God's Wrath Against Mankind

 God's Wrath Against Mankind; Men Are Without Excuse

(Romans 1:18-32)

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven

Against all the godlessness and wickedness of men

Who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

Since what may be known about God is plain to them,

Because God has made it plain to them.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--

His eternal power and divine nature--

Have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,

So that men are without excuse.

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.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools

And exchanged the glory of the immortal God

For images made to look like mortal man 

And birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts 

To sexual impurity

For the degrading of their bodies with one another.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie,

And worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--

Who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

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.

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.

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, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, 

Arrogant and boastful;

They invent ways of doing evil;

They disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, 

Heartless, ruthless.

Although 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.