Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Romans 1:24-25

Verse 24 begins with the word, therefore. When we see this word, we must consider what has gone before it. In this case, Paul has spoken about those who know the truth of God because of His creation. God’s creation is all around us, yet we suppress the truth of God by sinning. Not only did they fail to glorify God, but they worshiped created images instead of the Creator, Himself. This word therefore could be substituted by saying because they did this or as a result. The word implies that what happens next is a result of their behavior or their actions.

God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity. We have to be careful what we ask for. Remember, God gives us free will. We can choose Him, or we can choose the devil.  We tend to tell ourselves that our sins are not that serious. We may even think that we are not really choosing the devil just because we sin, but we must look at what Paul is saying here.

God gave them over to their sinful desires. This was as a result of their refusing to acknowledge Him and glorify Him. In Paul’s day this term was consistent with handing over a prisoner to his sentence. When a prisoner is sentenced to incarceration, they are separated from society. They are taken away from their friends and their families. When God gives us over to our sinful desires or the lusts of our hearts, we are separated from God and that is a very dangerous place to be.

In Psalm 53:1 it says, “The wicked fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.,’ they act corruptly and commit abominable injustice; there is no one who does good.” When we no longer concern ourselves with God’s way, but only man’s way we become fools. We are told in Proverbs 3:5-6 to trust in God with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding, but to acknowledge God in all we do and He will guide us on the right path. We are told not to consider ourselves wise in our own eyes in verse 7.

Titus 3:3 says, “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.” We all start out in sin, but God in His mercy will save us if we only submit to Him.

We must also understand that when God gives us over, we no longer walk in the light of His Holy Spirit, but we walk in darkness. Jesus said in John 12:35, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.”

When we are separated from God, we will experience spiritual blindness. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul speaks of those who are perishing, meaning spiritual death which occurs when we are separated from God. He said to those who are perishing the gospel is veiled, meaning they can’t see it. He says the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. The god of this age refers to the things of this world which we tend to worship or put first when we fail to surrender to the one true God.

If we continually reject God, He will give us over to our sin. If He gives us over, we will become foolish, blind, and will be walking in darkness.

You must understand that once these things happen it will be nearly impossible for you to come back from this. We serve a loving God, but we also serve a God of justice. He cannot tolerate sin but must punish the sinner.  Don’t believe the devil’s lies. God is not okay with your sin, He doesn’t understand. He won’t simply overlook it.

Know that we will reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7).

Have a great day!