24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 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 1:24-25
In the remaining verses of this chapter, we have 3 “God gave them up” statements and clarifications. Today I am focusing on the first of these.
God gave them up to impurity…but Paul preferences this “to impurity” with “in the lusts of their hearts”. Notice Paul does not say “minds”. This is a deep sinful embrace of their lustful desires that in consumption of that lust, God gives them up to impurity and the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.
I missed an important piece. The verses before this talk about exchanging the glory of an immortal God for creation, idols, and other things of this earth that are placed by men above God. The next word in the very front of the passage today is – “THEREFORE”. Because of this exchange, God gives them over to these three “God gave them up” decrees.
In my thinking about this passage, it represents the person who gratifies themselves, probably graduating to more and more yucky stuff like pornography, then potentially prostitution, and seeking out the whacky fetish stuff that seeks to gratify that “lust of their hearts”. The debased mind that has been given over loses control and perception of right and wrong. They become calloused and uninhibited. Scary…
Finally, Paul says that they exchanged the truth about God, for a lie, and then worship themselves and their lust filled impurity rather than One Who created them.
APPLICATION
I am so grateful for the Holy Spirit, the Helper I received when I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal LORD and Savior. His voice, His warnings, His prompting, and His care have given me the chance to choose HIM when I am presented with lustful or impure thoughts. Sometimes an impure thought will fly into my mind or I will see a barely clothed woman on the street, and it is in these times that the LORD in His grace and mercy has set the knowledge of Himself in me and I have the strength to immediately pray (if there is an impure thought) or turn my gaze away as soon as I recognize the situation. LORD God, would you continue to protect me as I follow Your Son?