Stand Strong in the Word
Stand Strong in the Word is a weekly bible study that teaches through the Bible verse by verse in chronological order. For more information, visit www.standstrongministries.org.
Stand Strong in the Word
#316 “The Cost of Dishonoring God With Our Bodies” (Romans 1:26-27)
What happens when we trade God’s design for what we want instead? In today’s episode, we’re looking at Romans 1:26-27 and talking honestly about The Cost of Dishonoring God With Our Bodies. This isn’t just about behavior—it’s about what happens when we walk away from God’s order and truth.
Please follow me here:
LINKS
https://www.facebook.com/jason.jimenez.5099
https://www.tiktok.com/@jasonpjimenez
https://www.instagram.com/jasonpjimenez/
https://twitter.com/jasonpjimenez
What happens when we trade God's design for what we want instead. In today's episode, we're going to be looking at Romans 1, verses 26 and 27, and talking honestly about the cost of dishonoring God with our bodies. This isn't just about behavior. It's about what happens when we walk away from God's order. In truth, grab your Bibles, turn to Romans 1, and let's stand strong in the word together. Well, hey, there, my friends, welcome to Stand Strong in the Word podcast. Jason Heman is with you, as always. Blessed to be with you guys. As we continue our study here in the book of Romans, chapter one, we will be looking, as I said in the opening, in 26 and 27, and the title is the cost of dishonoring God with our bodies. Now, before we dive in, if you've missed any previous podcasts, I encourage you guys to take a listen, leave a review, share it with your friends. That is so helpful as we continue to build this community of Christians who are like minded and standing strong in God's word. So we can live a life of wise thinking and bold living, that we can live holy lives before the Lord. That is our desire, and so when we're looking at this, it could be very graphic and very disturbing. But there are consequences, my friends, to what we do in our sin. We cannot think because I have a right, I have bodily autonomy, I can get away with whatever I want. That's not true. We saw here in scripture that when you exchange the glory of God and you start worshiping things in this world, it could even be yourself, your selfish ambitions, your lust, whatever they are. We saw in verse 24 that God gave them over to their lusts, the lust of their hearts, to impurity, and there are a lot of people, probably, who are listening. Let me just say, as a brother in christ who loves you and as I put this content out as we talk about this passage, my prayer for you is that if you are dishonoring your body, that there's something in your life right now that you were doing and you think that it's okay or it's not that big of a deal, or you are blinded, you are lost and you've seen in verse 25, that you've exchanged God's truth for a lie and you start realizing that there's idols in your life that you've been worshiping other than God. Today's the day of repentance. Today is a day that you can cry out to the Lord and say Lord, I don't want to continue to be dishonoring my body, because there are consequences. So notice as we get into verse 26, and 27 says for this reason. So what is the reason? So let's just go back.
Speaker 1:As I mentioned, they turned to their lusts. They were dishonoring their bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. They were worshiping creatures, meaning they had idols in their life. Remember, they knew God verse 21, but they exchanged it. They didn't want to honor him, they didn't want to give thanks to him. Rather, they want to be futile in their thinking. Even though they claim to be wise, they're fools, because their hearts are darkened, so God will then give them. Are darkened, so God will then give them. Remember, that's your judicial claim here. He'll give them over to, then, the lust of their hearts that had been darkened. So you start doing something that's impure and it's going to continue to get worse, and that's where this dishonoring comes in. So for this reason then, verse 26, god gave them up to dishonorable passions. Remember, they were already dishonoring their bodies. So it's not like god says okay, you don't want to listen to me, I'm going to turn you over to something that you weren't doing. No, he's like okay, if you want to be dishonoring your bodies, here you go. I can't force you to love me. Then, it says here in verse 26, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise, gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Speaker 1:Now, what we have to understand when we look at this passage is that we live in a fallen world, and if you look at history and I love studying history, I can't get enough of it. Sometimes I can get lost in certain aspects of history and sometimes I'm trying to just understand what happened that explains why things are the way they are today, like a certain name, or why culture in a certain location of the world does certain things, or why certain parts of the world are predominantly Hindu or Muslim or Judaism, whatever the case may be. But when you're looking throughout history, one thing that you'll always find out is the cruelty of man, the fallenness of man in their attempt to justify their existence morally speaking, whatever type of actions or whatever they render to be acceptable, and that in itself is fascinating to study, but what you always find, no matter the point of history or the geographical area in a particular time, with a certain ethnicity. You see that there's this worshipfulness, you see that there's this way of how people either honor or dishonor their bodies with certain passions. Now, collectively and universally, we've always seen, when you want to propagate a certain message, and you see also this advancement of civilization, it's always built on a man and a woman, on a husband and wife giving birth to children. So when you start turning to dishonorable passions and you start seeing that these natural relations are becoming distorted and they're consuming themselves in a level of shameless acts which is known as homosexuality Now the Bible doesn't use that particular term the way that we use it today but biologically and naturally speaking and we'll get to this in a minute you're seeing this type of behavior. And inevitably, no matter what point of history you're looking at, when those type of shameless acts become something that is celebrated not that it's universal, but it's practiced within these social constructs, within this particular empire or civilization it's going to crumble.
Speaker 1:And so what Paul's doing here again, when he says for this reason God gave them up, again he's explaining that God handed people over to their sin to their total depravity. The greek word there is paradidomoi, and it's confirming their decisions. So god recognizes what they've done. He's been long suffering and merciful. That we'll see in romans, chapter 2. But after a period of time, god, who is just, says but in his, in his, in his mercying love, he sends the consequences for them to face it. And this is very striking. We can't miss this because literally what Paul's saying here is this for this reason, god gave them up to dishonorable passions. God lifts his protective hand, he withdraws his restraint. So what we have to understand, my friends, is if we see this type of total depravity, these type of shameless acts are happening in society, that is a indication right there, based on scripture, that god's protective hand has been withdrawn.
Speaker 1:Now, to understand this, we need to understand this progression, and I keep this, and this is why a lot of times, we've been just kind of taking these things verse by verse, or sometimes, like we're doing right now, verse 26 and 27 in conjunction of one another, and but when you look at the totality of this argument that Paul's laying out verse 18, remember, they suppressed the truth. Verse 21,. They dishonored him, they didn't want to honor God, they didn't want to give thanks to him. They were futile in their thinking. Verse 21,. Their foolish hearts were darkened again at the end of verse 21. Verse 22, they became fools. Verse 23, they exchanged the glory of God for idols. They exchanged the glory of God for a lie Verse 25,. And at the end of verse 25, they worship idols rather than God. So they turn to things to worship. That allows them, if you will, to do whatever they want to do.
Speaker 1:But again, this is what we're talking about there's cost. There is a cost to dishonoring your bodies. I like what the KJV study Bible says. It says this giving is not permissive. That is, god lets them do what they want to do, but it's privative, meaning that God withdraws his gracious help. It is judicial. They were blinded not because God withdrew his light, but because of the judicial acts of God whereby he delivered them over to the natural result of their unbelief and action. They, that is, when they follow the lie, they begin to walk in conformity to the lie. So God, in essence, is allowing the center to receive the consequences of the bondage of sin.
Speaker 1:And oftentimes, when we understand that, we see it, we just have to say Lord, may they learn their lesson. May they repent of their sins, because notice this term, dishonorable, literally. Another translation puts it degrading passions Now by not naturally worshiping God. Here's the key key when you and I see the flow in the context, going back to verse 19 and 20 so when we don't naturally worship God in our bodies, when we don't naturally or inherently acknowledge him and give him thanks, when we don't reveal him who he is as our creator in creation, that we are made by him and for him, then the sinfulness of man and that will start doing unnatural things. We will start doing things that run contrary to God's design with our bodies.
Speaker 1:Now, this is interesting because the language here that Paul uses for dishonorable passions indicates that the ungodly. Again, they know their actions are morally wrong, but they give into their passions and desires and impulses because they want to satisfy their cravings and they don't care about the consequences. They don't care. They have this again. They have a darkened heart, their thoughts are futile. So when you sometimes say to somebody who's addicted to something or in bondage, you say what were you thinking? That's the point. All they do think about what their heart is bent towards is to do the sin, to fulfill these cravings at all costs. And so the stronger the craving is, because the stronger the bondage, the stronger the consequences, the more devastating they're going to be.
Speaker 1:Expository's Bible commentary says by inventing their own deities, people were free to follow their own sinful passions, for they had no outside God to account to. Furthermore, the heathen went so far as to project their own license onto their gods, who in many cases, were extremely immoral. Now, if you go back to Ephesians 4, 19, remember, this is what Paul was talking about this darkened heart, he says that they became callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy, to practice every kind of impurity. So you start down one path of sin that then leads you to another path of sin. So sometimes you see people there's like, if you will, a combination of strongholds in their life drugs, alcohol, sex, right, because they're all accompanied together. And so the sensuality and this greed, if you keep practicing that sort of thing, if you keep feeding the flesh, it's going to lead you to all kinds of impurity, which then is the progression.
Speaker 1:Here Paul says that they've exchanged natural relations. Again, remember, if you exchange God and his order and don't recognize him as a creator, they know what they're doing is wrong because they know who the creator is. They may say they don't believe in him, but that doesn't mean that what they're doing is wrong, because they know who the creator is. They may say they don't believe in him, but that doesn't mean that what they're doing is right within their own eyes and they won't have to face the consequences. Right, they've exchanged their natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.
Speaker 1:And here what Paul's explaining is that humanity, after distorting God's divine image again through acts of idolatry verse 23, what they do is they further corrupt this divine reflection. So it's almost like I know God is real and so I'm going to do as much as I possibly can to drown him out. This reminds me, if you are a fan like my family and I are of the Grinch Jim Carrey. You know when they're getting to the holidays, it's Christmas Eve and they start singing the song and he's trying to drown them out. So he does everything he possibly can so he doesn't hear them singing. And that's like almost what Paul is pointing out here. You're going to do everything you possibly can to go further into corruption so that you can remove any knowledge or to remove any reflection that you have. But it's impossible because you're made in God's image. He has inherently given you the moral, physiological, spiritual and natural inclinations to know that you belong to him, that your life exists to honor him. And so what happens is when they go further into this corruption, so that the divine reflection of God is like removed.
Speaker 1:Homosexuality is an example of this, and this is important because Paul defines these people who are against nature. That's, in essence, what it means. So it's funny because when you see people who says you Christians, you religious fanatics, you are anti-science, because they believe that science and faith are opposites. You can't have them both together, but we would say that we have a reasonable faith. Well, it's interesting here because, in actuality, when you run your life that runs contrary to God's order, that is actually not just anti-science, it's anti-natural. That's not what God intended you to do. You're using something in an inappropriate way. And so this Greek word here for nature this is that Paul uses it literally means the nature of something as a result of its natural development or condition, its species. This is talking about its inherent existence.
Speaker 1:This is talking about when he says that their anti-natures are going against their functionality of what they are intended to do, who they are, of what they are intended to do, who they are and, as a result of that, what they do. So when you don't know ontologically who you are, then what you're going to be doing through your body naturalistically now, we're a body, soul, so it affects both the spirit and the physical you're going to do things that are run contrary to what your natural development, what you're conditioned to do. That's exhausting. It's not only exhausting, but people, my friends, get so lost because they're identifying. It's something that is wrong. But when you're looking to a false idol, you're going to get those results. So when?
Speaker 1:When paul says that they gave up natural relations, this is important for us to understand, because when you and I look at humanity, what happens is when you divert your affections from God, you then turn towards something that is not going to be appropriate, that is not going to be proper. So in this case, what he's talking about is when your affections were not to God. Your affections are not going to be in same-sex relationships. Now, that doesn't mean when people turn their back from God they automatically go into homosexuality, but this does speak to these particular people who give up natural relations for same-sex relationships, and scripture describes this as both a symptom but also as an indicator of deeper idolatry. Isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1:So oftentimes we shouldn't be lost in someone's need to be loved, but rather they're looking for someone that they can worship in a way. Now, I'm not saying that they literally see it in terms of a world religion. Right, you take somebody and you take their picture and you put it on an altar and you bow before them. I'm not saying that. But what we have to understand, though, because in the West, if you have a Western mind, if you grew up in the West, oftentimes you don't maybe have those type of idols that you grew up in if you didn't come from a world religion like Hinduism or Buddhism or Islam.
Speaker 1:But what he's pointing out here is the practice of homosexuality, and that becomes an idol to you in a sense, because in this context, what's important is that we don't miss is that what Paul's saying the practicing of homosexuality serves as an example of how turning away from God leads to the distortion of our natural affections and desires, and that's what we have to start looking at, too is a form of idolatry that comes out. That's why you hear a lot of times people says I can't let this person go, even when they say I know it's wrong, I shouldn't have got myself into this relationship. And let me even speak to people in heterosexual relationships with people of the opposite sex. I can't let this person go. My heart has been broken by this person, and I can't forgive them. Whatever the case may be, there's a distortion there, because you took your natural affections and desires and you turn them into something that they shouldn't have been used for, or you put them in something or someone that you shouldn't have.
Speaker 1:So this shift reveals how sin's reach is widespread, showing how deeply humanity is affected when it rejects God as a rightful object of worship. And when you and I look at such practices, these aren't just about a matter of personal preference, but this is pointing out to something more, I should say, actually far deeper. There's an urgency here, and this is about the need for redemption. This is about the need for transformation. What Paul's saying here is and this is what he strongly is emphasizing is that this, this universal and pervasive nature of sin, right, this condition of our heart where we find humanity at, you can't find redemption in that You're just going to find bondage and enslavement. Salvation, though, is desperately needed here, my friends. So when God gives people over to their sins and they start taking natural things and making them unnatural, they start going further and further and further away. Now, what Paul does here and this is what we are afraid sometimes to talk about and you know, on this podcast, we believe in the infallibility of God's word and I want you to know that I love you guys and even if you disagree, that's fine. You have to answer before the Lord, as I do, but I just pray that I speak the truth and love Ephesians 4.15, but I'm not going to hijack the text and soften it up just so I can appease certain people.
Speaker 1:What Paul's talking about here when he says that men who practice homosexuality. Now he starts getting into more specifics. This is actually a fascinating term. It's the term arsenokoite. He takes two different terms and meshes them into one to explain or define what homosexuality is. Now he also uses this term in 1 Corinthians 6, verse nine. 1 Timothy 1, verse 10. So, contextually, when you're doing proper hermeneutics, what paul's already done is in context, as he's laid out the natural order of god and he's explaining these things to now become unnatural by using the word. Remember, nature is physis, the nature of something as a result of its natural development or condition, its species. So he's talking about their proper order and functionality. So in the Paul saying arsono coite, he's using arson, that's referring to man these two terms and coite, which is talking about the bed, and he's combining them.
Speaker 1:Now, when you look at the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, and you look at Leviticus 18.22 and Leviticus 20.13, by creating arsenokoite, points to how explicit Paul is about sexual sin, of homosexual practices. In fact, the first century study Bible says this quote this is a relatively graphic word that combines the Greek words for male and bed and typically refers to sexual activity. It is sometimes used to describe the Greco-Roman custom of older men having sex with young males. End quote. So let's now go back to the term and this natural relations. And when you're seeing this term that's being used and you understand where we get the word, you know, like the physicality of us, he's not talking about desire, he's talking about inherent design, when they're turning their natural relations to something other than what God had called them to do. And he's using also he's connecting this with the term male arson and female failies, because he's underscoring divine creation. Therefore, to justify that, paul's referencing only sexual inclinations.
Speaker 1:The reason why I bring this up, my friends which is a stretch, by the way I bring this up because so many progressive pastors, so many woke, quote Christians, which is a total contradiction to have the word progressive and woke. But these are people who are trying to identify as followers of Jesus Christ using somewhat of the text, even though they believe it metaphorically, not literally, so they don't take an historical, grammatical interpretation or measure analysis to scripture. They believe that in this text, paul was either oppressing his own homosexuality or he had an axe to grind against people who were living this lifestyle and didn't think it was right because he was, like you know, very legalistic Jew, or he saw the corruption of how people abuse that form of sexuality in Rome. So they start taking, you know, their preconditions or these presuppositional ideas to the text. But Bible clearly is teaching that this is not about sexual inclinations, this is not about desires or abuse. This is about design. So they're taking a natural order that God has created and they're abusing it. Now they're not abusing it, meaning that it's not consensual.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of people will make that claim as well Matthew Vines and others. They'll argue that people are abusing their sexuality. So it wasn't saying that homosexuality in itself was a sinful act. When you abuse that onans who knew that the functionality of same-sex relations was in fact unnatural and immoral, and even the ones who knew that to be true but still did it that's the point that Paul's making you know inherently that this is wrong and you will face the consequences of it. The science is overwhelmingly pointing out that there are two sexes in the created order there's male and there's female, who are biologically, physiologically and chromosomally born as a designed sex that is received by God at birth. So when Paul is openly describing here their burning with lustful passions, it's glaringly clear that homosexuality is a sexual offense and it violates the natural order of God. Who made them? The Bible says male and female in his image. So, as I was sharing with you earlier but I want to point this out further because this is weekend as I'm recording this I'm going to be talking about why the woke Jesus is not the real Jesus, and it matters Because progressive Christians, progressive pastors specifically, they try to make it seem that these terms that Paul's using is just about lust, is just about passions, is just about these, you know, shameless acts that oh well, if they were just better trained or they were abusing it in an idolatrous way, okay, and that's how they defend the text, but they completely undermine what Paul's actually saying.
Speaker 1:But again, nowhere do we see the language used in the context of Paul's clear description of sexual sin. What does he call it here? A shameless act? Arsenokoite, directly applying. Doesn't matter what age, what demographic, what ethnicity, anything that goes contrary to a male-female affections and a marriage between a male and a female that are born at birth and that's sex. He says that is a shameless act, while also catch this, stating that those who live in such dishonorable behavior will receive in themselves the due penalty for their error. What that means again, remember when God turned them over for this reason, he gave them over to dishonorable passions. Again, god doesn't agree with it. He's not consenting to it. And now we see that they will receive recompense. Again, god doesn't agree with it. He's not consenting to it. And now we see that they will receive recompense. They will receive punishment in keeping with this offense. Meaning what offense? When they continue to exchange natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, when they continue to be consumed with their passion for another. When they continue to commit shameless acts, they will receive the due penalty notice in their error, knowing that this is wrong but justifying it nonetheless.
Speaker 1:What we need to understand here is Paul is using terms that speak directly to homosexual practices that run contrary to the natural order of male and female relations. Claiming otherwise, my friends, is a misrepresentation of biblical teaching from the Jewish scriptures. You see this in the Hebrew scriptures in Genesis 1, verse 27,. Genesis chapter 2, verse 21 through 24. You see this in the teachings of Jesus when he's confronted about divorce, in Matthew, chapter 9, 5 through six.
Speaker 1:Have you not heard from the beginning that God made them male and female? Truth doesn't change over time. Truth is transcendent, it's real, it's universal and it's exclusive. What God made from the beginning, he did not make a mistake. So the truth is, the Bible clearly addresses issues of sex. The Bible clearly teaches about sexuality, talks about sexual behavior, talks about the gender between a male and a female and talks about marriages between a male and a female. So anything outside of God's divine design is considered sin, and the further we go down that road of sin, there will be major consequences.
Speaker 1:But here's the good news, my friends, anyone who repents of their sins, whoever turns to Jesus Christ and they believe that he rose from the dead and they can be saved from their sin and death and they can receive eternal life. According to John 17, verse three, today's the day of salvation. And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ and you have been led astray, and how people have interpreted this passage of scripture, the Bible is actually very clear and makes no apologies. But in this, even though for this reason, god gave them up, remember God is merciful. God is merciful. God is long suffering. He didn't desire any man to perish, but all to come to repentance.
Speaker 1:And so I just pray that, as we use this text, that we don't use it to bash people, to criticize, to point out fault in someone's sin, but instead that we, in the grace that we've received, that we can go into the space where people who have exchanged God's truth or exchanged God's order for something of disorder and are living in sin.
Speaker 1:How can we be a light and a witness to them? And when the time comes of God saying speak my truth and do it in love, they need to know, just like a loving parent does that to their child so they can learn their lesson and understand the process about discipline, about instruction, about guidance. That, my friends, is powerful, so I want you guys to know that we are always praying for you guys. If you want to know how you can continue to grow in your faith, check out standstrongministriesorg. We have resources, my books, that I've written videos to help you guys continue to stand strong in your faith. Share this podcast with your friends and if you have any questions about anything that we learn on this podcast, I do my best as we get inundated with requests, but I love hearing about what's happening in your life and any questions that you might have. Know that you can reach out to us. You can contact us by emailing us at info at stanstrongministriesorg. Until next time, keep standing strong in the Word of God. Thank you.