18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.[i] 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For
ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky.
Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible
qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse
for not knowing God.21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.
So what I hear being said here is that God exists, you can tell this just by studying nature and more than just his mere existence, you can see his "eternal power and divine nature," or, that this world was created by someone not bound by time or human constraints. Because it is so obvious in nature that God exists, the question isn't then "does God exist" but rather "how will I acknowledge this God that exists?" Paul says that these people knew He was there, but denied His deity and were not grateful for His blessings.
Isn't that normally how it works? Pride inhibits gratefulness which leads to denying God His rightful place in our lives. Ouch.
Paul has some very strong words here against particular sins. He goes from atheism and idolatry to homosexuality and "every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip."
This makes me wonder if the Romans in particular were struggling with this in their society? "So God abandoned them" are some very chilling words. " 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too."
Doesn't it always seem to be that misery and sin love company? Where when one person goes down the slope of abandonment of God, they try to drag as many people with them as they can.
I suppose then, our challenge is to do the opposite: as we climb the pathway trying to become more like God, we should show His love to as many of those around us as we can and try to take THEM with us!
There are a lot of serious thoughts in this portion of the 1st chapter.
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