The State of Things

The following was the Scripture passage from my devotions this morning. I realize that this passage will be highly unpopular to some of my friends, so I will refrain from adding any of my own thoughts to it at all. I will simply put the Scripture itself out there and you can see for yourself.

Romans 1:18-2:6

For God's [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.
For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them.
For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernable in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification], [Ps. 19:1-4.]
Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves].
And by them the glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God were exchanged for and represented by images, resembling mortal man and birds and beasts and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [own] hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves [abandoning them to the degrading power of sin],
Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen (so be it). [Jer. 2:11.]
For this reason God gave them over and abandoned them to vile affections and degrading passions. For their women exchanged their natural function for an unnatural and abnormal one,
And the men also turned from natural relations with women and were set ablaze (burning out, consumed) with lust for one another- men committing shameful acts with men and suffering in their own bodies and personalities the inevitable consequences and penalty of their wrong-doing and going astray, which was [their] fitting retribution.
And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome,
Until they were filled (permeated and saturated) with every kind of unrighteousness, iniquity, grasping and coveteous greed, and malice. [They were] full of envy and jealous, murder, strife, deceit and treachery, ill will and cruel ways. [They were] secret backbiters and gossipers,
Slanderers, hateful to and hating God, full of insolence, arrogance, [and] boasting; inventors for new forms of evil, disobedient and undutiful to parents.
[They were] without understanding, conscienceless and faithless, heartless and loveless [and] merciless.
Though they are fully aware of God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them themselves but approve and applaud others who practice them.

Therefore you have no excuse or defense or justification, O man, whoever you are who judges and condemns another. For in posing as judge and passing sentence on another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge are habitually practicing the very same things [that you censure and denounce].
[But] we know that the judgement (adverse verdict, sentence) of God falls justly and in accordance with truth upon those who practice such things.
And do you think or imagine, O man, when you judge and condemn those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God's judgement and elude His sentence and adverse verdict?
Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God's will)?
But by your callous stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath and indignation for yourself on the day of wrath and indignation, when God's righteous judgement (just doom) will be revealed.
For He will render to every man according to his works [justly, as his deeds deserve]: [Ps. 62:12.]



There is so much in that passage...what stands out to you today?