Romans 1:24-1:32 - Man's Evidence

Calvin (3/25/01)

1:24: Since man's impiety can be hard to show, and hidden from our minds, Paul shows the evidence of God's wrath in allowing such impious men to fall into the ways of dishonor. Punishment doesn't precede violation, so the presence of the evident punishment serves to show the presence of the sin. Since none would choose to 'roll themselves in lusts so filthy,' it is evident that when they do, it is by way of punishment and, God being just, such punishment must be demanded by man's actions. It is wrong to think God only gives permission to the devil to lead men into sin. Rather, He commands Satan's actions, but not against innocents, nor capriciously, but as just punishment of guilt. Yet, the cause of sin may not be found in God, but rests in man and in the devil, for Scripture must remain true. Augustine points out in firm language that He delivers up by power, those who are already evil in themselves 'by working many things both within and without them, from which they take occasion to sin more grievously.' What God has done, Paul says, is to leave man to his own lusts, no longer correcting his way. That is the punishment.
1:25: This is a restatement of the charge. They could not give worship to an idol without having taken it from its rightful recipient. To claim that they are worshiping God through the idol gives no excuse, for He has never declared that to be a proper means of worshiping Him, rather condemning the practice. Paul adds a declaration of God's glory as further reproach against those who worship falsely.
1:26: The depth of their abandonment can be seen in that, having fallen to the worship of animals, they sunk themselves below the animals in allowing their lusts to run counter to the whole order of nature. This worst of sins may not have applied to all of mankind, yet it had become a prevalent and popular practice. In the ensuing list, sufficient crimes are listed for all to find themselves mentioned, and so guilty and deserving of God's displeasure.
1:27: To such as would do so much to close their eyes to the light of God's truth, it was fitting that they ought to become the more blinded.
1:28: Since they had shown a preference for their own vanities over the truth of God, God gave them a mind that could choose no right thing. The punishment was in accord with the crime. The list of sins that Paul now produces suffice to show all guilty of one or more addictions which 'common sense ought to have led them to renounce.' All such sins stand as evidence of a perverted mind. This is not a progressive list, but simply a collection of vices.
1:29: Unrighteousness lies in the violation of justice between men; wickedness in the doing of evil in licentious and malicious ways; envy speaks both to inward passions and outward lust; strife includes all quarrels and fighting; perversity speaks to the hardened heart that has accustomed itself to evil habit.
1:30: Man shows himself a hater of God in resisting Him by doing wrong. The gossip is distinct from the slanderer in that the former works in secret to destroy friendships and inflame anger in others as it sows discord; the latter spare none, and will revile the deserving and the undeserving alike. Insolent, arrogant, and boastful are descriptions of the proud spirit - holding all in contempt, placing itself as superior to all that surround, and claiming more to itself than it can deliver upon. The insolent cannot bear to see another as equal, the haughty are swollen with empty pride. The untrustworthy are antisocial, in that their lack of sincerity serves to break down the bonds of society.
1:31: They have put off the very feelings of humanity, their lack of mercy a particular symbol of their non-Christian standing.
1:32: Worse, still, than the doing of any or all of the sins already mentioned is the complete abandonment shown by those who are no longer even ashamed of doing so. They no longer can approve of any good thing, but rather approve of their own sins, knowingly placing themselves beyond reach of redemption, and seeking to carry others away with themselves. (Pr 2:14 - [Understanding will deliver you from] those who delight in doing evil, and rejoice in its perversity. Ez 16:23-25 - After all your other wickedness, you enshrined yourself at the top of every street, and increased your harlotries to accept any vile passerby.)

Matthew Henry (3/26/01)

1:24-1:25: Idols are spoken of as lies, because they speak lies about God, making Him out to have a body who is a Spirit (Jer 23:14 - The prophets of Jerusalem walk in falsehood and strengthen the evildoer rather than restraining his wickedness. Hos 7:1 - God longs to heal, but iniquity and evil deeds are uncovered in His people, who deal falsely. Hab 2:18 - The idol is profitless, every image teaches falsehood, leading its maker to trust the image.) Whether or not they continued to hold the idea of a Supreme God, they did Him dishonor by worshiping other gods and creations, as well; 'for God will be all or none.' Worse still, they elevated these lesser things above this Supreme Deity in their worship, continuing in their idolatrous ways even when the truth of God had shown through. It is noteworthy that Paul breaks out in adoration of God, having noted the contempt others had cast upon Him. "When we see or hear any contempt cast upon God or His name, we should thence take occasion to think and speak highly and honorably of Him." God gave them over to a judgment not so much temporal as spiritual, for the idolatrous nations were clearly the conquering nations of the world. God is clearly stated as being the one who gives them up, but there is no injustice in it, he merely withholds His grace from those who refused, after all, to receive it. He remains not the author of sin, for that is still rooted in the sinner's heart. But, "if the patient be obstinate, and will not submit to the methods prescribed,…the physician is not to be blamed if he give him up…and all the fatal symptoms that follow are not to be imputed to the physician, but to the disease itself and to the folly and willfulness of the patient."
1:26-1:27: Refusing the pure and preserving knowledge available to reason, they forfeited not only God's honor, but their own, as well. In refusing to understand God, they sunk lower than the beasts (Ps 49:20 - Pompous, and without understanding, man is like the perishing beasts.) Their own loss of honor came as punishment for their depriving God of His, and there can be no slavery worse than this abandonment to lust. (Is 19:4 - This was the cruel master that overtook the Egyptians in Mr. Henry's view.) That same sin that brought down Sodom and Gomorrah became prevalent in the very worship of their idols; "dunghill service for dunghill gods," to the enjoyment of the unclean spirits there represented. The substitution of 'saints' for demons in the church of Rome changes nothing. Left to himself, it is clear that man would rapidly make himself - who was created a little lower than the angels - "a great deal lower than the devils." In this action, the Judge of the earth does right, bringing just recompense for their error.
1:28: They could not help but know God, yet they refused to hold to that knowledge, because they preferred their own pleasures, that being the highest aim of their darkened hearts. Many have this unavoidable knowledge of God, and yet bid Him leave them, preferring their own lusts. (Job 21:14 - They say 'Depart from us! We do not even desire the knowledge of Thy ways.') This is the difference between gnosis and epignosis - the one is knowledge, the other is acknowledgement. They knew God, but refused to acknowledge Him as God. Having willfully turned themselves to sin, God delivered them over to a mind incapable of discerning the difference anymore. This is the course of the flesh. (2Pe 2:14 - Whose eyes are filled with adultery cannot cease from sinning. Eph 4:19 - They have hardened themselves, and given themselves over to the practice of every impurity, and that greedily.) Pharaoh hardened his own heart first, for which God punished him with a judicial hardening.
1:29-1:31: Paul moves on to list twenty three charges against the pagan nations, beginning in the first table of the Law, inasmuch as they were charged haters of God - the devil's own. It seems unimaginable that the created being should hate the supreme Good who created him, yet it is so, for every sin is an expression of that hatred in one degree or another. (Zech 11:8 - God killed the false shepherds for His soul was impatient with them, and they were weary of Him.) Men of pride attempt to hold the crowns they are to cast before God's throne. Crimes against the second table of the Law are also listed, for in these their understanding was the more clear. At the head of these charges is unrighteousness, the perverting of right and withholding of what is due. This is seen in disobedience of children, and in cruelty of parents. Failure on one side of the coin tends to result in punishment by the other. Wickedness, envy, murder, contention, spite, and mercilessness all show violation of the sixth commandment. Unrighteousness and covetousness break the eighth, deceit, gossip, slander, and faithlessness break the ninth. They show themselves 'wise to do evil, and yet having no knowledge to do good.' Every honest heart can find conviction in this list.
1:32: They knew the law, what justice required. They knew the penalty, eternal death. The sin committed in knowledge of its consequence is so much the worse (Jas 4:17 - Who knows what is right, yet doesn't do it, commits sin.) To act so speaks of a heart already greatly hardened. To move to the point of taking pleasure in others' sins is to love sin for itself, and to join the devil's kingdom. We aggravate our own sins when we concur with the sins of others. Where then is any hope for the Gentile world to claim themselves justified by their efforts?

Adam Clarke (3/26/01)

1:24: They had sinned in full measure, and God's punishment of them was in His allowing them to fall deeper into sin. This they did of their own accord, without incitement by others.
1:25: True worship was replaced by idolatry, for this is what Scripture tends to indicate by lies (Is 44:19-20 - They forget that they used the other half of the log from which they carved their idol to cook their meal. It is not in them to deliver themselves from the lie they then hold in their hand. Jer 10:14 - The idols that the goldsmith crafts are deceitful, and bring shame to him. Jer 13:25 - Israel is punished for forgetting God, and trusting in falsehoods.)
1:26: Given that their idols were practitioners of adulteries, fornications, and prostitutions, what else could their idolatry lead to but practice of the same sins? Their own writings testify to their fallen state.
1:27: By their practices, their bodies fell prey to the disorders common to those who do such things.
1:28: There's a bit of a play on words here, for 'they did not see fit', and 'depraved' are actually translations of the same root word (edokimazo [1381]: to scrutinize, prove, test, and adokimos [96]: unfit, unproved, not standing the test, both which descend from dokimos [1384]: acceptable, approved, which is in turn from dokeo [1380]: to think). Thus, we have 'They did not seek to scrutinize, prove, and test the evidence of God's truth, so God gave them over to a mind unfit and incapable of such scrutinizing and testing.' This was God's just punishment for their abuse of the faculties He had given them.
1:29: They are filled with 'every vice contrary to justice and righteousness', the list including all sexual contacts outside the lawful contacts of marriage, oppressive malignity, the intense love of gain - 'the principle of a dissatisfied and discontented soul' that declares 'I will have,' radical and essential viciousness, and the pain and anger caused by the sight of another's happiness or excellence, murderous hatred, contentious discord (which the Greeks had a goddess for), lying, a malignity of mind that saw the worst motives behind every action, and gossip carried on in secret against their neighbors.
1:30: The list continues: those who speak against other, atheists, and others who scorn God, abusive of those over whom they have power, exalting and magnifying themselves at the expense of those around them, self-assuming and arrogant, inventors of the customs and rites of false religion which destroy not only themselves but others, and breaking with parents against all the law of nature.
1:31: They were incapable of understanding spiritual things. Having rejected God, there remained none to bear witness to their oath, and so their oath was an empty and unbinding thing. Lacking in the natural love of relatives, they were willing to expose their unwanted children, and to rid themselves of aged parents incapable of further labors [sounds all too familiar for today.] They show themselves unwilling to be reconciled with God or with man. All benevolence and all capacity for mercy had been choked off by their deep-rooted wickedness.
1:32: Such was their fallen estate, in that day, that their greatest applause and approval went to those who had most displayed their willingness to cast aside all the restraints natural to man, who most sank into their own corruptions. This chapter has served to give an excellent display of the Gospel, showing it to be fully divine in nature - having nothing in it of man, fully and perfectly fit to its purposes, and fully available to all, with no regard for race or position. God does nothing that is not proper and necessary, and so, in displaying His mercy in His Son, He showed that the death of His Son was a necessity. The need is seen in the depth of the sins into which man had fallen, having wiped away almost every trace of righteousness, disregarded the clear evidence God had placed before him, developing whole philosophies devoid of truth and right, contaminated by every conceivable vice. Clarke finds the list of crimes common to those of Paul's days shocking even in the fallen culture of his day. [I wonder if they would remain so shocking in ours.] So far were they opposed to God's truth, that they attributed to themselves the ability to become wise by their own power. Several quotes are given here, to prove the point. Here we see an accurate description of what the world largely was at that time, and what it would have continued to be without the influence of the Gospel revelation, [and which, sadly, seems to be the prevalent condition today.]

Barnes' Notes (3/27/01)

1:24

They were unwilling to know Him, and chose idolatry, which proved no harmless system, but a choice resulting in deep depravity, as Paul moves to show. God did not do anything to provoke them to their sins, but merely ceased from restraining them in their pursuits. Man ever tends to sin, and idolatry serves to promote this tendency, all that was necessary on God's part was to leave them to their own pursuits. (Ps 81:12 - God gave them over to their own stubborn hearts, allowing them to follow their own course. 2Th 2:10-12 - They perish because the chose not to love the saving truth, preferring the deceptions of wickedness. These they chose, and these God allowed them, that their belief would be in falsehood, to their own condemnation.) Abandoned to themselves, they ran after such impurities as are listed in the ensuing verses, by their own power choosing depraved passions and desires to act upon, bringing disgrace to each other by their unlawful and impure co-action.

1:25

They traded the true god for idols, idols being called lies for they cannot be made true representations of God. (Jer 13:25 - God has brought their portion upon them for forgetting Him and trusting falsehoods. Is 28:15 - You have made a covenant with death, seeking refuge in falsehood and trying to hide in deception. Jer 10:14 - The man who trusts idols is stupid, and the maker thereof is shamed by it, for the things he makes are deceitful and lifeless. Ps 40:4 - But the one who trusts the LORD is blessed, for he has not looked to prideful men and their falsehoods.) It was customary amongst the Jews to add a doxology wherever the Lord's name was mentioned, thus ingraining themselves with the habit of reverence in regard to Him. The amen is offered with regard to the veneration of the Lord, in hope that such esteem of His name would indeed remain through all ages. (Ex 20:7 - The LORD will not leave unpunished such as take His name in vain.)

1:26

Because of all their acts and choices, God abandoned them to follow their path into deeper sin. There is no shame to the apostle's account for declaring these charges, the shame lies in their practice. The sins declared are such that Paul would not have dared to state them were it not clear that they were true, and that clarity came from the fact that they were known and practiced without shame, as even their own writings show. Proof enough of the sinful practices noted amongst their women can be found in the dictionaries and lexicons of their language [and ours.] Without the acts, the words to describe them would be unnecessary.

1:27

Amongst men, as well, this same, most shameful of sins is well documented, both in the lexicon, and in the writings of the pagans. Nor was it an act confined to the lower classes, it permeated society [even as today.] The practice of such things in the society of that day is heavily documented by their own writers, indicating that it had even been legalized in some areas, indeed encouraged by their laws. That this was, and is, so prevalent argues strongly for the need of some other plan of salvation beyond the knowledge found in nature. God has ever marked such acts by His displeasure, punishing those who insist on its practice with a weakening constitution, and a sickening body. The diseases common to those who follow this downward path attack not only the physique, but the mind as well, depriving them eventually of all reason and conscience.

1:28

At root, their crime consisted of choosing not to know God, forsaking Him because He displeased them. The first step down lay in their choice to abandon the knowledge of God that He had put before them. He did not compel them to fall, nor did He abandon them before they chose their path. They abandoned Him, and because of this choice, He did not stop them from their course. Choosing not to approve of God, God chose to leave them to a mind He could not approve. As a consequence of their determination to forget Him, He left them to their evil, to the pursuit of such shameful things as are listed hereafter.

1:29

These things were not exceptions, but were so common as to allow it to be said that they were 'full' of actions of such unrighteous nature. As today, illicit sex was practically a universal sin. The desire to bring harm to others was also prevalent, as was the desire to gain the luxuries others had. This last was the motivation of much of Rome's conquests, being desirous of the wealth of those nations around her. They allowed themselves to act upon their evil desires, inflamed to hatred by the prosperity of others, where benevolence would rejoice and promote that one's prosperity. Murder, as here constituted, speaks to any taking of human life outside of the punishment of crime. Of this, Rome practiced many and sundry forms, from assassinations, to killing slaves, to the horror of the gladiatorial combats. These combats, which originally were populated by slaves and captives, became a sport that even citizens would participate in, and its practice continued into the 5th century AD. Such sport served to make murder a small concern to them. Debate, as used here, is not the reasoned maintaining of a proposition, but heated and angry contention. Lying was also an ingrained habit, noted by their own authors. Their habits caused them to ever see the worst motives behind the conduct of others, assuming all to be as themselves. The hidden gossip is another evil common to all ages, 'and there is scarcely any one more dangerous to the peace or happiness of society.'

1:30

What the gossip does in secret, the backbiter does in public. That we are, by nature, haters of God, is the most painful of charges the awakened sinner finds against himself, and it is the most severe charge that could be brought against man. Yet, it is abundantly clear that it is a true charge. Whereas the gossip and the backbiter reserved their abuses for those absent, the despiteful will cheerfully abuse those who are present. Only the revelation of the great and infinite God, of Him as source of all that we are will bring pride under control, and produce true humility. Boasting, closely connected with pride, will lead one to make claims to that which they do not actually possess, and to proclaim these unheld characteristics to all who will listen. The passions having been dulled by available vices, there comes the need to create newer and more debased entertainments for their depraved estate. The abandoning of parents by their children has been seen as a crime in many cultures, and yet, has been the habit of others.

1:31

They were inconsiderate. Their contracts could not be trusted. They were so overcome by wickedness as to be willing to sacrifice their own children, as had occurred in Israel's own history (Ps 106:37-38 - They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons, in sacrificing to the idols of Canaan. 2Chr 33:6 - Manasseh sacrificed his on sons to Moloch, as well as practicing witchcraft and sorcery, and other evils before the LORD.) And so it continues today. They show an absolute unwillingness to abandon revenge in forgiveness. They are unmerciful, not even willing to provide for the poor and sick amongst them.

1:32

They were not incapable of knowing God's will (Ro 2:14-15 - Not having the Law, some yet obeyed it by instinct, showing it to be written upon the heart). Reason and conscience attested to Him. They knew that God considered these things as punishable by death, yet they persevered. They knew their actions were offensive to God, and called for punishment by Him, as opposed to by civil authorities. (Jn 8:51 - Who keeps His word will not see death.) The sinner is not content to sin alone, but aggravates his offence by enticing others to join in his depravity. The picture painted of the pagan world makes it abundantly clear that another plan was needed to save them from themselves. The charges Paul has made here are so well known that he doesn't bother to appeal to other writings for proof (Tit 1:12 - Here, he refers to a Cretan writer in condemning them as liars). Their own writings sufficiently testify to their condition [and it's scary to recognize today so clearly in them, as well.] From Seneca (Seneca de Ira, ii.8), Barnes quotes:

"All is full of criminality and vice; indeed much more of these is committed than can be remedied by force. A monstrous contest of abandoned wickedness is carried on. The lust of sin increases daily; and shame is daily more and more extinguished. Discarding respect for all that is good and sacred, lust rushes on wherever it will. Vice no longer hides itself. It stalks forth before all eyes. So public has abandoned wickedness become, and so openly does it flame up in the minds of all, that innocence is no longer seldom, but has wholly ceased to exist."

That in the height of pagan civilization, all the attempts of man to reform mankind had so failed, clearly showed the need for an alternative, and at the very time of that failure, the alternative came forth in the gospel message. As then, so now, wherever the message of Christianity has not laid hold. Here is the evidence that natural religion will not suffice, the light of nature will not turn man around. The state of the pagan life, as so clearly displayed here, cannot but fuel the desire for missionary efforts in the Christian heart. It is wisdom and benevolence to send them word of salvation. If it was right for the apostles' age, it remains right now. The need hasn't changed. True, these practices occur in Christian nations, too, but not where Christianity's influence is truly felt and practiced. "Let religion exert its full influence on any nominally Christian nation, and such things would cease."

Wycliffe (3/28/01)

1:24-1:25: That God made a moral universe shows in that the consequences of man's choice of evil for themselves, and lies in their being allowed to follow after their choice, resulting in the dishonoring of their own bodies. Sensuality becomes the height of idolatry in that the created objects of idolatry come to be replaced with the man, himself, as the object of worship. [Here lies the truth of humanism and atheism - the attempt to place man as god.]
1:26-1:27: The rejection of God could not but lead to more unclean behaviors, and so it does, as man and woman look away from the natural relations of marital sex to relations that are totally contrary to the course of nature. Again, the punishment is made fit to the crime, as the very acts they choose bring psychological and physical consequences upon them.
1:28-1:32: "Anarchy and chaos come from a mind that removes God from its knowledge." Left to themselves by God, they come to be at odds with themselves and with each other, ruining each others' reputations, and so ruining their own. Their own sinful state had reached such a depth that they found enjoyment in watching others sinking to their own level.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (3/29/01)

1:24: Three stages of the divine abandonment of man are shown in the end of this chapter. God deserted those who had deserted Him, removing from them His laws and His prophets, and allowing them to do as they would. In this fashion, those who did not honor God come to dishonor themselves.
1:25: Because they had changed the true and Living God for false and lying idols, they were abandoned to their own ways. Although they began in claims of worshiping the Creator by means of these objects of creation, they soon lost sight of God, and worshiped only the objects. When called to expose dishonor done to our God, we, like Paul, ought to bless Him and declare His worth.
1:26: As strong as Paul's language is in declaring the degree of their depravity, it is still as nothing compared to the acts decried. By design, a woman's highest beauty lies in modesty. When that is lost in shamelessness, they serve only to drag others down to their level.
1:27: The documentation that proves the truth of Paul's claim, here, cannot be delved into without becoming mired in things 'which ought not to be even named among us as becomes saints.' Although the record shows that such depravities are to be found amongst Christian nations as well, there remains the difference that for the pagan, the example was taken from their gods, whereas for the Christian, such vices are totally alien to God. It seems that the most developed of cultures were the most corrupted by these practices, the so-called barbarians in this respect proving themselves more civilized. The great empire of Rome was so corrupted by such sins, that new words were being invented to describe the new sins. From this corruption came the cry to come help, the call for missionaries. Under God's righteous government, vice became a self-avenging sin, bringing physical and moral corruption upon those determined to follow its course.
1:28: They disliked any thought of God, so God gave them up to their ways. The mind that rejected God was given to become a mind that God rejected, leading the owner of that mind to do things unbecoming to man.
1:29: The organization of the vices listed here is sometimes by common sounds in the words, and sometimes by similarity of sense. It's profitless to try and organize and categorize the list in some higher fashion. Covetousness had apparently reached such a height in New Testament times, that it became noted among the worst of vices.
1:30: What gossips do in secret, the slanderer does openly.
1:31: The inclusion of 'without natural affection' is questionable, as far as the manuscripts give evidence.
1:32: They know well [a variant of epignosis] in their own conscience, the stern judgment of God against such acts, eternal death. Yet, they not only do these things (which could be done in the heat of temptation, in spite of personal abhorrence on the part of the one so doing), but they showed their full depravity in approving and encouraging the same sinful actions by others. No longer is there even temptation as an excuse. We see that God's wrath is declared against every and all ungodly and unrighteous act, from the worst to the least, leaving no man guiltless before His charge. While God's passion, displayed in His displeasure against these actions, is not the same passion as we might know as man, yet it remains a feeling. The God who is love must be capable of feeling love, and so must know its opposite as well. Lacking such feeling, there remains no basis for pleasure and displeasure, of approval and disapproval. The universal nature of condemnation gives Paul a solid foundation to start from in declaring the universal plan of salvation. The good news is empty to those who have yet to realize they are lost. God's revelation to humanity through Abraham's line must not eclipse God's revelation through His creation, for the lack of knowledge of the former revelation cannot be claimed as an excuse, given the latter. Willful turning from the light tends toward a more complete moral blindness, preparing the soul for surrender to sin. Pride in wisdom shows its lack, and makes the attaining of in impossible. (Mt 11:25 - God hid His truth from the wise, and revealed it instead to babes. 1Co 3:18-20 - If you consider yourself wise, become foolish so as to gain true wisdom, for the world's wisdom is foolishness to God, who catches such wise men in their own craft, and considers their reasonings to be useless.) Idolatry shows that there is no depth to which man is not willing to sink in creating gods for himself, the record is clear amongst both pagans and Christians, who still insist on 'materialistic and sensuous character' in their services, so 'lowering the whole character and tone of Christianity.' Idolatry cannot but lead to depravity, the debasing of religion leading to a debasing of all morality. It shows in the pagan cultures, in the history of Israel, and in the history of the Church. [J,F & B attempt to hold Protestantism up as a purer light, but I suspect by their own stated test, it has shown itself just as prone to the dangers presented.] It is hardly unusual for a man to be blind to his own sins, yet decry and condemn them in others. How much greater, and more complete, the fall when he no longer even recognizes sin outside himself! Yet, the voice of truth is never completely silenced, and even the most sunken of sinners still knows within himself that what he does is worthy of death.

New Thoughts (3/30/01)

As I worked through the commentaries on this passage, I was struck again and again by how well the descriptions of the fallen state of the world in Paul's day described the fallen state of the world in our day. Look back at the quote from Seneca that Barnes provided. This was the degraded state that Rome had fallen to, the greatest nation and earthly power of its day having descended into the depths of such depravity, as they wandered farther and farther from truth. And yet, the passage accurately describes America today. Around the country, the most immoral acts are being legalized and promoted. No shame remains to those who would kill their inconvenient children, abandon their parents, abandon themselves to acts that cannot but bring death. God promised punishment would come upon those who insisted on this path, and so it has. Death reigns freely amongst the practitioners of these depravities, and yet they insist on proceeding. Our nation, too, has become an inventor of evils. No longer shocked by sexual sins amongst adults, children are sought out. No longer concerned with the murder of the unborn and the aged, it requires the spreading of that culture of death into our youth to shock us. And how long before even that ceases to make an impression? What next? Jesus! How can we look upon this situation, how can we hear these charges, see our nation, know Your just demand for death upon those who do so, and not cry out to You to save? Oh Lord! What lies ahead for these ones? What lay ahead for me before You so graciously brought me to my senses? God! I cry out for this land, that You would send forth in power to defeat the Prince of the darkness that has so blinded this nation! Oh, that a nation begun in such promise has sunk to such a level. I know, many of the wise of this age try to declare that You were not involved in our founding, that those who established this nation cared nothing for You, but this is just a repeating of the foolishness of wisdom. Once more, the ways of 'a mind that removes God from its knowledge' are made evident. Father, save them from themselves, that they might live and not die. As Moses prayed for Israel, I cry out to You now to turn Your anger from this people, and rather show them mercy. In Your mercy, oh God, remove the blindness that blights this nation, and lift us back up as a light for Your kingdom. Remind us, oh Lord, that You are Lord, that You alone are King, and those who sit in places of earthly power are yet ruled by Your will.

But, lest I lose sight of the whole truth, I am forced to recognize myself once more in the sins decried. For that list suffices to cover all in their conviction. We have all, as sinners, gone astray. We have all, in one form or another, shown ourselves to hate You and Your government, for we have refused to abide by Your laws. God, when I consider how far from Truth I had wandered, the depths I had sunk myself into. And yet, You showed me mercy. You opened my eyes to see where I was, and You continue to show me today those things that still hold me back from being the image of Your Son. How can I cease from thanking You for the Holy Spirit within, the gift of true wisdom that You have given me? How can I thank You enough for bringing me the hope of life - real life, eternal life - in spite of all I had done against You? Lord, it's too wonderful. It's to amazing. How is it that I can still have such pride in the face of this? How can I have any regard left for me, knowing where me would have taken me; knowing that apart from You I would have sunk even lower than I had.

There are any number of things in this section that I long to remember, but will doubtless forget if it be that You don't bring the to remembrance. Keep me in memory, Jesus, that in every sin I declare against You. Keep me in memory, Jesus, of the dangers inherent in a knowledge that excludes You. Keep me in memory, Jesus, of those things in me that still need Your deliverance. Therein is the great curative for pride. It's easy to look at the much worse state of others, and excuse ourselves; but help me, oh Lord, to see me through Your eyes, both to the bad - that it might be corrected by Your loving hand, and to the good - that You do indeed bring forgiveness of sins, that You have once for all paid the penalty, that I might know Your love, Your ways, Your life. Remind me, dear Lord, to lift Your name in glory and honor wherever I may hear it brought low. Keep my tongue, oh God, from such uncleanness as would bring disgrace to You, and would promote disrespect of You. I know myself well enough, Lord, to know this is still an ever present weakness in me. Bring healing, my Healer. Bring truth, my Word. Be glorified in me by the working of Your hand. Amen.