Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves,
- BSB Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.
- NKJV Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
- NASB Therefore God gave them up to vile impurity in the lusts of their hearts, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
- NLT So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Because of their idolatry, God gave them over to the impurity their hearts craved. God's judgment can take the form of handing people over to their own sin.
Overview
This is the first of three solemn statements that 'God gave them up' (vv.24, 26, 28). As a judicial act, God removes restraint and lets sinners follow their corrupt desires to their dishonoring end. This is not God causing sin but giving people over to the consequences of their chosen rebellion, a form of present judgment that displays the seriousness of turning from Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 81:11–12But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
- Acts 7:42Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
- Matt 15:14Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
- Acts 14:16Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
- 2 Th 2:10–12And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
- Eph 4:18–19Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
- Rom 1:26–28For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
- Lev 18:22Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
- 1 Cor 6:13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
- 1 Cor 6:18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
- 1 Th 4:4That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
- Acts 17:29–30Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
- Rom 6:12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
- Hos 4:17–18Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
- 2 Tim 2:20–22But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 1:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.