A man becomes a slave to his idols
May 29, 2020
Commentary
In this chapter, Paul has been analyzing the civilization of the first century Roman Empire. He describes the moral life of great cities like Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome. However, the letter describes exactly what happened last night in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. Idolatrous worship still prevails in all parts of the world. Education, culture, and advancement do not free men from idolatry since the problem is basically spiritual. When I was in India, I saw a first-hand example of this. Although they are very advanced in the computer age, cows are made sacred. To kill a cow is as bad as murder. India cannot feed its starving millions, yet two hundred million cows are allowed to wander far and wide competing with man for food and damaging crops. Not even the government of India can liberate the nation from this false worship, and its efforts to do so are being met with stubborn opposition from the people.
False religious systems enslave people both sensually and spiritually. Paul describes the sensual enslavement when he said, “God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves” (v. 24). Paul then moves on from describing sensual enslavement to describing spiritual enslavement which results from idolatry when he says that God gave up those “who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator” (v. 25). In other words, a man becomes a slave to his idols.
Paul describes the wicked behavior of the heathen (vv. 26-32):
1. They become morally perverted – Widespread Homosexuality (vv. 26-27). He describes how those who turn away from God give themselves over to shameful and unnatural vices. This was true then and is still true today as we see this becoming more blatant, more aggressive, and more evident all the time.
2. They become mentally perverted – Total Moral Depravity (vv. 28-32). Three times in this chapter we are told that God gives up those who give Him up (vv. 24, 26, 28). This clearly shows what happens to a man when he leaves God out of his life.
Application
Although I am not tempted to worship cows or other creatures, I need to be careful that I never worship my lifestyle and the things I may accumulate on this earth.
Romans 1:24– 32 (NET)
24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.