Romans 1:27

27 Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men - all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it - emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

Romans 1:27 Meaning and Commentary

Romans 1:27

And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the
women
The very sin of "sodomy" is here designed, so called from Sodom, the place where we first hear of it, ( Genesis 19:5 ) , the men of which place, because they

burned in their lust one towards another,
as these Gentiles are said to do, God rained upon them fire and brimstone from heaven: an exceeding great sin this is, contrary to nature, dishonourable to human nature, and scandalous to a people and nation among whom it prevails, as it did very much in the Gentile world, and among their greatest philosophers; even those that were most noted for moral virtue are charged with it, as Socrates, Plato, Zeno, and others {m}: it is a sin which generally prevails where idolatry and infidelity do, as among the Pagans of old, and among the Papists and Mahometans now; and never was it so rife in this nation as since the schemes of deism and infidelity have found such a reception among us. Thus God, because men dishonour him with their evil principles and practices, leaves them to reproach their own nature, and dishonour their own bodies:

men with men working that which is unseemly;
and of which nothing like it is to be observed in the brutal world:

receiving in themselves the recompence of their error, which was
meet:
God punishes sin with sin; for as the Jews say F14, as

``one commandment draws on another, so one transgression draws on another; for the reward of the commandment is the commandment, (hrybe hrybe rkvw) and the reward of transgression is transgression.''


FOOTNOTES:

F13 A. Gellius Noct. Attic. l. 2. c. 18. Laert. Vit. Philosoph. l. 2. in Vit. Socrat. & l. 3. in Vit. Platon.
F14 Pirke Abot, c. 4. sect. 2.

Romans 1:27 In-Context

25 And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them - the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!
26 Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn't know how to be human either - women didn't know how to be women, men didn't know how to be men.
27 Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men - all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it - emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.
28 Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose.
29 And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous,
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.