Romans 1:24-25

“ Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:who travestied the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature instead of the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. ” In these words there is expressed the feeling of indignation raised in the heart of the apostle by the thought and view of the treatment to which God has been subjected by the creature to whom He revealed Himself so magnificently. The verses have something of that παροξυσμός, that exasperation of heart, of which the author of the Acts speaks (Acts 17:16) when describing Paul's impressions during his stay at Athens. This feeling is expressed forcibly by the two conjunctions διὸ καί, wherefore also. Διό, literally, on account of which, that is to say, of the sin just described; this first conjunction refers to the justice of punishment in general; the second, καί, also, brings out more especially the relation of congruity between the nature of the punishment and that of the offence. They sinned, wherefore God punished them; they sinned by degrading God, wherefore also God degraded them. This καί has been omitted by the Alex.; a mistake, as is plain, for it expresses the profoundest idea of the whole piece. No one would have thought of adding it. The word gave over does not signify that God impelled them to evil, to punish the evil which they had already committed. The holiness of God is opposed to such a sense, and to give over is not to impel. On the other hand, it is impossible to stop short at the idea of a simple permission: “God let them give themselves over to evil.” God was not purely passive in the terrible development of Gentile corruption. Wherein did His action consist? He positively withdrew His hand; He ceased to hold the boat as it was dragged by the current of the river. This is the meaning of the term used by the apostle, Acts 14:16: “He suffered the Gentiles to walk in their own ways,” by not doing for them what He never ceased to do for His own people. It is not a case of simple abstention, it is the positive withdrawal of a force. Such also is the meaning of the saying, Genesis 6:3: “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” As Meyer says: “The law of history, in virtue of which the forsaking of God is followed among men by a parallel growth of immorality, is not a purely natural order of things; the power of God is active in the execution of this law.” If it is asked how such a mode of action harmonizes with the moral perfection of God, the answer undoubtedly is, that when man has reached a certain degree of corruption, he can only be cured by the very excess of his own corruption; it is the only means left of producing what all preceding appeals and punishments failed to effect, the salutary action of repentance. So it is that at a given moment the father of the prodigal son lets him go, giving him even his share of goods. The monstrous and unnatural character of the excesses about to be described confirms this view.

The two prepositions, ἐν, through, and εἰς, to, differ from one another as the current which bears the bark along, once it has been detached from the shore, differs from the abyss into which it is about to be precipitated. Lusts exist in the heart; God abandons it to their power, and then begins that fall which must end in the most degrading impurities. The infinitive τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι might be translated: to the impurity which consists in dishonoring. But as the whole passage is dominated by the idea of the “manifestation of divine wrath,” it is more natural to give this infinitive the notion of end or aim: in order to dishonor. It is a condemnation: “You have dishonored me; I give you up to impurity, that you may dishonor your own selves.” Observe the καί, also, at the beginning of the verse. The verb ατιμάζεσθαι is found in the classics only in the passive sense: to be dishonored. This meaning would not suit here, unless we translate, as Meyer does: “that their bodies might be dishonored among them” (the one by the other). But this meaning does not correspond with the force of the apostolic thought. The punishment consists not merely in being dishonored, but especially in dishonoring oneself. ᾿Ατιμάζεσθαι must therefore be taken as the middle, and in the active sense: “to dishonor their bodies in themselves. If this middle sense is not common in the classics, it is accidental, for it is perfectly regular. The clause in themselves looks superfluous at first sight; but Paul wishes to describe this blight as henceforth inherent in their very personality: it is a seal of infamy which they carry for the future on their forehead. The meaning of the two readings ἐν αὐτοῖς and ἐν ἑαυτοῖς does not differ; the first is written from the writer's point of view, the second from the viewpoint of the authors of the deed.

The punishment is so severe that Paul interrupts himself, as if he felt the need of recalling how much it was deserved. With the οἵτινες, those who, Romans 1:25, he once more passes from the punishment to the sin which had provoked it. God has dealt so with them, as people who had dealt so with Him. Such is the meaning of the pronoun ὅστις, which does not only designate, but describe. The verb μετήλλαξαν, travestied, through the addition of the preposition μετά, enhances the force of the simple ἤλλαξαν, changed, of Romans 1:23: the sin appears ever more odious to the apostle, the more he thinks of it.

The truth of God certainly means here: the true notion of His being, the idea which alone corresponds to so sublime a reality, and which ought to be produced by the revelation of Himself which he had given; comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:9, where the true God is opposed to idols. As the abstract term is used to denote the true God, so the abstract word lie here denotes idols, that ignoble mask in which the heathen expose the figure of the All-perfect. And here comes the height of insult. After travestying God by an image unworthy of him, they make this the object of their veneration (ἐσεβάσθησαν). To this term, which embraces all heathen life in general, Paul adds ἐλάτρευσαν, they served, which refers to positive acts of worship. Παρά, by the side of, signifies with the accusative: passing beyond, leaving aside with contempt (to go and adore something else).

The doxology which closes this verse: who is blessed for ever, is a homage intended to wash off, as it were, the opprobrium inflicted on God by heathenism. On account of its termination, εὐλογητός may either signify: who ought to be blessed, or: who is blessed. The second meaning is simpler and more usual: just because He ought to be so, He is and will be so, whatever the heathen may do in the matter. The term εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, for ever, contrasts God's eternal glory with the ephemeral honor paid to idols, or the temporary affronts given to God. ᾿Αμήν, amen, comes from the Hebrew aman, to be firm. It is an exclamation intended to scatter by anticipation all the mists which still exist in the consciousness of man, and darken the truth proclaimed.