God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts
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| Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights |
Romans 1: 21-27
21 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. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Okay, let’s read through this. Because men neither glorified God, nor thanked him, their thinking tended to futility (uselessness), their hearts were darkened, and they became fools.
Their trajectory is set away from God–and so God allows them to continue on the trajectory they have chosen.
He surrenders them to their own lust. And to be surrendered to one’s own lust, without restraint or governance from God, is a very scary thing indeed.
And some men and women experienced lust for one another. “And received in themselves the penalty for their error.” What is this referring to? A prophetic reference to AIDS–a common interpretation? Or to the health risks of gay sex?
Evangelical and Liberal Christians do not agree on their intepretation of homosexuality–is it, or is not, sinful?–and since it is not a sin, or otherwise, which I am/have been particularly tempted by–and I have plenty of my own temptations–I am not going to blog further about it.
Of course this is Paul’s letter to the Romans, not mine. He is a first century Jew; he may or may not be homophobic; and the words he uses to describe homosexuality, not surprisingly for his era are “unnatural,” and verse 27, “shameful,” which is either a reference to homosexuality, or to particular homosexual practices.
What do you think? How do you read this passage?
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One of the exegeses on this that I have heard suggests that we should read on to at least the start of chapter 2 (here which starts “Therefore” and talks about judging others!
And while I am commenting, I don't think there is much controversy over homosexuality within liberal circles – it is between liberals and some evangelicals; though some evangelicals agree a different interpretation, eg Benny's 3 part exegesis – part 3 here with links to 1 & 2.
Shae, yes, I read it straight myself. However, I discussed it with some liberal Christian friends, who are ordained clergy in the Church of England, who read it differently and did see anything sinful about gay sex, which is why I wrote an open-ended interpretation.
I think it is pretty clear what it says. There is no cultural disclaimer present. Leading Evangelical scholars are unified in their opinions. But Christians are called to love all sinners, not just certain kinds. The worst sin of all is that of not loving God with all our hearts, so let's not over-focus on any single other sin.
– Shae