Romans 2:1-4

sooo...we continue the march through romans and we are entering chapter two. Just to give a short rewind........> in chapter one it talked about how God turned the people over to their sin because they would not accept Gods truth and so their sin became their punishment. Then we listed all the sins that were listed in chapter two and defined them and I personally found that i was guilty of many of those sins myself...OFTEN. Ex: arrogance, insolence. Interestingly enough the next chapter begins talking about...you guessed it....judging other people for the same sins you commit. *Sigh.... at this point we are only in chapter two and my toes are about to be stepped on. Here we go....

¹ You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. ² Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³ So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? ⁴ Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Notice that verse one DOES NOT say that we are never to judge anyone (we may talk about this in a later chapter)...it just says that to what ever measure we judge we will also be judged. In fact it is even implying that if you judge some one for a sin that you are committing yourself, not only will they judge you for that same sin at the same measure but you are literally condemning yourself by judging them before you have yourself right!! At first this seems scary, but I would say this could be a good thing. If people know you are going to judge them (a better word to me here is "hold them accountable") then they in turn will also hold you accountable to the same measure. By holding someone else accountable you are setting the standard high for yourself. This is not necessarily a bad thing! 

Verse 2 goes on to say that Gods judgment is based on truth. At first this confused me because i was like well...if you are holding some one accountable with God's word then your judgment is based on truth too...huh??? see my confusion. BUT if you are judging someone but yet living in the same sin, then you are living a lie by holding them to a standard that you may try to MAKE it look like you are following...but you really aren't. So your judgement is ultimately based on a lie and I believe this is what God is saying. His judgment is ALWAYS based on truth and like verse 3 says...we would be foolish to think that we (the liars) will escape Gods judgment (based on truth). These last two questions in verse 3 and 4 are very simple so I wont go on... you can re read them if you need to. Rest of the chapter comes later..

Romans 1:18-32

So continues Romans. It takes me a while to get each post up and at times it makes me feel discouraged/behind...BUT I have found that God has used my "behindness" to teach me more that i can apply to earlier chapters...AND later chapters that we are in right now can relate back to the beginning chapters. So here goes the rest of Romans 1. It is a lot... In fact....ALL of Romans is a lot but it is so eye opening if you can stick in there and TRY to wrap your mind around it. YES...it takes more effort than other books but it is SO worth it.
So these next few verses are heavy words. It is thought that Paul is addressing/talking about non christians because of his heavy wording such as "they supress the truth with their wickedness" and "their hearts were darkened". I am not really sure of who he is talking to, but it is safe to say that that it is a detail that could make us miss the message of what he is trying to say in the end if we let ourselves obsess over it. (just keep that in mind as you read, because christian or non christian, the message still eventually leads to the fact that there is hope.) 
¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
It is interesting to note that it says that Gods wrath is being revealed. As if he has hidden it or kept it under restraint, giving people multiple opportunities to receive his grace. So at a certain point he just says fine, you are gonna have to deal with my wrath, which COMES from HEAVEN! And then he goes on in the next few verses to explain how they purposely rejected God although they had knowledge of him. Therefore...God's wrath was inevitable. 

 ²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

 ²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

 ²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

 ²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Well....that paragraph is slightly shocking at first glace. Gods wrath was simply to give them over to what they wanted. He gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts and their shameful lusts and over to a depraved mind. It is interesting that each of these things listed kind of deals with different parts of a persons being. After he talks about giving them over to sinful desires of their hearts he lists examples such as sexual impurity and idolatry. Both of these things refer to physical or materialisic struggles/sins. When talking about giving them over to shameful lusts he goes on to give the example of homosexuality. Although this sin is slightly physical, it is more of a problem of identity. It is very much an inward battle as much as an outward battle. Last he gave them over to a depraved mind. This addresses the psychological side of things. God gave them over to their mental sins/struggles. 
What is interesting to me was how it talks about how God gave them over to their sins, meaning that living in their sins was the curse or consequence for rejecting God and his truth. This means that homosexuality (although yes a sin) is a curse or consequence of sin as well. It IN ITSELF is PUNISHMENT. Homosexuality was God's judgment on them. It defiles the picture that marriage between a man and a woman give of the relation ship of Christ (the bridegroom) and the church (the bride). What is often interesting also is that in a homosexual relationship, there is a person that "plays the male or more masculine role" and the other "plays the female or more feminine role", although they are both the same sex. This is not always the case but sometimes it is and it is proof that even in a homosexual relationship people can not get away from the fact that a marriage needs a male figure and a female figure because that is how God created and intended it. 
What is scary is that i went through the list of sins that God gave to describe the people who he had turned over to their sin, and some of the sins I am guilty of OFTEN!!
1) Envy: discontent, resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities or luck
2) Murder
3) Strife: angry or bitter disagreement over fundamental issues, vigorous or bitter conflict
4) Deceit: the act of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth
5) Malice: the intention or DESIRE to do evil, the desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to another
6) Gossips
7) Slander: the crime of making a false spoken statement damaging a person’s reputation
8)  God haters
9) Insolent: showing a rude or arrogant lack of respect
10) Arrogant: having or revealing an exaggerated sense of ones own importance or abilities
11) Boastful
12) Invent ways of doing evil- note: he does not say they invent new sins, they just invent different ways to commit sin
13) Disobey parent
14) Senseless: def 1: incapable of sensation. Def 2: no common sense
15) Faithless
16) Heartless: complete lack of feeling or consideration
17) ruthless: having no pity of compassion for others


I am guilty of some of these! self check! Are any of these sins becoming a lifestyle??  
Stay tuned....This leads right into the next chapter about judging other people. 

Romans 1: 8-17

It seems like whenever you try following after the Lord diligently, the devil tries more than EVER to make you tired/ make you have a headache/help you make excuses to put Gods word off. Hence, it has taken me FOREVER to blog about the next verses! Im determined he won't win....so...here is verses 8-17
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.⁹ God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you ¹⁰ in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
Last night I went to a "parenting talk" by Josh McDowell and one of the things that he said that stuck out to me was that relationships are the foundation for everything. We were made to have relationships... a relationship with God and relationships with people. In saying this he also said that we often "preach the truth" or quote scripture but there is no relationship with the people we are preaching the truth to. He said, "Truth without relationship leads to rejection". Paul, in Ephesians 4:15, refers to "speaking the truth IN LOVE" and David in the book of Psalms says, "I am constantly aware of your UNFAILING LOVE, and I have lived according to your TRUTH". Both of these verses tie the truth with love or, in other words, a good relationship. In these verses in Romans Paul is explaining how he is preaching the gospel of Jesus to them and to others, BUT he says this in the same sentence in which he makes an effort to applaud them regarding their faith! He is also talking about how he has tried MANY times to try and get to Rome so he can fellowship with them and encourage them (as u will see in the next verse). He is trying to establish a relationship with them, ALTHOUGH he has not actually be able to get to Rome to meet them and talk to them in person! He understands how important it is for him to establish a good relationship with them so that they will listen and apply the TRUTH of God that he is about to try and teach them!
¹¹ I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— ¹²that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. 
In verse 11 Paul is NOT saying that he can GRANT or BESTOW spiritual gifts! In fact he clarifies himself in verse 12 by explaining what he meant. He simply meant that by being with them, he could share his spiritual gift with them and they could share theirs with him, resulting in encouragement. You have to remember that Paul does a lot of lonely traveling and he hasn't exactly lived the "american dream" life, so he is probably longing to be with people who share the same desire to follow Jesus as he does. It is a break from being chased around by people who hate him or are trying to arrest him!

¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.¹⁴ I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. ¹⁵ That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

In these last few verses there are several thing to observe: 

1) Paul makes three "I am.." statements
"I AM OBLIGATED both to greeks and non greeks"...aka every body
"I AM SO EAGER to preach the gospel to you in Rome"....since his efforts to get there have been foiled over and over...it is almost as if he is relieved because he felt responsible to get the truth to them and has finally reached them through this letter
"I AM NOT ASHAMED of the gospel"...this basically sets him up for the rest of the book....

2) in verse 17 he says "righteous that is by faith from first to last"....My inital question was "from first to last what??". Paul simply means that the righteousness that you have is by faith from the minute you begin your spiritual walk with christ on earth to the last breath you take before you see him in heaven.


3) verse 16 is one of those verses that you hear a lot and so when you read it, it is really easy to read it fast and not think twice about it. It is actually very cool. Paul says that the gospel is "the power of God". That is....the gospel is literally God's power (his power was demonstrated on the cross). "For the salvation of every one who believes"... so it is GOD'S POWER and through his power we have salvation. By believing, we have salvation, salvation is through his power, and his power is the gospel! #a lot to ponder


SOOO....to sum these verses up....


Vs 8-13 Paul is trying to build somewhat of a relationship with them (after introducing himself in vs 1-7)
vs 14-17 Paul says that he is obligated to share the Gospel with every one (including them) and he is eager for them to read this letter because he has had a hard time physically traveling to them. He feels like he is beginning to fulfill his obligation to them, and so...he is eager. He is also not ashamed of the Gospel, hence his hard effort to get it to them, and also hence the things he is about to try to teach them! He is about to get into some TOUGH STUFF!!!