“But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.
Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.
So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.
They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.
They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.
They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.
They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.” Romans 18-22, 24-25, 28, 30, 31, 32
Do you think these verses could be possibly speaking of self-centeredness? A great majority ignore the truth that God naturally reveals in order to believe anything that supports their self-centered life styles. They have no excuse for not knowing God. They’ve substituted the truth for a lie. We see so many of God’s qualities and characteristics in nature; we see a God of might, intelligence, and intricate detail; a God of order and beauty; a God who controls powerful forces.
When people worship the created instead of the Creator, they lose sight of their own identity. They not surprisingly, end up rejecting God… and God let’s them do it! God usually doesn’t stop us from making bad choices; that’s what free will is all about. He lets us choose independence from Him, even though He knows in time we’ll become slaves to our own rebellion. Let’s just stop here and think of the many testimonies of people who found God in the midst of their miserable, sinful lives. They were slaves, and were held captive to their sin. I think the majority of people reading this blog are believers. If you’re not, consider this… Does life without God look like freedom to you? Look more closely. There’s no worse slavery than being a slave to sin.
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