romans 1:24-27 & 28-29
Quite a bit of people try to use Romans 1:26-27 to put down homosexuals. There are two problems
with this: 1. These people are not reading these verses within the context of what was going on at
that time, and 2. These people are not reading the two verses before verse 26 (nor are they reading
the whole chapter) to truly understand what is going on. I will help you out here. But before we look
at these verses, let me give you a little history tip:
Pagans (people who believe in/worship multiple false gods, rather than the one true God) were
mentioned throughout scripture in the bible. You also have “heathens” or “gentiles” (those who are
not born into the Jewish bloodline). Some of the various ways that the pagans in biblical times
worshiped their idols was through sexual acts such as: 1. cult shrine prostitution, 2. pederasty, in
which an older male sexually abuses a young male/boy (pedophilia). 3. rape of a male slave to show
ownership and power over him. 4. sex with another man’s wife. 5. having sex with animals. 6. massive
orgies. and 7. attempting to have sex with angels or their false gods. Some would even burn or molest
their own children in honor of their idols. They also created images and statues of the beasts (or
animals) that they worshiped. A very popular one was called Molech or Moloch.
Now let’s look at these verses in chapter 1 of Romans:
“24: Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves:”
Here, the key word is LUST, not love.
“25: 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. “
Here, we see IDOLATRY (the worship of animals or false gods instead of the one true God), which is
against the first commandment. We also see a LIE.
“26: For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the
natural use into that which is against nature:”
Here, we see the GIVING UP OF NATURAL AFFECTIONS for unnatural ones.
“27: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward
another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that
recompense of their error which was meet.”
Once again, we see more submission to UNNATURAL affection.
So to sum it up, we see dishonorable lust, lies, and false affections achieved through idolatry. In other
words, it’s almost as if a person is saying “Hey God, I don’t like doing things your way. In fact, I am
going to do everything the opposite of what you made me to do. You want me to believe in and
worship you? Well, now I’m going to make up, believe in, and worship other gods. You want me to
follow the truth? Well, now I’m going to follow lies. You want me to love? Well, now I’m going to remain
full of lust and commit evil acts against you and mankind. You gave me my own natural affections? Well,
now I’m going to sleep with and rape people that I am not even attracted to. All to rebel against you!”
Now you may be wondering what my point is. The point is simple. When gay people say “I am born gay,”
they’re not kidding around. You see, what ever YOUR God-given sexual orientation is (gay, straight,
bisexual), that orientation is natural… to YOU. And when you go against what is natural to you, you are
going against your nature and being UNNATURAL to your true self. What I’m getting at is this: It would be
wrong for straight people to use these verses against gays. Because, ironically, these verses are mainly
targeted… at straight people! How? Because the straight people in those verses were giving up THEIR
natural sexuality (heterosexuality) for other sexualities that were unnatural to THEM specifically!
Now I’d like to take a moment to look at the next couple of verses (28-29) in both the King James Version
(KJV) and the New King James Version (NKJV) because I want to point out something.
28: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased
mind, to do those things which are not fitting;”
29: “being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness;
full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,”
Now that was the NKJV. Notice in verse 29 began a list of bad things which included “sexual immorality.”
There are some people that take the phrase and try to make it be nothing but anti-gays. Period. There
are two issues that are not being taken into consideration. 1. In the KJV (which of course came out before
the NKJV), instead of “sexual immorality” being in that particular spot, the word “fornication” is there
instead. So fornication is probably the specific sexual immorality that the verse is speaking of. And 2,
that’s just it! “Sexual immorality” is not very specific by itself. It’s kind of a vague phrase that could mean
quite a few things. When I think of sexual immorality, I think of rape, child molestation, adultery, and
bestiality. But if you want to pick loving and consenting homosexuality (which is not even a sin) to be the
ONE thing that you think of when you hear “sexual immorality,” so be it.
with this: 1. These people are not reading these verses within the context of what was going on at
that time, and 2. These people are not reading the two verses before verse 26 (nor are they reading
the whole chapter) to truly understand what is going on. I will help you out here. But before we look
at these verses, let me give you a little history tip:
Pagans (people who believe in/worship multiple false gods, rather than the one true God) were
mentioned throughout scripture in the bible. You also have “heathens” or “gentiles” (those who are
not born into the Jewish bloodline). Some of the various ways that the pagans in biblical times
worshiped their idols was through sexual acts such as: 1. cult shrine prostitution, 2. pederasty, in
which an older male sexually abuses a young male/boy (pedophilia). 3. rape of a male slave to show
ownership and power over him. 4. sex with another man’s wife. 5. having sex with animals. 6. massive
orgies. and 7. attempting to have sex with angels or their false gods. Some would even burn or molest
their own children in honor of their idols. They also created images and statues of the beasts (or
animals) that they worshiped. A very popular one was called Molech or Moloch.
Now let’s look at these verses in chapter 1 of Romans:
“24: Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves:”
Here, the key word is LUST, not love.
“25: 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. “
Here, we see IDOLATRY (the worship of animals or false gods instead of the one true God), which is
against the first commandment. We also see a LIE.
“26: For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the
natural use into that which is against nature:”
Here, we see the GIVING UP OF NATURAL AFFECTIONS for unnatural ones.
“27: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward
another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that
recompense of their error which was meet.”
Once again, we see more submission to UNNATURAL affection.
So to sum it up, we see dishonorable lust, lies, and false affections achieved through idolatry. In other
words, it’s almost as if a person is saying “Hey God, I don’t like doing things your way. In fact, I am
going to do everything the opposite of what you made me to do. You want me to believe in and
worship you? Well, now I’m going to make up, believe in, and worship other gods. You want me to
follow the truth? Well, now I’m going to follow lies. You want me to love? Well, now I’m going to remain
full of lust and commit evil acts against you and mankind. You gave me my own natural affections? Well,
now I’m going to sleep with and rape people that I am not even attracted to. All to rebel against you!”
Now you may be wondering what my point is. The point is simple. When gay people say “I am born gay,”
they’re not kidding around. You see, what ever YOUR God-given sexual orientation is (gay, straight,
bisexual), that orientation is natural… to YOU. And when you go against what is natural to you, you are
going against your nature and being UNNATURAL to your true self. What I’m getting at is this: It would be
wrong for straight people to use these verses against gays. Because, ironically, these verses are mainly
targeted… at straight people! How? Because the straight people in those verses were giving up THEIR
natural sexuality (heterosexuality) for other sexualities that were unnatural to THEM specifically!
Now I’d like to take a moment to look at the next couple of verses (28-29) in both the King James Version
(KJV) and the New King James Version (NKJV) because I want to point out something.
28: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased
mind, to do those things which are not fitting;”
29: “being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness;
full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,”
Now that was the NKJV. Notice in verse 29 began a list of bad things which included “sexual immorality.”
There are some people that take the phrase and try to make it be nothing but anti-gays. Period. There
are two issues that are not being taken into consideration. 1. In the KJV (which of course came out before
the NKJV), instead of “sexual immorality” being in that particular spot, the word “fornication” is there
instead. So fornication is probably the specific sexual immorality that the verse is speaking of. And 2,
that’s just it! “Sexual immorality” is not very specific by itself. It’s kind of a vague phrase that could mean
quite a few things. When I think of sexual immorality, I think of rape, child molestation, adultery, and
bestiality. But if you want to pick loving and consenting homosexuality (which is not even a sin) to be the
ONE thing that you think of when you hear “sexual immorality,” so be it.