Greeting
Romans is a letter from Paul to the Romans telling them about Jesus. In the greeting he says that Jesus is the lord and he tells them that Jesus loves them and they should follow Christ.
Longing to Go to Rome
Paul really wants to go to Rome to preach to them because he loves them. He has tried to go that way but he has been prevented up to now.
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
"I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes"
Why would he be ashamed? It is interesting that he says that. The message I see here is "You might think I should be ashamed, but I am not"
God's Wrath on Unrighteousness
The wrath of God is revealed to all unrighteous men who suppress the truth. For God's "eternal power and divine nature" have been clear since the creation of the world. "Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God"
That's interesting. It is a condemnation of people who know God but don't honor him. What about people who genuinely don't believe?
These people gave up the glory of God for mortal lusts. They were gay. They were also filled with evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They know God says these things deserve death but they do them anyway.
As usual, when there is a list like this it always seems strange what goes together. Murder and gossip both deserve the same punishment of death? Also, for the random comment that the bible isn't actually antigay, look at v. 26-27.
"That's interesting. It is a condemnation of people who know God but don't honor him. What about people who genuinely don't believe?"
ReplyDeleteMy interpretation of these verses is that if you search for God and can't find him, or weren't aware of him in the first place, it's your fault. He made himself aware to everyone. I could be off.
I have a few problems with this chapter, which stick out to me. Can we understand God's attributes? Yes or No? And verse 24, sounds like God let's people be gay.. He also calls people fools when earlier in Mark, this behavior is condemned.
I saved this for last, but the phrasing in verse 27, really, really bothers me. I don't like the phrasing of the part about the natural "function/use of the woman". It's not in all of the translations, but it is in my Bible. Am I being off base here, that this is pretty damn offensive?
Oh yeah, the KJV version of that verse is pretty terrible. I feel like I have read in a few places that the KJV is actually a pretty poor translation.
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