Romans 1
We will explore the Romans 1 passage with regards to same sex relations from a variety of perspectives. We will start with a general introduction to the letter and its author ... the Apostle Paul. We will then explore if from a more zoomed out view for context. From there we will look at a more detailed analysis with a relevant message for Christians today regardless on one's viewpoint on same sex relations. We will also do a word study of the word "natural".
General introduction to the letter and its author ... the Apostle Paul
The book of Romans is first of all ... a letter ... written to a specific people group of a specific place and specific time. As with all interpretation it is important to understand the time in which something was written ... the people it was written to ... the genre (form of writing) and who is speaking. Romans is a letter written specifically by the Apostle Paul to Christians in Rome. Whatever he says in this letter or whatever we think he says we must first understand it as heard by the original audience. Christianity was in its infancy at this time ... doctrines and misunderstandings were still being worked through. Rome of that day would have both Jewish and non-Jewish (Gentile) believers. So Paul .... in this letter, has to be careful to speak to both audiences as they have a different understanding of basic spiritual concepts. Some of the things he deals with in the letter are misunderstandings about grace (should we sin more so that grace and abound - Romans 6) ... misunderstandings about God's call in reference to Israelites and non-Israelites. ... clarifications about sin, about salvation, and about what happens when a person comes to faith in Christ.
The Apostle Paul was a major leader in the church with a specific call to the Gentiles. As a (former) pharisee, trained under a prominent teacher (Gamaliel), resident of Tarsus and citizen of Rome he had an excellent knowledge of the Hebrew Bible (what we call the Old Testament) and the culture in which he lived. This letter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and masterfully crafted by Paul does an excellent job of communicating across cultural boundaries and understandings.
Zooming out for context
Zooming out for context is always good when interpreting any text. It is especially important when looking at Paul's writings. Paul takes a long time to make his points. He makes them through careful knowledge of where the people reading the letter are at theologically and ideologically/ Thus he is very capable of speaking to people in their cultural, theological, ideological contexts. An example of this is found in Romans chapters 9-11. If you want to get a fuller understanding of how God's call and election work you will need to read all 3 of these chapters together. Pulling verses out of context will not give you the complete picture. This is because ... first of all ...Paul very carefully makes his points ... and second of all ... Paul is trying to write in a comprehensive way to both a Jewish and non-Jewish audience.
We will not be exploring Romans 9-11 on this page. However what I have said regarding that section of this letter is also applicable for this section. Paul is speaking to two unique people groups. Paul thus must take the message he has and make it comprehendable to both groups. We will get into more detail later but the key point to understand here is that we need to look at Romans chapter 1 through chapter 3 to understand what Paul is talking about.
A basic outline of the passage follows...
I. Introductory remarks (Romans 1:1-17)
II. Wrath of God revealed against those who could clearly see God in creation but turned away from God (Romans 1:18-20)
II. Beginning of long statement on the fate of those who knew God but confused worship of God with the worship of created things. (Romans 1:21-23
III. God gave them up to .....sexual impurity ... degrading of the body ... worship of created things. (Romans 1:24-25)
IV. God gave them up to ... shameful lusts ... men were inflamed with lust for one another ... women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. Consequence was that the men received in their own bodies the penalty of their error. (Romans 1:2627)
V. God gave them up to.... a depraved mind so that they do what should not to be done (Romans 1:28)
a. become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity (Romans 1:29)
b. full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. (Romans 1:29)
c. gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful (Romans 1:29-30)
d. they invent ways of doing evil; (Romans 1:30)
e. they disobey their parents (Romans 1:30)
f. they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy (Romans 1:31)
g. they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they continue to do these very things (Romans 1:32)
h. they also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:32)
VI Therefore you have no excuse for judging anyone else .... Romans 2:1
VII To do so risks God's judgment on you
VIII God's kindness tolerance and patience leads people to repentance
IX. But your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart is storing up God's wrath on you (the you of VI and VII)
X Trouble for every human being who does evil ... first for the Jew then for the Gentile
XI Those who sin apart from the law perish apart from the law
XII. Those who sin under the law are judged under the law
XIII Doers of the law are righteous Romans 2:13
XIV Gentiles show by their own conscience that they know the law .. that its requirements are written on their hearts (Romans 2: 16-17)
XV For the Jews … if you teach the law do you also follow the law? If you don’t then God’s name is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you. Romans 2: 23-24)
XVI Circumcision only has value if you obey the law Romans 2:25-27)
XVII True circumcision is of the heart Romans 2: 28-29)
XVIII Advantage of being a Jew is that they have been entrusted with the words of God (Romans 3:1-2)
XIX Our unfaithfulness does not cancel out God’s faithfulness (Romans 3:3-8)
XX Jews and Greeks are under the power of sin (Romans 3:9-19)
XXI No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law;….. through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:20)
XXII There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:22b-23)
XXIII All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:24)
XXIV Christ’s sacrifice is atonement for sin to be received by faith (Romans 3:25)
The text from Roman numeral II in the above outline builds to the point of Roman numeral XXIII ... that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This is Paul's main purpose in this portion of the discourse. We will go into more detail below but I wanted to point out this over arching purpose.
Detailed analysis...
I will not be doing a detailed analysis of all three chapters but only of what I believe are relevant sections. As the above outline shows the vice list of Romans 1 in which God gives people up is directly talking about people who knew God but did not glorify Him as God... and instead turned to idols and/or worship of created things. It is not describing the outcome of homosexuality. Instead it lists lustful same sex acts as part of what God gave them up to. Its important to recognize Paul's writing style here. Paul deliberately phrases things and uses examples in a way that will get the most reaction out of the audience. In this case he has a dual audience ... Jews and Gentiles. His reference to the law later in Romans 2 for the Jews but his reference to conscience in the same chapter in reference to the Gentiles (those who do not know the law) is one example of this.
As it turns out ... this entire section of Paul's writings in Romans 1, starting at verse 18 and going to the end of the chapter is not an original thought. Paul is instead borrowing or restating concepts that were already familiar to his Jewish readers. I am always a bit wary on what external resource to use to show this. In this case I have settled on a resource that is canonized by the Catholic Church ... specifically the Wisdom of Solomon. This is a writing that would have been available to the Apostle Paul and his contemporaries in that time frame. It was not written by Solomon but by someone who attributed it to Solomon. This is not an uncommon practice in ancient writing practices. Of particular interest to us are the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of this work.
I have put together a side by side comparison of Romans 1 and the 13th and 14th chapters of the Wisdom of Solomon. While obviously not identical the concepts are similar. I have underlined what I believe are similar concepts.
General introduction to the letter and its author ... the Apostle Paul
The book of Romans is first of all ... a letter ... written to a specific people group of a specific place and specific time. As with all interpretation it is important to understand the time in which something was written ... the people it was written to ... the genre (form of writing) and who is speaking. Romans is a letter written specifically by the Apostle Paul to Christians in Rome. Whatever he says in this letter or whatever we think he says we must first understand it as heard by the original audience. Christianity was in its infancy at this time ... doctrines and misunderstandings were still being worked through. Rome of that day would have both Jewish and non-Jewish (Gentile) believers. So Paul .... in this letter, has to be careful to speak to both audiences as they have a different understanding of basic spiritual concepts. Some of the things he deals with in the letter are misunderstandings about grace (should we sin more so that grace and abound - Romans 6) ... misunderstandings about God's call in reference to Israelites and non-Israelites. ... clarifications about sin, about salvation, and about what happens when a person comes to faith in Christ.
The Apostle Paul was a major leader in the church with a specific call to the Gentiles. As a (former) pharisee, trained under a prominent teacher (Gamaliel), resident of Tarsus and citizen of Rome he had an excellent knowledge of the Hebrew Bible (what we call the Old Testament) and the culture in which he lived. This letter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and masterfully crafted by Paul does an excellent job of communicating across cultural boundaries and understandings.
Zooming out for context
Zooming out for context is always good when interpreting any text. It is especially important when looking at Paul's writings. Paul takes a long time to make his points. He makes them through careful knowledge of where the people reading the letter are at theologically and ideologically/ Thus he is very capable of speaking to people in their cultural, theological, ideological contexts. An example of this is found in Romans chapters 9-11. If you want to get a fuller understanding of how God's call and election work you will need to read all 3 of these chapters together. Pulling verses out of context will not give you the complete picture. This is because ... first of all ...Paul very carefully makes his points ... and second of all ... Paul is trying to write in a comprehensive way to both a Jewish and non-Jewish audience.
We will not be exploring Romans 9-11 on this page. However what I have said regarding that section of this letter is also applicable for this section. Paul is speaking to two unique people groups. Paul thus must take the message he has and make it comprehendable to both groups. We will get into more detail later but the key point to understand here is that we need to look at Romans chapter 1 through chapter 3 to understand what Paul is talking about.
A basic outline of the passage follows...
I. Introductory remarks (Romans 1:1-17)
II. Wrath of God revealed against those who could clearly see God in creation but turned away from God (Romans 1:18-20)
II. Beginning of long statement on the fate of those who knew God but confused worship of God with the worship of created things. (Romans 1:21-23
III. God gave them up to .....sexual impurity ... degrading of the body ... worship of created things. (Romans 1:24-25)
IV. God gave them up to ... shameful lusts ... men were inflamed with lust for one another ... women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. Consequence was that the men received in their own bodies the penalty of their error. (Romans 1:2627)
V. God gave them up to.... a depraved mind so that they do what should not to be done (Romans 1:28)
a. become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity (Romans 1:29)
b. full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. (Romans 1:29)
c. gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful (Romans 1:29-30)
d. they invent ways of doing evil; (Romans 1:30)
e. they disobey their parents (Romans 1:30)
f. they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy (Romans 1:31)
g. they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they continue to do these very things (Romans 1:32)
h. they also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:32)
VI Therefore you have no excuse for judging anyone else .... Romans 2:1
VII To do so risks God's judgment on you
VIII God's kindness tolerance and patience leads people to repentance
IX. But your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart is storing up God's wrath on you (the you of VI and VII)
X Trouble for every human being who does evil ... first for the Jew then for the Gentile
XI Those who sin apart from the law perish apart from the law
XII. Those who sin under the law are judged under the law
XIII Doers of the law are righteous Romans 2:13
XIV Gentiles show by their own conscience that they know the law .. that its requirements are written on their hearts (Romans 2: 16-17)
XV For the Jews … if you teach the law do you also follow the law? If you don’t then God’s name is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you. Romans 2: 23-24)
XVI Circumcision only has value if you obey the law Romans 2:25-27)
XVII True circumcision is of the heart Romans 2: 28-29)
XVIII Advantage of being a Jew is that they have been entrusted with the words of God (Romans 3:1-2)
XIX Our unfaithfulness does not cancel out God’s faithfulness (Romans 3:3-8)
XX Jews and Greeks are under the power of sin (Romans 3:9-19)
XXI No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law;….. through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:20)
XXII There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:22b-23)
XXIII All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:24)
XXIV Christ’s sacrifice is atonement for sin to be received by faith (Romans 3:25)
The text from Roman numeral II in the above outline builds to the point of Roman numeral XXIII ... that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This is Paul's main purpose in this portion of the discourse. We will go into more detail below but I wanted to point out this over arching purpose.
Detailed analysis...
I will not be doing a detailed analysis of all three chapters but only of what I believe are relevant sections. As the above outline shows the vice list of Romans 1 in which God gives people up is directly talking about people who knew God but did not glorify Him as God... and instead turned to idols and/or worship of created things. It is not describing the outcome of homosexuality. Instead it lists lustful same sex acts as part of what God gave them up to. Its important to recognize Paul's writing style here. Paul deliberately phrases things and uses examples in a way that will get the most reaction out of the audience. In this case he has a dual audience ... Jews and Gentiles. His reference to the law later in Romans 2 for the Jews but his reference to conscience in the same chapter in reference to the Gentiles (those who do not know the law) is one example of this.
As it turns out ... this entire section of Paul's writings in Romans 1, starting at verse 18 and going to the end of the chapter is not an original thought. Paul is instead borrowing or restating concepts that were already familiar to his Jewish readers. I am always a bit wary on what external resource to use to show this. In this case I have settled on a resource that is canonized by the Catholic Church ... specifically the Wisdom of Solomon. This is a writing that would have been available to the Apostle Paul and his contemporaries in that time frame. It was not written by Solomon but by someone who attributed it to Solomon. This is not an uncommon practice in ancient writing practices. Of particular interest to us are the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of this work.
I have put together a side by side comparison of Romans 1 and the 13th and 14th chapters of the Wisdom of Solomon. While obviously not identical the concepts are similar. I have underlined what I believe are similar concepts.
Wisdom of Solomon
Chapter 13... 1 For truly all men by nature were but vain who had no perception of God, And from the good things that are seen they gained not power to know him that is, Neither by giving heed to the works did they recognize the architect; ......For they too perhaps do but go astray. While they are seeking God and desiring to find him. 7 For living among his works they make diligent search, And they yield themselves up to sight, because the things that they look upon are beautiful. 8 But again even they are not to be excused.9 For if they had power to know so much, ..... How is it that they didn’t sooner find the Sovereign Lord of these his works? 10 But miserable were they, and in dead things were their hopes, Who called them gods which are works of men’s hands,Gold and silver, wrought with careful are, and likenesses of animals, Or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand. ... 13 And taking the very refuse thereof which served to no use, A crooked piece of wood and full of knots, Carves it with the diligence of his idleness, And shapes it by the skill of his indolence; ‡‡ Then he gives it the semblance of the image of a man,14 Or makes it like some paltry animal,......... Chapter 14.... 12 For the devising of idols was the beginning of fornication, And the invention of them the corruption of life: ...... 22 Afterward it was not enough for them to go astray as touching the knowledge of God; ..... 23 For either slaughtering children in solemn rites, or celebrating secret mysteries,Or holding frantic revels of strange ordinances, 24 No longer do they guard either life or purity of marriage, But one brings upon another either death by treachery, or anguish by adulterate offspring.25 And all things confusedly are filled with blood and murder, theft and deceit,Corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,26 turmoil, Ingratitude for benefits received, Defiling of souls, confusion of sex, Disorder in marriage, adultery and wantonness. 27 For the worship of those nameless idols. Is a beginning and cause and end of every evil. 28 For their worshippers either make merry to madness, or prophesy lies, Or live unrighteously, or lightly forswear themselves. 29 For putting their trust in lifeless idols, When they have sworn a wicked oath, they expect not to suffer harm. 30 But for both sins will the just doom pursue them,Because they had evil thoughts of God by giving heed to idols, And swore unrighteously in deceit through contempt for holiness. from World English Bible ...(public domain) |
Letter to the Romans
Chapter 1 8 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them. 20 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. 21 Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. 26 For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. 28 Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, 30 backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. from World English Bible ...(public domain) |
I believe that Paul was using a well know concept/ideology that was familiar to his Jewish readers knowing that they will likely pass judgement on what they hear described re: confusing the creation with the creator ... being without excuse .... turning to idolatry .... turning to sexual immorality ... turning to murder and other sinful things. This is rather evident in the "therefore" that Paul starts Chapter 2 with. It is also important to remember that the original letter had no chapter numbers ... there was no break in the letter between what we call chapter 1 and chapter 2 nor were there any headings to interrupt the flow of the letter. So his Jewish readers moved right out of the vice list and into the 'therefore you are without excuse you who judge others because you who pass judgment do the same things" It is actually a rather brilliant approach ... to use something they are familiar with and can get riled up about ... and then hit them with an important truth that runs contradictory to how they were thinking. You will notice that reading scripture this way is a bit different than the proof texting that is normally used. For we consider the letter to the Roman Jewish and Gentile Christians to be an actual persuasive letter written to move the hearts and mind of the hearers.
A modern day application of this would be to utilize the same point of chapter 2 with how many Christians today judge homosexuality. This is, in fact, a totally missed cue for many in the church who seem to stop at the end of chapter 1 or even sooner, emphasizing those scriptures that appear to condemn same sex sex and totally missing the over arching principle of the passage. In context, this is not a diatribe against homosexuality ... its a statement against how we point out the sin of others but miss our own failures ... It is a statement designed to lead us to the conclusion that all have sinned and from there to the cross and to Christ .. .. not to finger pointing. Another often missed point is that it is God's tolerance, kindness and patience that leads people to repentance (REF) not judgment.
Word Study of the word: "Natural"...
The word ‘natural’ is used in Romans 1 verses 26 and 27 ….
26 For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. (from World English Bible ...public domain)
Looking these verses up at blueletterbible.org we can see that the word 'natural', as used here, is either Strongs G5446 or G5449. When we look this up further we find that G5446 comes from the root word G5449. So we can go to G5449 to get the root definition. The word ‘nature’ can be defined as something that is good or bad …. Or it can simply be the characteristics by which one person is different than another. Or … it could refer to cultural differences.
Paul uses this word (natural/nature) in different places … Another place he uses this word is in I Corinthians 11:2-21 (note verses 14-15) in reference to a man’s (and woman’s) hair length. He says that a woman’s hair length is given to her as a covering. ... that her hair is naturally long and a man's hair is naturally short. This , per Paul, is what nature itself teaches. Because of this many churches did not allow a woman to have short hair. I know of churches today that still practice this … expecting men to have short hair and women to have long hair. Back in the 1960's I can remember church members quoting this verse against those men (and teens) who were allowing their hair to grow long.. And, again, some parts of the body of Christ still take this passage literally today. Some go even further and have their women use head coverings. They take Paul’s instruction about hair length and head coverings as a command to be obeyed. However …most other churches take this instruction to be cultural ( which is also a definition of the word: "natural"). The key here is that the same word can be taken either way. There is no biblical distinction for how to interpret this word. While the context of Romans 1 appears to be a negative one this still raises significant questions about the use of the word "natural" especially as I have heard it used today in reference to lgbt folks.
The other question often raised for this passage is ... to what exactly is Paul referring? What specific practice might Paul have in mind when he wrote this to the people in Rome? We will continue to explore this ....
What is "receiving in their own body the penalty of their error" What does it refer to?
Here again ... are the verses in question...
26 For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. (from World English Bible ...public domain)
Before we go to far into this we need to address some inaccurate interpretations. When AIDS (HIV) was first diagnosed there were some/many voices coming from the Christian community that decided this was what this passage was about .... re: God's judgment on lgbt folks. There were and are multiple problems with that idea. First of all ... an important rule of interpretation is to establish what the passage meant to the original audience. The bible is not a code book in which letters were shared in which no one know the meaning. So there must be a meaning here that is not over 1900 years into the future. It had to make sense to the original hearers otherwise they would not have accepted what Paul was saying. Secondly ... if God was/is using AIDS to judge people for sexual immorality then perhaps He needs to take some target practice because He keeps missing the target. Multiple people who were hemophiliacs, health care workers , dental hygienists, and missionaries were killed by the AIDS virus that were not practicing sexual immorality. If God were going to judge people by sending a deadly disease I would think He could do better than to have innocent people killed including those who were being angels of mercy.
So we need to put these kinds of ideas behind us and ask questions anew of this passage. We need to take into account that the overarching thought in this passage is those who practice idolatry. Along with that we see sexual immorality with men and women. It is probably worth noting that a careful read does not exactly identify what the women were doing that was wrong ... other than "changing the natural function into that which is against nature". It does say that in a like manner the men burned in lust toward one another and did inappropriate things with other men .. presumably following their lustful desires. And of course ... we have the puzzling portion that says: "they received in themselves (some translations read ..."in their own bodies") the penalty for their error". So we are looking for something in the context of idolatry that is sexual/lustful and causes harm to one's self and/or one's body and was familiar to the Romans of that day. It should also be noted that there were sex cults in that time frame that made sex a part of worship. (Paul's admonition about how women should wear their hair in I Corinthians may be due to the temple of prostitution in Corinth and how those folks (the temple prostitutes) appeared in public.)
In researching this I did find a pagan sex cult that would fit what the passage may be describing ... It is called the worship of Cybele ... also called the cult of Magna Marta in Rome. It originated in Phrygia. Per the myth: Cybele was born a human woman ... abandoned to the wilderness .. raised by Leopards and apparently had certain powers to heal others. She fell in love with a prince named Attis but their love story was not a happy one as Attis could not handle her love for him and eventually went mad ... castrated himself and died. It is then believed that he comes back to life each year in the spring as evidenced by plants and vegetation. Worship of Cybele involved castrated priests called "Gali" and women. What the women did is not well known but it is known that these "worship" times could become orgy-like and could included the real or ritual castration of the male participants. This was well known in Rome ... in fact some Roman laws were put together to put a lid on some of this cult's practices. This cult lines up very well with what we find in Romans 1 .... idolatry ... lusty behaviors among men and women ... the women's behavior not made clear but the men having sex with men may be referring to sex with the (now eunuch) priests (Gali priests). And "receiving in their own bodies the penalty of their error" would directly match the castration and other self cutting that this cult group did during their "worship". It may be overly detailed to assume this to be the topic of these verses but still ... Paul would need to be talking about something familiar to them and this does fit the passage ... the time frame and Rome.
Web References to the worship of Cybele ... Great Mother of the Gods / Roman Cults and Worship / The Cult of Magna Carta / The Cult of Cybele / Cult of Cybele / Cybele, Mother Goddess of Rome
A closer look at the points raised in Romans 1 from the outline in Roman Numeral V ... (included below for your convenience.)
Per the outline Romans 1 verses 28-32 include the following...
V. God gave them up to.... a depraved mind so that they do what should not to be done (Romans 1:28)
a. become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity (Romans 1:29)
b. full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. (Romans 1:29)
c. gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful (Romans 1:29-30)
d. they invent ways of doing evil; (Romans 1:30)
e. they disobey their parents (Romans 1:30)
f. they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy (Romans 1:31)
g. they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they continue to do these very things (Romans 1:32)
h. they also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:32)
If this is referring to lgbt folks today then I do not see a match. I know of lgbt couples that do practice fidelity, love and mercy. The lgbt folks I know are not gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful. They have not become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, depravity, and are not full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. In fact many of them show the fruits of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. So, however one interprets this passage these is something amiss here if this is to refer to lgbt folks today.
Some final points ...
I have heard some teach that Paul is referring to straight people going against their nature and having gay sex which is allegedly what Paul means by going against their nature. While this might be a valid conclusion with regard to worship of Cybele ... I do not believe Paul understood sexual orientation in his day and time. We have only recently in the last 100 years or so come to an understanding on this. So I think this interpretation is unlikely.
I think it goes without saying that the Jewish and Christian culture of the day was not in agreement with gay sex or gay marriage. So the negating of this or any other passage that traditionally was regarded as being against gay sex /gay marriage does not fully answer the question of the morality of gay sex/ gay marriage for today. It may be one way to open the door to the question but it does not ... in itself... provide the answer. There are other scriptures and overarching principles to look at.
Denominational Disclaimer
The thoughts, ideologies, interpretations, and beliefs expressed on this website are my own.
I believe that what I have written on this website is within the boundaries of the theology and beliefs of my denomination. However, homosexuality is a very complex topic with varied viewpoints. Since this is the case, it should be understood that the views expressed by myself and other Christians on this website and in our blog and / or forums (if we have them) may not necessarily reflect the official position of my / their respective denominations. Additionally, when / if I reference various web resources it should not be assumed to be an endorsement of the entirety of that resource.
The thoughts, ideologies, interpretations, and beliefs expressed on this website are my own.
I believe that what I have written on this website is within the boundaries of the theology and beliefs of my denomination. However, homosexuality is a very complex topic with varied viewpoints. Since this is the case, it should be understood that the views expressed by myself and other Christians on this website and in our blog and / or forums (if we have them) may not necessarily reflect the official position of my / their respective denominations. Additionally, when / if I reference various web resources it should not be assumed to be an endorsement of the entirety of that resource.