Violating God’s Order
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 sexual relations for unnatural ones.7 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. Romans 1:25-27
God’s anger works quietly and often invisibly by God handing sinners over to themselves. It operates, not by God intervening, but by Him not intervening, by letting men and women go their own way.
Following this principle, Paul follows this process of deterioration in three sections, each adding to the one before
· firstly he notes the people’s knowledge of God
· secondly he draws attention to rejection of this knowledge in favour of idolatry
· thirdly he describes the reaction of God’s wrath
The first section was in 1:21-24. We are now in the second section (1:25-27)
· their knowledge of God: ‘the truth of God’ (1:25)
· their rejection of that knowledge: ‘They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator’ (1:25)
· the reaction of God’s wrath: ‘God gave them over to shameful lusts’ (1:26)
Paul now explains the sexual sin in terms of homosexuality. He mentions both men and women to underscore the divine creation of human beings into these two categories and the implications of godly sexual conduct that flow from that distinction. The emphasis is on the natural order. Women ‘exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones’ (1:26) and men ‘abandoned natural relations with women’ (1:27). These ‘natural relations’ are the ones God ordained for humanity in His creation.
It’s not just that Paul was particularly disgusted by this behaviour which many pagan cultures accepted and celebrated, but which Judaism had always banned. Nor was Paul’s thinking to expose Emperor Nero who was known to indulge in homosexual practices as well as more bizarre heterosexual behaviour. Nor was it the case that Paul’s thinking was a reaction to the fact that in the ancient world homosexual relationships were normally part of cult prostitution and often involved older people exploiting younger ones. Paul saw homosexuality as against God’s creation order.
This is a controversial area but it is important to note what Paul is not saying, either here or in the verses to follow. He is not saying that anyone who feels a same-sex attraction or everyone who engages in actual same-sex relations has got to that point by committing specific acts of idolatry. Nor does he suppose that all who find themselves in that situation have arrived there by a deliberate choice to give up the possibility of a heterosexual relationship. Reading the text like that reflects a contemporary individualism. He is talking about the human race as a whole. The fact that such clear distortions of the Creator’s male-plus-female intention occur in the world indicates the human race as a whole is guilty of a character twisting idolatry.
Paul clearly endorses the Old Testament view that homosexual relations violate the order of creation established by God for all people. Believers ought to judge our culture by biblical standards and not try to force the Bible into the mould of our culture. But in insisting on biblical standards we must not go further than Scripture. Homosexual activity is not described in the Bible as a perversion worse than any other. To repeat what has already been said, Paul’s purpose in singling out homosexual activity is not because he regards it as a more serious sin than others but because he sees it as a clear violation of the created order.
We are called to offer the same love and hope through the gospel to gays that we offer to anyone caught up in any form of sin. ‘Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God’ (1 Corinthians 6:10,11). Paul reached out to every person in every category in Corinth and called upon believers to imitate him (1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1). Will you?