For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what 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.
- 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:
- BSB For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
- 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 Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
- 1 Tim 1:10for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine;
- Lev 18:22–28“‘You shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestable.
- Rom 1:24Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves,
- 1 Cor 6:9Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
- Eph 4:19who having become callous gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
- Gen 19:5They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
- Judg 19:22As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain base fellows, surrounded the house, beating at the door; and they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we can have sex with him!”
- Eph 5:12For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of.
- 1 Th 4:5not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God;
- Deut 23:17–18There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
- Rom 1:28Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
- Jude 1:10But these speak evil of whatever things they don’t know. They are destroyed in these things that they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason.
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.