For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
Parallel translations
- WEB For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.
- KJV For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
- NKJV For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
- NASB For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged natural relations for that which is contrary to nature,
- NLT That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.
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
For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions, including women exchanging natural relations for those against nature. Sexual disorder is depicted as one fruit of turning from God.
Overview
The second 'God gave them up' shows idolatry's consequences extending into sexual disorder. Paul describes practices he characterizes as 'against nature,' meaning contrary to the Creator's design established at creation. This passage has been historically read across the church as describing the disordering effects of rejecting God. Paul's larger point is that such sins are symptoms of humanity's deeper rebellion, and he will soon insist all are guilty (chapter 2).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Jude 1:7In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.
- 1 Tim 1:10for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching
- Lev 18:22–28You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination.
- Rom 1:24Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.
- 1 Cor 6:9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
- Eph 4:19Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more.
- Gen 19:5They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”
- Judg 19:22While they were enjoying themselves, suddenly the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they said to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have relations with him!”
- Eph 5:12For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
- 1 Th 4:5not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;
- Deut 23:17–18No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.
- Rom 1:28Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
- Jude 1:10These men, however, slander what they do not understand, and like irrational animals, they will be destroyed by the things they do instinctively.
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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 1:26 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.