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:
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.
- BSB For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
- 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 1:7Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
- 1 Tim 1:10For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
- Lev 18:22–28Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
- Rom 1:24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
- 1 Cor 6:9Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
- Eph 4:19Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
- Gen 19:5And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
- Judg 19:22Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.
- Eph 5:12For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
- 1 Th 4:5Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
- Deut 23:17–18There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
- Rom 1:28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
- Jude 1:10But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.