Where shall I start, the book of Romans is written by the apostle Paul to the church in Rome. He starts off with a passage that stands out at me yet its one we tend to overlook
Rom 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
Now try replace Paul with your name eg "Graham, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God" I think by now you get the drift. What this means is to be a follower, a child of God adopted into his family and our job or chore in a sense is to go out there and spread God's word.
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
This is the good news that we are called to spread to the nations and its for everybody, for the gospel to be kept a secret would be a tragedy as lives would continue to fall apart
Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Rom 1:19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
Rom 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Rom 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Rom 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
Rom 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Rom 1:24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
Rom 1:25 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.
Rom 1:26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
Rom 1:27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Rom 1:28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
Rom 1:29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
Rom 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
Rom 1:31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Rom 1:32 Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
What you see here is a massive 360 turn where Paul goes from the Good news of the Gospel to suddenly explain the shocking behaviours of the world in the most descriptive of ways ranging from Self Glorification to homosexuality to gossip to slander and the list goes on but a warning to hypocrites out there before you judge take a deep read as I continue with chapter 2 next time as you will suddenly face a reality shock that will hopefully turn your perception upside down. Until next time
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