ROMANS 1: 28-32
ABANDONED TO A DEPRAVED LIFESTYLE
This section addresses the havoc that occurs in human relationships and in society because of mankind's suppressing of the knowledge of God (1:18). We have discovered previously in our study of Romans chapter one that people who crave their sin strongly rebellion against God's restraining truth. Because they crave their sin so strongly God gives people over to their desire for sin. He allows them to experience the degrading consequences of their sin so that, like the prodical son, they might repent and turn to God. This repentance due to the penalty of their sin is what God desires, but it is not what people desire. People desire to pursue the way of the world. They will even force the true thoughts of God completely out of their life to do so.
So when people rebelliously push away God, He leaves them to their sin. Naturally when people are abandoned by God they become worse, but they enjoy their depravity instead of abhorring it. As people get involved in sin, their sin inhibits their willingness and ability to form right judgments about life. As these people promote their sin to others, society itself can then become depraved.
I. DEPRAVED MINDS, 28.
II. DEPRAVED SINS, 29-31.
III. DEPRAVED APPROVAL, 32.
When people reject God's ways or God's truth, the only way remaining is the way of sin and selfishness. A mind that will not be corrected by God will become depraved in its thinking as verse 28 states. "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,"
Human rebellion also includes putting God out of their thoughts. Men forced God from their mind. The rejecting mind then becomes the rejected mind. They did not believe it worthy to think about God so God abandons them to worthless thinking. They rejected God and God gave them over to godless thinking. When the mind rejects proper thinking about God, how can the mind still think properly? [Depraved is adokimos and is used of metals that were rejected because of impurities.] Since "they did not see fit" to retain the acknowledgment of God in their minds, "God gives them over to" an unfit mind.
A "depraved" or disapproved mind is explained in terms of what it approves or plans. It expresses itself in attitudes and actions that ought not be done or the doing of improper things. These are things that any un-depraved mind would regard as wrong. Notice that wrong belief leads to wrong thinking which leads to wrong actions.
II. DEPRAVED SINS, 29-31.
Once the mind becomes depraved it leads people into a whole variety of anti-social practices which ought not to be done. Together these practices describe the breakdown of human community as standards disappear, society and healthy social relationships begin to disintegrate. The mental vacuum created by dismissing God is filled (perfect tense implies will be filled full) with a catalogue of vices. Let's take this list of 21 results of not letting God be God in the mind one by one. The first consequences of exchanging the truth of God for a lie are given in verse 29a, "being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil;"
The list begins with four general sins (instrumental case) which fills depraved people. The first is unrighteousness or injustice, denoting the absence of what is just. [Adikia is the precise opposite of diaiosun , which means injustice; and] the Greeks defined justice as giving to God and to men their due. The injustice man is the man who robs both man and God of their rights. Fallen man erects an altar to himself so high in the center of his life that he obeys not God or man but himself.
Next is "wickedness" iniquity or villainy. In Greek this word means more than badness. There is a kind of badness which principally hurts only the person concerned. Wickedness is callously cruelty that intends to hurt others. The Greeks defined poneria as the desire of doing harm or being disruptive. It is the active, deliberate will to corrupt and to inflict injury. A woman, described as ponera deliberately seduced the innocent from their innocence. In Greek one of the commonest titles of Satan is ho pon ros, the evil one, the one who deliberately attacks and aims to destroy the goodness of men. It is destructive badness.
The third sin is "greed," or the lust or powerful urge to acquire more (Col. 3:5). It is an aggressive vice that pursues one's own interests pursue its own interests with disregard for the rights of others. It may operate in any sphere of life. If it operates in the material sphere, it means grasping at money and goods, regardless of honor and honesty. If it operates in the ethical sphere, it means the ambition which tramples on others to gain something which is not properly meant for it. If it operates in the moral sphere, it means the unbridled lust which takes its pleasure where it has no right to take it.
Fourth is "evil," vile or viciousness,. A general Greek word for one without good qualities. Kakia is the degeneracy out of which other sins grow.
These four express themselves in the following 17 types of more specific breeds of sin. The list thus continues with five nouns all qualified by full: "full of enry, murder, strife, deceit, malice;"
There is a good and a bad "envy." There is the envy which reveals to a man his own weakness and inadequacy, and which makes him eager to copy some great example. And there is the envy which is essentially a grudging thing. It looks at a fine person, and is not so much moved to aspire to that fineness, as to resent it, to want to tear that person down and take what they have. It is the most warped and twisted of human emotions.
Murder (phonos) the scope of which Jesus significantly widened. He insisted that it includes not only the violent deed but the spirit of anger and hatred. Jesus insisted that it is not enough only to keep from angry and savage action. The attitude of anger must be banished from the heart.
The Greek word for "strife" comes from the Goddess of Strife - Eris (Gal. 5:20b). It is the contention which is born of envy, ambition, the desire for prestige, place and prominence. It comes from the heart in which there is jealousy. If a man is cleansed of jealousy, he has gone far to being cleansed of all that arouses contention and strife. It is a
God-given gift to be able to take as much pleasure in the successes of others as in one's own.
"Deceit" is from the word for mixed pure with impure. It describes one who stoops to devious or underhand methods to get his own way. Someone who has some kind of ulterior motive for what he does. It describes the crafty cunning of the plotting intriguer who is found in every community and every society.
"Malice" is the attitude which puts the worst intent on everything. Aristotle defined it as "the spirit which always supposes the worst about other people." Pliny called it "malignity of interpretation." Jeremy Taylor said that it is "a baseness of nature by which we take things by the wrong handle, and expound things always in the worst sense." It may well be that this is the commonest of all sins. If there are two possible interpretations to be put upon the action of any man, human nature will choose the worse. It is terrifying to think how many reputations have been murdered in gossip over the teacups, with people maliciously putting a wrong judgment upon a completely innocent action. When we are tempted so to do, we ought to remember that God hears and remembers every word we speak.
"Gossip" or whisperer describes a person who whispers malicious stories in the listener's ear. One who takes a man aside and tells character or reputation destroying stories.
"Slanderer" is a man who is open about his accusations and tales. Notice that "whisperers" and "backbiters" are listed them among the insolent, murderers, inventors of evil, God-haters, and the like. Whispers are gossipers who spread rumors and backbiters are those who talk spitefully about a person. Tragically, some Christians are guilty of these sins. They wouldn't run people down with their cars, but they willingly "run them down" with their words, belittling what they do or say.
[We need to repent of gossip and replace it with what John Stott calls "holy gossip." That is we nee to talk enthusiastically about the transforming work that Christ is doing in
people's lives. For example, "Have you noticed that Joe is a completely changed person since he gave his life to Christ?" Or, "I certainly see the Lord at work in Susan!"]
"Haters of God" describes the man who hates God because he knows that he is defying Him. God is the barrier between him and his pleasures; He is the obstacle who keeps him from doing exactly as he likes. He would gladly eliminate God if he could, for to him a godless world would be one where he would have, not liberty, but licence.
"Insolent" describes the attitude of the man who is so proud that he defies God. He doesn't care what God says or thinks. It is the insolent pride that goes before a fall. It is the spirit of the man who is so confident in his wealth, his power, and his strength that he thinks that he can live life without God. (ii) Or it can describe the man who is openly and boldly cruel and insulting. Aristotle describes it as the spirit which harms and grieves someone else, not for the sake of revenge and not for any advantage that may be gained from it, but simply for the sheer pleasure of hurting. There are people who get pleasure from seeing someone under cruel attack.
The "arrogant" are those who hold a certain contempt for everyone except oneself. They delight in making others feel small. They pick out things in other's lives which make them feel superior. Arrogance is a superiority attitude in thought and conduct.
The "boastful" are those who believe they are what they are not. They pretend to be richer and braver than they are and promise to do what they are unable to in order to gain some advantage or profit. A pretentious person that is out to impress others.
"Inventors of evil" describes people who, so to speak, are not content with the usual, ordinary ways of sinning, but who seeks out new vices and new thrills in some new sin.
"Disobedient to parents". Once the bonds of parental obedience are loosened or broken, rampant degeneration follows.
"Without understanding" or senseless describes one who is a fool, who cannot learn the lesson of experience, who will not apply the mind and brain that God has given to him.
"Untrustworthy" or breakers of agreements are those whose word means little to them. At one time in our country a man's word was his bond.
"Without natural affections" or unloving [(astorgos), storg was the special Greek word for family love,] describes a parent who would abandon a child or a grown child who would abandon his aging parents.
"Unmerciful" or showed others no mercy in judgments or actions. A hard nose person who doesn't cut other person any slack.
What a terrible picture of the consequences of forcing God out of your daily thinking.
III. DEPRAVED APPROVAL, 32.
Verse 32 is a concluding summary of human perversity. "and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. "
First, "they know," for since the creation of the world God has made Himself known to every human being (19-21). People do not follow God because they do not want to follow God. They know inherently or possess knowledge of God's righteous "ordinance." Even those who have never been exposed to God's Word are instinctively aware of His existence and of His basic standard of righteousness (Rom. 2:15; Jn. 3:19-20).
Second, they disregard their knowledge. They know the things they do deserve the punishment "of death" or eternal separation from God. As Paul will write later "for the wages of sin is death" (6:23). They know it and their conscience condemns them but it doesn't stop them.
[How were these people aware of God's death penalty? Human beings, created in God's image, have a basic moral nature and a conscience. This truth is understood beyond religious circles. Psychologists, for example, say that the rare person who has no conscience has a serious personality disorder that is extremely difficult to treat. Most people instinctively know when they do wrong - but they may not care.] Some people will even risk an early death for the freedom to indulge their desires now. "I know it's wrong, but I really want it," they say; or, "I know it's dangerous, but it's worth the risk." For such people, part of the "fun" is going against God's law, the community's moral standards, common sense, or their own sense of right and wrong. But deep down inside they know that sin deserves the punishment of death (6:23).
So in defiant revolt against God, instead of repenting or even admitting the evil of their deeds, they promote wrong doing and encourage others to continue to do wrong, or to start doing evil. This absolute pit of wickedness is reached, the Bible says, when those involved in evils also "give hearty approval to" others who practice them."
"To justify one's own sin is wicked enough, but to approve and encourage others to sin is immeasurably worse. Even the best of societies have had those within them who were blatantly wicked and perverse. But a society that openly condones and defends such evils as sexual promiscuity, lesbianism, homosexuality, and the rest has reached the deepest level of corruption. Many of the most advanced societies of our own day are entering that category. Sexually promiscuous celebrities are glamorized and the rights of homosexuals are ardently defended. These acts of sin are in direct contradiction to the revealed will of God." (MacArthur. Mac NT Com. Moody. p 109).
CONCLUSION
We have come to the conclusion of Paul's portrayal of depraved society. He clearly depicts the contrast between what people know to be true and what they do. They suppress the truth so they can do their evil. Such extreme rebellion against God fully warrants God's wrath.
The Bible clearly portrays an inevitable downward spiral into sin. First, people reject God; next, they make up their own ideas of what a god should be and do; then they fall into sin - sexual sin, greed, hatred, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip. Finally, they grow to hate God and encourage others to do so. God does not cause this steady progression toward evil. Rather, when people reject Him, He allows them to live as they choose. God gives them over or permits them to experience the natural consequences of their sin. Once caught in the downward spiral, no one can pull himself or herself out. Sinners must trust Christ alone to put them on the path of escape £rom their vices.
Maybe you know some one caught up in sin's deceptive perversion. I invite you to come and pray for them during this time of response.
