, "They are without excuse." Chrysostom writes, "What will the Greeks say on that day? How can they say, 'But we were ignorant of you'? Did you not see the hours of night and day continually abiding without change? Did you not see the intelligent order of winter, spring, and the other seasons, which are both certain and unchanging? Did you not observe the steadiness of the sea, despite all its turbulence and waves?
Did you not witness that everything remains in order? By its order, beauty, and grandeur, creation proclaims aloud the Creator." If God held the ancients responsible for their refusal to properly acknowledge him as Creator, how much more responsible are today's generation? Today we know that the universe and matter itself are far more complex than the ancients ever dreamed. We recognize the incredible intricacy of even the simplest living organisms, let alone humans. Yet much of mankind denies there is a Creator.
Even those who are not atheists live their lives without any thought of accountability to their Creator. Chapter 1, Verse 21 through 23: "For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful. But they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible man, and into birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things.
Although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. Although the pagan Gentiles worshipped a multitude of gods, they still retained in their consciences the knowledge that there was one supreme being, whom they simply called God." Lactantius writes, "We often see that the worshippers of other gods confess and acknowledge the supreme God.
For in swearing, expressing a wish, and giving thanks, they do not name Jupiter or a plurality of gods, but simply God." Lactantius continues, "If a violent tempest or a hailstorm threatens them, they call out to God. They implore aid from God. They entreat God to help them. If anyone is tossed about on the sea among furious winds, he again invokes only the name of God. If anyone is reduced to desperate extremes of poverty and is begging for his food, he appeals to God alone.
He seeks to gain the compassion of others by appealing only to the divine and matchless name of God." In short, they never remember God until they are in trouble. Theodoret adds, "They themselves testify by their continual use of his adorable name that they are aware of the existence of God. Yet they reject all appropriate thoughts concerning him." Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Despite their innate recognition of the one true God, the pagan Gentiles turned to worshipping stone idols, animals, and even images of animals. Ambrosiaster comments, "Just because they have investigated the physical universe, they think they are wise. They have examined the courses of the stars and the number of elements. But they reject the God who made these things. Therefore, they are fools.
For if all these created things are praiseworthy, how much more so is their Creator?" They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible man. Theodoret comments, "They chose not to recognize that the Maker of all things is superior to decay, and he is obviously far above all visible things. Nevertheless, their woodcarvers, sculptors, and painters attempted to portray God by representations of perishable mortal bodies.
And into birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things." Theodoret continues, "As if that were not sufficiently irreverent, they turned to the worship of images of birds, beasts, and creeping things. It should have occurred to them that men eat some of these very same animals as food. On the other hand, men loathe others of these animals as being unclean, or they avoid them as poisonous.
Yet in the excess of their madness and folly, the Gentiles worshipped as gods the images of these very same animals that humans either ate, loathed, or killed." Condemnation of the Gentiles (Romans 1:24-32, starting with verses 24 and 25): "For this reason, God gave them up to uncleanness through the desires of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves.
For they changed the truth of God into a lie, and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever." Amen. Paul explains that ideas have consequences. A distorted view of God leads to distorted morality. This is just as true today as it was in the first century. In Paul's day, the Gentiles had turned the truth of God into a lie by worshipping images of created things instead of worshipping the Creator. Since they willfully rejected the revelation given them, God gave them up.
What does that mean? It signifies that he abandoned them to their wicked, wanton way of living. Chrysostom writes, "Consider the matter: God set the universe before them for the purpose of teaching them. He also gave them reason and an understanding capable of perceiving what was necessary." However, the men of that day did not use any of these things to turn to salvation. Rather, whatever revelation they received, they perverted for opposite purposes. So what was God to do?
Was he to drag them to him by compulsion and force? Yet that would not make them virtuous. The only thing left was to simply leave them alone. And this is what he did so that, if by no other means, having had their fill of the things for which they lusted, they might perhaps flee from what was so shameful. Today we witness the same phenomenon. First, humans rejected belief in a Creator, and they embraced the theory of materialistic evolution instead. Afterwards, they ended up rejecting God's morality.
Yet they imagine they are enlightened for doing so. Chapter 1, Verses 26 through 27: "For this reason, God gave them up to vile affections. For even their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise also the men. Leaving the natural use of the woman, they burned in their lust toward one another, men with men, working that which is improper and receiving in themselves the fitting recompense of their error." After degrading the worship of God, humans next degraded themselves.
Paul begins his list of sins by denouncing one of the most loathsome abominations practiced by humans: abandoning the natural use for which men and women were created. Women were lying with women, and men with men. Theodoret comments, "Wickedness walks hand in hand with impiety.
For just as they changed the truth of God into a lie, so likewise they changed the proper purpose and practice of sexual desire into that which was abominable." God had previously dealt decisively with this sin in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Jude writes concerning those cities, "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having in the same way as these given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire." Chrysostom writes concerning homosexual relations, "There is not, there surely is not, a more grievous evil than this audacious practice." He writes further, "Accordingly, not only was their doctrine satanical, but also their life was diabolical.
The obvious proof that they have reached the ultimate degree of corruption is when each sex has abandoned the other. As a result, he who was ordained to be the instructor of woman, and she who was made to be a helpmate to man, both work the deeds of enemies against each other." The pinnacle of wickedness in ancient Rome was when men purported to marry other men. The pagan Roman writer Juvenal describes one scene.
A person says, "I have a ceremony to attend at dawn tomorrow in the Quirinal Valley." "What is the occasion?" another asks. "No need to ask," the first man replies, "it's only that one of my male friends is taking a husband to himself. It's quite a small affair." "Yes, and if we only live long enough, we shall see these things done openly. People will wish to see them reported among the news of the day." Even in wicked pagan Rome, that day never came.
However, as Juvenal predicted, today such marriages are performed openly. Furthermore, in ancient Rome, such a union was only a mock marriage. The Roman government did not recognize such marriages as legal. In fact, such mock marriages had to be done in secret to avoid the uproar they would have caused among the population. Yet today, not only are they performed publicly with no shame, but all jurisdictions within the United States are forced to recognize such marriages as legal.
The same is true in many other countries. Even though he was a pagan, Juvenal protested such abominations. "Oh, you nobles of Rome, is it a soothsayer that we need, or a censor? Would you be more aghast, would you deem it a greater portent if a woman gave birth to a calf, or an ox gave birth to a lamb? The man who is now arraying himself in the decorations, train, and veil of a bride once carried the oscillating shields of Mars. O father of our city, where did such wickedness come from among your Latin shepherds?
How did such a lust possess your grandchildren?" Chapter 1, Verse 28: "And since they did not want to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a degenerate mind, to do those things that are not fitting." Once again, Paul says the Gentiles did not want to retain the knowledge of God. Chrysostom comments, "Their audacious deeds did not come from ignorance, but from willful practice.
For this reason, Paul did not say, 'Since they had no knowledge of God.' Rather, he said, 'Since they did not want to retain God in their knowledge.'" In other words, their sin was one of perverted, determined obstinacy. It was not a matter of sudden weakness. Ambrosiaster comments, "Because of their embracing the errors of idolatry, God abandoned the Gentiles to do disgraceful things to each other, as has already been said.
And they imagined they could do these things with impunity, for they thought God did not care and could be ignored. As a result, they became more and more dull in their senses and more ready to accept all kinds of evil." Having first named the most appalling example of Gentile depravity homosexual relations, Paul goes on to describe more examples of the fruit produced by the degenerate mind of the Gentiles.
Chapter 1, Verses 29 through 31: "They are filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, and maliciousness. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and maliciousness.
They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, spiteful, proud, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents without understanding, covenant breakers without natural affection, unbending and unmerciful." Chrysostom comments, "See how everything here is intensive, for Paul says, 'Being filled,' and he adds, 'With all unrighteousness.'" Then, after naming evil in general, he begins to enumerate particular sins.
And he shows they embrace these sins to excess, for he says, "They are full of envy, murder, and the other sins." The list Paul gives is quite extensive, serving as an indictment against the pagan Gentiles. At the same time, it serves as a judgment against any Jews or Christians who are guilty of the same offenses. Let us examine just a few of the evils that Paul names. Murder: When the early Christians referred to murder, they spoke not only about the homicides that the world considered to be murder.
They also included acts that the world did not consider murder: war, abortion, infanticide, and gladiatorial slayings. War: Cyprian writes, "Wars are scattered all over the earth with the bloody horror of military camps.
Murder, which is admitted as being a crime in the case of an individual, is called a virtue when it is committed wholesale." Justin Martyr adds, "We who formerly murdered one another now refrain from making war, even upon our enemies." Justin writes further, "We used to be filled with war, mutual slaughter, and every kind of wickedness. However, now all of us, throughout the whole earth, have changed our warlike weapons.
We have changed our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks." Abortion and infanticide: Athenagoras writes, "We say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder. And we also say they will have to give an account to God for these abortions." So how could we Christians possibly commit murder? For it does not make sense for the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, yet when he has passed into life, to kill him.
We also teach that it is wrong to expose an infant, for those who expose them are guilty of child murder. Gladiator contests: Theophilus declares, "We are forbidden so much as to witness shows of gladiators, lest we become partakers and abettors of murders." Athenagoras wrote to the pagans, "Who among you does not consider the contests of gladiators and wild beasts to be of the greatest interest? In contrast, we have renounced such spectacles.
For we believe that watching a man put to death is much the same as killing him." Tatian adds, "The robber commits murder for the sake of plunder, but the rich man purchases gladiators for the sake of their being killed. They are gossips." Some Christians are surprised that Paul ranks gossip along with such serious sins as murder, homosexual relations, sexual immorality, and maliciousness.
However, Jesus says, "Whoever says, 'You fool,' will be in danger of the hell of fire." Yet most people would rather be called a fool to their faces than to be made fools of through someone's gossip. Even in the Old Testament, God had told the Israelites, "You shall not go around as a talebearer among your people." Hermas admonishes, "Speak evil of no one, and do not listen with pleasure to anyone who speaks evil of another.
For if you listen, you partake of the sin of the one who speaks evil." Clement of Alexandria writes, "Men must not spend their time in barbershops and public houses babbling nonsense. Likewise, they should not seek the women who sit nearby, ceaselessly gossiping against others just to raise a laugh." Inventors of evil: Chrysostom writes, "Paul says inventors of evil." He shows that they were not content with the existing evils, but they had to invent new ones.
Disobedient to parents: This obviously applies to children who do not obey their parents. At the same time, the early Christians applied these words to adults who disrespected their parents. Ambrosiaster writes about certain pagan adults, "They were seized with such great insolence that they did not even acknowledge their parents, who had given them life and who had rejoiced in their birth.
Instead, they had contempt for the very ones who had brought them into existence." Chapter 1, Verse 32: "Who, knowing the judgment of God that those who commit such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same things, but they approve of those who do them." As Ambrosiaster points out, when Paul says that such persons are "worthy of death," he is speaking of the second death, eternal punishment.
Paul shows that the Gentiles had become so wicked that they not only participated in the various evil deeds enumerated, but they also approved of others who did the same. In other words, instead of repenting of their sins, they even encouraged others to sin in the same manner, praising them when they did so. Theodoret comments, "They think that committing such things is not sufficient unless they also encourage others to do likewise. And this is the final excess of wickedness.
For they should not only hate the sins of others, but they should also condemn even their own sins with loathing." Chrysostom adds, "He who praises a certain sin is even worse than he who commits it." Ambrosiaster writes, "There are those who think they are not guilty if they do not do what is wrong, but they are tolerant of those who do." But to tolerate such things when they should be condemned is to give silent assent to them, or even to delight in hearing about them.
Therefore, it is right that they should be considered equally guilty of them. In other words, consent is participation. The people for whom Jesus died, we rightly mourn over such wicked behavior, but we rejoice when such sinful people receive Christ's salvation. Paul tells us, "God demonstrates His love for us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In short, Jesus died for the very people Paul has been describing. That is how great His love is for us.