To our 21st century culture this passage is perhaps one of the most controversial passages in the Bible. Paul sets out the breakdown of human righteousness in some detail vividly describing mankind’s downward spiral into unholiness. He doesn’t pull his punches, so while we often read this and see the lines about same sex relationships and how they are described as “indecent” and “perverse” (v.27) we should be honest and acknowledge that few, if any of us, ought to be able to read his words without some pang of guilt in the back of our minds. Guilt for the times when we haven’t looked to God but have done our own thing. Guilt for the times when we haven’t given God the glory for His blessings. Guilt for the times when our wisdom proved to be of a lower standard that God’s. Guilt for the times when our worship has been directed towards earthly ‘stuff’ rather than heavenly beauty and power.
All of the content of this chapter should lead us to the same conclusion. We all need God. We need His Son Jesus Christ and we need to look at our own fault as much as we see it in others. And, we need to make it right with God – repenting daily of our shortcomings, wilfulness, failures and mistakes. It reminds me very much of the occasion where a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery was brought before Jesus (see John 8:1-11). He said “If any of you is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”
We should recognise our sin knowing that sin is the departure of our created nature, design and calling from the standard to which God made us to be. He made us male and female. He made us to worship Him, to seek His wisdom and to be blessed by His love and grace. So as Paul says, same sex relationships are wrong and so are many other things too. He doesn’t condone any of them. Neither should we.
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Question:
Do you believe that God is the Creator of things in heaven and on earth? If you do how do you view the world we live in and its propensity to please itself whenever it wants to.
Prayer:
Lord God of the heavens and the earth open our eyes to see the error of our ways, grant us the discipline to repent of our sin and the fortitude to amend our ways. Amen.