Romans 1:28

“ And even as they did not think good to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a mind void of discernment, to do those things which are not fitting. ”

The ungodliness of the Gentiles was accompanied by a depth of iniquity: the refusal to let the thought of the perfect God rule human life. To retain God as an object of distinct knowledge (the literal sense of Paul's words), is to keep alive within the mind the view of that holy Being, so that His will shall give law to our whole conduct. This is what the Gentiles refused to do. Ceasing to contemplate God and His will, they were given over to all unrighteousness. Καθώς, even as (literally, agreeably to which), indicates anew the exact correlation between this unrighteousness and the punishment about to be described. Νοῦς ἀδόκιμος, which we translate: a mind void of discernment, corresponds to the οὐκ ἐδοκίμασαν, they did not think good; having refused to appreciate God, they lost the true sense of moral appreciation, and this loss with all its consequences is a judgment, as well as the unnatural passions described above. Such is the force of the παρέδωκεν, gave over, corresponding to the same verb in Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26.

The phrase: those things which are not fitting, to express evil, is well suited to the notion of appreciation which is included in the verb δοκιμάζειν, to judge good, and the adjective ἀδόκιμος. Evil is here characterized as moral incongruity, calculated to revolt the νοῦς, reason, if it were not deprived of its natural discernment. The infinitive ποιεῖν, to do, is almost equivalent to a Latin gerund “ in doing. ” The subjective negation μή with the participle signifies: all that is ranked in the class designated by the participle.

Remark, finally, the intentional repetition of the substantive ὁ Θεός, God: “As thou treatest God, God treateth thee.” It is by mistake that this second God is omitted in the Sinaït. and Alex.

Volkmar makes Romans 1:28 the beginning of a new section. He would have it that the subject begun here is Jewish, in opposition to Gentile guiltiness (Romans 1:18-27). But nothing, either in the text or in the thought, indicates such a transition; the καί, also, is opposed to it, and the charge raised by the apostle in the following verses, and especially Romans 1:32, is exactly the opposite of the description which he gives of the Jews, chap. 2. The latter appear as the judges of Gentile corruption, while the men characterized in Romans 1:32 give it their applause.