Context & Priorities

Q: How do we address Romans 1:24 while still being a loving, accepting Christian community?

When contemplating how I was going to respond to this, I wanted to make sure that I was able to teach in the midst of giving a source of reflection. Scripture is a struggle sometimes, as we search for meaning and application to our own lives and situations. I don’t feel that any one verse in any book of scripture is meant to stand alone. Indexing and versing is only a convenient means that we use to find our place. Therefore, I took the verse before the verse in question and the verse after and compared three different translations. Here they are: (I put verse 24 in italics so that it would be identifiable.)

Romans 1:22-25 (KJV)

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Romans 1:22-25 (NRSV)

Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Romans 1:22-25 (The Message)

They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

If you isolate verse 24, I can instantly see why one would consider it to be problematic. Especially in the King James version. Read by itself, it seems that God has given up on those who lust in uncleanness and dishonor their bodies. It’s pretty condemning to those who may not fit conveniently in a conservative biological anatomical description, specifically our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. Which may be the underlying reason for this question in the first place. 

Put into context, one can see that the Romans passage referenced is not necessarily about lust and sex at all. In context, the passage seems to address the larger issue of right relationship with God. We must understand that God is always more about how we live in relationship and less about how our biological parts fit together. The people of Rome were being exhorted by the Apostle Paul for failing to get their priorities right. They were not putting the ONE true living God first.

We should remember that Christianity, at the time of the letter to the Romans, was a new way and most of the Romans that Paul was writing to were once pagan and followed many gods, usually formed in some likeness of an animal or humanoid figure. These "fake" gods were often associated with public orgy festivals, and other acts of debauchery. If the people of Rome were now professing to believe and follow the ONE true God of Israel in the way of Jesus, then those other “fake” gods needed to be given up, as well as the practices that are degrading to good healthy relationships.

The correct priority would be to honor and acknowledge the way of Jesus Christ that Paul is trying to teach. Those who “profess to be wise” or “know it all” will often end up thinking that they have it all figured out by themselves and can save themselves. They think that there is no need for Jesus, let alone church, spiritual development, Christian education, sacraments, etc… Unfortunately, even today society is full of those who “profess to be wise” and therefore don’t need Jesus. If we choose to live in our "filth" and not put God before "fake idols," then God will surely let us.

God commands us to love one another, and to love God. However, God never forces us to love. We will always have free-will to do as we please. But when we do as we please, we end up acting like the “know it all” and straying from the ways of Christ and following too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. If we turned away from God, it's guaranteed that we are going to mess it up, and God’s not going to keep us from messing it up. We make other things in our life idols and end up worshiping them, because we pay attention to them more than we are nurturing our relationship with God.

To me, Romans 1:24 does not get in the way of being a loving, accepting Christian community. It does call us into making sure that we continue to put God first and not rely on ourselves or replace God with a fake.