Romans 1:28 Komentář

In this chapter we may observe, I. The preface and introduction to the whole epistle, to Rom 1:16. II. A description of the deplorable condition of the Gentile world, which begins the proof of the doctrine of justification by faith, here laid down at Rom 1:17. The first is according to the then usual formality of a letter, but intermixed with very excellent and savoury expressions.

This chapter contains the inscription of the epistle, and salutation, the preface to it, and the grand proposition of justification by faith, so much enlarged on afterwards; and that this could not be by the law of nature, and the works of it among the Gentiles, is demonstrated by a detail of their horrible wickedness, impiety, and unrighteousness. In the inscription an account is given of the author of the epistle, who is described in Rom 1:1 by his name Paul: by his relation to Christ, a servant of his; and by his office, an apostle, whose business and concern were with the Gospel; to which he was separated. This Gospel is commended from the author of it, who is God himself; and from the antiquity of it, Rom 1:2, being as ancient as the writings of the prophets; and from the subject of it, being the Lord Jesus Christ; who is described by his relation to God, his Son, by his dominion over the saints, their Lord, by both his natures, human and divine; his human nature, as being of the seed of David, his divine nature, being the Son of God, Rom 1:4, which is declared by the power he is possessed of, by the Spirit of holiness that is in him, by his resurrection from the dead, and by the apostles receiving from him grace to fit them for their office, and by the office itself: the end of which was to make some among all nations obedient to him, Rom 1:5, among whom were the saints at Rome, who were called by him, and after his name, Rom 1:6, which introduces the account of the persons to whom this epistle is written, who are described, Rom 1:7, by the place of their abode, Rome; by their interest in the love of God; and by the effect, fruit, and evidence of it, their effectual calling; and then follows the apostle's usual salutation, as in all his epistles, in which he wishes grace and peace for them, from God the Father, and from Christ. The preface begins Rom 1:8, in which are a thanksgiving to God, through Christ, for all the saints at Rome, particularly on account of their faith, for which they were everywhere so famous; an appeal to God, Rom 1:9, for the truth of his incessant prayers for them, and particularly, Rom 1:10, that this was a request he made, that if it was the will of God, he might have a speedy and prosperous journey to, them; an expression of strong affection to them, and of his great desire to see them, Rom 1:11, his end in which was partly for their sakes, to communicate spiritual things to them for their establishment, and partly for his own comfort, and the increase of the mutual faith of both, Rom 1:12, also a vindication of himself, Rom 1:13, showing, that it was not any fault of his, or any neglect of them by him, that he had not been with them as yet, but some things hindered him, in the execution of his purpose to come to them; to which he was moved, partly by the hope of having fruit among them, as among others, and partly through the obligation that lay upon him by virtue of his office, to preach the Gospel to all sorts of men, Rom 1:14, he expresses his willingness and readiness to preach the Gospel to them at Rome, as soon as an opportunity would offer, Rom 1:15, which was his work and office, what he delighted in, was closely attached to, and by no means ashamed of, Rom 1:16, partly because of the nature of it, it was the Gospel, good news and true: and partly because of the author and subject of it, Christ; as also because of the efficacy of it in the salvation of Jews and Gentiles; and likewise because of a principal doctrine revealed in it, Rom 1:17, the doctrine of justification by faith, in the righteousness of Christ, confirmed and illustrated by a passage out of Hab 2:4, and which he particularly mentions, because he intended to dwell upon it in this epistle: and in order to show that the Gentiles could not be justified in the sight of God by their obedience to the law, and the light of nature, he observes, that they were the objects of the wrath of God, Rom 1:18, and that very justly, because they sinned knowingly; they had some knowledge of the truth, but they would not profess it: and that they had such knowledge of it, he proves from the author of it, God, who showed it to them, Rom 1:19, and from the means of it, by which they must, and did arrive to some degree of it, namely, the works of creation, Rom 1:20. The apostle goes on to expose the ingratitude of them, the vanity of their minds, the pride and folly of their hearts, Rom 1:21, the gross idolatry they were guilty of, Rom 1:23, for which idolatry they were given up to their own hearts' lusts, to commit the foulest and most scandalous iniquities, even to commit sodomitical practices, and unnatural lusts, both men and women, Rom 1:24. And so far were they from having a righteousness to justify them before God, that they were titled with all unrighteousness; and a large list of the vilest sins, being committed by them, is given; and a catalogue of the worst of sinners, as among them, Rom 1:29. All which are aggravated by their knowledge of the will of God, through the light of nature, that these things were contrary to it, and were deserving of death; and yet they both did them, and were delighted with those that committed them also: the inference which he leaves to be deduced from hence, and which may easily be deduced, is, that therefore there can be no justification of such persons in the sight of God by their own works.

And even as they did not like,.... This accounts for the justness of the divine procedure in leaving them to commit such scandalous iniquities; that since they had some knowledge of God by the light of nature, and yet did not care to retain God in their knowledge; or to own and acknowledge him as God, to worship and glorify him as such; but took every method to erase this knowledge out of their minds, and keep it from others: God gave them over to a reprobate mind; a vain empty mind, worthless, good for nothing devoid of all true knowledge and judgment; incapable of approving what is truly good, or of disapproving that which is evil; a mind that has lost all conscience of things, and is disapproved of by God, and all good men: to do those things which are not convenient; which are neither agreeably to the light of nature, nor convenient to, or becoming the honour of human nature; things which the brutes themselves, who are destitute of reason, do not do.

But if all nations are blessed in Christ, and we of all nations believe in Him, then He is indeed the Christ, and we are those blessed by Him. God formerly gave the sun as an object of worship, as it is written, but no one ever was seen to endure death on account of his faith in the sun; but for the name of Jesus you may see men of every nation who have endured and do endure all sufferings, rather than deny Him.

For one and the same God [that blesses others] inflicts blindness upon those who do not believe, but who set Him at naught; just as the sun, which is a creature of His, [acts with regard] to those who, by reason of any weakness of the eyes cannot behold his light; but to those who believe in Him and follow Him, He grants a fuller and greater illumination of mind. In accordance with this word, therefore, does the apostle say, in the Second [Epistle] to the Corinthians: "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine [unto them]." And again, in that to the Romans: "And as they did not think fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things that are not convenient." Speaking of antichrist, too, he says clearly in the Second to the Thessalonians: "And for this cause God shall send them the working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but consented to iniquity."

But what the learned among the Greeks have said concerning our polity and the history of our laws, and how many and what kind of men have written of these things, will be shown in the treatise against those who have discoursed of divine things. These things, O Greeks, I Tatian, a disciple of the barbarian philosophy,

Lest he should seem to be hinting at them by delaying in his discourse so long over the unnatural sin, he next passes on to other kinds of sins also, and for this cause he carries on the whole of his discourse as of other persons. And as he always does when discoursing with believers about sins, and wishing to show that they are to be avoided, he brings the Gentiles in, and says, "Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the other Gentiles which know not God." (1 Thess. iv. 5.) And again: "sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." (ib. 13.) And so here too he shows that it was to them the sins belonged, and deprives them of all excuse. For he says, that their daring deeds came not of ignorance, but of practice. And this is why he did not say, "and as they knew not God;" but "as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge;" as much as to say, that the sin was one of a perverted determination of obstinacy, more than of a sudden ravishment, and shows that it was not the flesh (as some heretics say) but the mind, to the wicked lust whereof the sins belonged, and that it was thence the fount of the evils flowed. For since the mind is become undistinguishing, all else is then dragged out of course and overturned, when he is corrupted that held the reins!

Whoever follows the pernicious attractiveness of his lusts and tries to push aside those who would stop him heads straight into sin.

Because of the error of idolatry they were handed over to doing evil things with each other, as has already been said. And because they thought they could get away with it and that God would look the other way, and were therefore prone to neglect what they were doing, Paul adds here that they were more and more reduced to idiocy and became ever readier to tolerate all kinds of evils, to the point that they imagined that God would never avenge things which no one doubted were offensive to humanity as well. He now lists all the evils that were added to these, so that if they should be converted to normal reason, they might recognize that these evils befell them because of God’s wrath.

Wherefore it is the duty of a man of God, as he is a Christian, not to swear by the sun, or by the moon, or by the stars; nor by the heaven, nor by the earth, by any of the elements, whether small or great. For if our Master charged us not to swear by the true God, that our word might be firmer than an oath, nor by heaven itself, for that is a piece of heathen wickedness, nor by Jerusalem, nor by the sanctuary of God, nor the altar, nor the gift, nor the gilding of the altar, nor one's own head, for this custom is a piece of Judaic corruption, and on that account was forbidden; and if He exhorts the faithful that their yea be yea, and their nay, nay, and says that "what is more than these is of the evil one," how much more blameable are those who appeal to deities falsely so called as the objects of an oath, and who glorify imaginary beings instead of those that are real, whom God for their perverseness "delivered over to foolishness, to do those things that are not convenient!"

If they had wanted to know him, they would have followed the divine laws. But because they denied their Creator, he stopped looking after them.

Not only did they not know God, they did not want to know him.… So they were given over to a base mind.

Paul does not say that God destroyed them because of their loathsome outrages. For God is not responsible for destroying anyone.… Paul says rather that God went away from them and left them to their own devices, so that their false understanding of God might appear to be the cause of their evil life.

Here, for the third time, he repeats the same thought and uses the same word, saying: "gave over." As the cause of their being abandoned by God, he everywhere presents the impiety of people, as he does now as well. "And even as they did not care to retain God in their knowledge, He gave them over" to passions. The offense they committed against God, he says, was not a sin of ignorance, but an intentional one. For he did not say: since they did not know, but says: "and even as they did not care," that is, they resolved not to retain God in their knowledge and voluntarily chose impiety. Therefore, their sins are not sins of the flesh, as certain heretics assert, but of wrong judgments. First they rejected the knowledge of God, and only then did God allow them to fall into a debased mind. To better explain the expression "God gave them over," some of the Fathers made use of an excellent illustration. They reason as follows: when someone, not wishing to see the sun, closes his eyes and then falls into a pit, we say that it was not the sun, which he did not see, that cast him into the pit, that the man did not fall into the pit because the sun cast him there in anger, but because it did not illuminate his eyes. And why did it not illuminate his eyes? Because he closed his eyes. So too God gave them over to shameful passions. Why? Because people did not know Him. And why did they not know Him? Because they did not consider and did not resolve to know Him.

Then when he says and as they liked not, he shows that they fell under a penalty of justice. First, he shows that previous sin brought them to these sins; second, he enumerates the differences among these sins, at being filled with all iniquity. He mentions the preceding sin when he says and as they liked not to have God in their knowledge. This can be interpreted in two ways: in one way, that although they could have had true knowledge about God by the light of reason considering visible things, nevertheless, to sin more freely, they did not like to have God in their knowledge, i.e., they did not approve having God in their knowledge: they said to God: depart from us. We do not desire knowledge of your ways (Job 21:14). In another way it can mean that they did not acknowledge that God knows about human behavior: the Lord does not see: the God of Jacob does not perceive (Ps 94:7). According to this interpretation the punishment is shown to fit this sin, when he says God delivered them up to a reprobate sense. Sense here does not mean man's external sense, by which sense-perceptible things are known, but the interior sense, according to which he judges his behavior: to fix one's thoughts on her, i.e., wisdom, is to have perfect sense (Wis 6:15). It is called a base sense, because it reached discommendable judgments about behavior: men of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith (2 Tim 3:8); refuse silver they are called (Jer 6:30). Therefore, he continues: to do those things which are not fitting, i.e., behavior not in accord with right reason: their works are useless (Wis 3:11). Yet it is fitting that those who sinned against knowing God either by refusing to acknowledge him or by thinking that they do not know him, should be given up to a perverse sense. That is why it is written: a just penalty always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous (Wis 14:31).

St. Paul shows the Romans his Divine call to the apostleship, and for what end he was thus called, Rom 1:1-6. His salutation to the Church at Rome, and his commendation of their faith, Rom 1:7, Rom 1:8. His earnest desire to see them, that he might impart to them some spiritual gifts, Rom 1:9-15. His description of the Gospel of Christ, Rom 1:16, Rom 1:17. The crimes and profligacy of the Gentile world, which called aloud for the judgments of God, Rom 1:18-32. Preliminary Observations Different interpreters have divided this epistle into certain parts or divisions, by which they suppose its subject and matter may be the better understood. Some of these divisions have been mentioned in the preceding preface. The epistle contains three grand divisions. I. The Preface, Romans 1:1-17. II. The Tractation, or setting forth of the main subject, including two sections: 1. Dogmatic, or what relates to doctrine. 2. Paraenetic, or what relates to the necessity and importance of the virtues and duties of the Christian life. The dogmatic part is included in the first eleven chapters, the grand object of which is to show that eternal salvation cannot be procured by any observance of the Jewish law, and can be hoped for only on the Christian scheme; for by the works of the law no man can be justified; but what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God has accomplished by sending his Son into the world, who, becoming an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. The paraenetic part commences with Rom 12:1 : I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, etc.; and extends to Rom 15:14. III. The peroration or epilogue, which contains the author's apology for writing; his commendation of his apostolical office; his promise to visit them; his request of an interest in their prayers; his commendations of certain persons, and his salutations to others. These points are contained in the succeeding parts of the epistle, from Rom 15:14 to Rom 16:24. The 25th, 26th, and 27th verses (Rom 16:25-27) of this chapter evidently belong to another part of the epistle, and should come in, as they do in a vast majority of the best MSS., after Rom 14:23. For every thing necessary to a general knowledge of the epistle itself, see the preceding preface. The inscriptions to this epistle are various in the different MSS. and versions. The following are the principal: - To the Romans - The Epistle of Paul to the Romans - The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans - The Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Romans. The word αγιος, holy, we have translated saint; and thus, instead of saying the holy Paul, etc., we say Saint Paul, etc.; and this is now brought into general use. The older the MSS. are, the more simple the appellatives given to apostles and apostolic men.

They did not like to retain God - It would, perhaps, be more literal to translate ουκ εδοκιμασαν, They Did Not Search to retain God in their knowledge. They did not examine the evidences before them (Rom 1:19, Rom 1:20) of his being and attributes; therefore God gave them over to a Reprobate mind, εις αδοκιμον νουν, to an Unsearching or undiscerning mind; for it is the same word in both places. They did not reflect on the proofs they had of the Divine nature, and God abandoned them to the operations of a mind incapable of reflection. How men of such powers and learning, as many of the Greek and Roman philosophers and poets really were, could reason so inconsecutively concerning things moral and Divine is truly astonishing. But here we see the hand of a just and avenging God; they abused their powers, and God deprived them of the right use of these powers.

INTRODUCTION. (Rom. 1:1-17) Paul--(See on Act 13:9). a servant of Jesus Christ--The word here rendered "servant" means "bond-servant," or one subject to the will and wholly at the disposal of another. In this sense it is applied to the disciples of Christ at large (Co1 7:21-23), as in the Old Testament to all the people of God (Isa 66:14). But as, in addition to this, the prophets and kings of Israel were officially "the servants of the Lord" (Jos 1:1; Psa 18:1, title), the apostles call themselves, in the same official sense, "the servants of Christ" (as here, and Phi 1:1; Jam 1:1; Pe2 1:1; Jde 1:1), expressing such absolute subjection and devotion to the Lord Jesus as they would never have yielded to a mere creature. (See on Rom 1:7; Joh 5:22-23). called to be an apostle--when first he "saw the Lord"; the indispensable qualification for apostleship. (See on Act 9:5; Act 22:14; Co1 9:1). separated unto the--preaching of the gospel--neither so late as when "the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul" (Act 13:2), nor so early as when "separated from his mother's womb" (see on Gal 1:15). He was called at one and the same time to the faith and the apostleship of Christ (Act 26:16-18). of God--that is, the Gospel of which God is the glorious Author. (So Rom 15:16; Th1 2:2, Th1 2:8-9; Pe1 4:17).

gave them over--or "up" (see on Rom 1:24). to do those things which are not convenient--in the old sense of that word, that is, "not becoming," "indecorous," "shameful."