God Gave Them Up to Vile Passions

Today's passage deals with the process by which people who know God, yet keep him at a distance and worship idols, become corrupt. Although the existence of God the Creator was plainly revealed through all things, people feared the light, rejected the truth and fell into vile passions. As if respecting their choice, God did not help them repent but gave them up to their reprobate minds. This is not mere standing by; it is a process of severe punishment in which they sink into the swamp of sin and end in destruction.

In particular, because believers have knowledge of God, they receive a stricter rebuke than people who are ignorant of the ways of the world. Knowing God yet not doing his will is storing up wrath, and it neglects the responsibility of those who have been saved in a world that has already been judged. Behind today's sexual immorality and moral collapse lies the choice of people who do not keep God in their hearts, and we must not forget that this is a sin deserving death.

Believers must resist sin with the help of the Holy Spirit, even amid Satan's temptation and the world's pressure, and live as new creations in Christ. But many know their sin yet leave it alone, or even approve of other people's sins. In this dark age in which God has given them up, we look again at whether God is at the center of our hearts, and ask whether we will choose a life of true repentance and new birth.