I would like to try something new. I’m going to, instead of my same old ilk, do a study on Romans. As I do so, I will take what I have gleaned from my passage of the day and put it here on the blog. And then, dear reader, you can tell me whether you agree with what I have written or whether you think that I am full of everlasting crap. It is up to you, really. As I have said before, I am no biblical scholar. I am rather just someone trying to make my way in the world, but I am going to do so by faith.


The book of Romans, as the theory goes, was first a letter that was written to all the churches and passed around. The words, “in Rome,” contained in chapter 1, are not there in some early manuscripts. Likewise, chapters 15 and 16 were also not found in these same manuscripts. When Paul wished to send the letter to the church in Rome, he added the final two chapters and put the words, “in Rome,” into chapter one. When read all the way through, you could correctly say that Romans is an outline of Christian doctrine.

The very beginning of Romans deals with the guilt shared by everyone before God. It is a bring you down to size type of dissertation. No one wants to admit that they are guilty of everything. It is on the first of these passages that I start: that passage being 1:18-32. I decided to skip the greeting, thanksgivings, and theme, which make up the rest of chapter 1.

So, without further ado… In my time spent as a CNA, I worked with a miasma of different people. One of these people, who also happened to be a union steward, would always wear a crucifix pendant around her neck every day. The other daily thing she wore was a constant scowl. I don’t believe I ever once heard this particular person say anything nice about anyone else. Her favorite saying was, “mark my words.” That which followed was never good and also wrong at least ninety five percent of the time.

What came out of her was constant gossip, along with her friend, also a proclaimed Christian. They would talk together in the break room about who was doing what. They would come up with theories about people; whether they knew the entirety of the situation was always questionable. No one could do anything out of the goodness of their heart. There was always an ulterior motive. Conspiracy theories abound. They would slander, envy, gossip, and every word said by them was, according to them, gospel; even when proved wrong. These two were truly miserable people. It is true what they say, misery really does love company.

When we want to behave as such, God gives us up to these sinful desires. In fact, in this passage, Paul uses the phrase, “God gave them up to…” three times. We have the free will to obey God or to rebel. When we choose to rebel, God will give us up to the desire to rebel and do what is evil in his sight. But, behaving as such has another effect. When we rebel against God, we die, not a physical death, but a spiritual death.

This particular passage was talking to the Gentiles, and how they are guilty before God. During this time, the Jewish Christians would lord it over the Gentile Christians because they had the law. The Gentiles would lord over the Jews that they were saved while many Jews were not.

Paul starts by saying that even the Gentiles knew of the existence of God by everything around them. And this is ultimately true. Have you ever looked at a forest on a sunny afternoon in autumn? Or have you ever watched a spectacular sunset? How can a person look at these and not even acknowledge God, let alone give thanks for such splendor? Instead, they became fools and started carving animal figures to worship as gods. They served the creature instead of serving the creator. Can you see the problem?

This, Paul asserts in the passage, is where the believing Gentiles before they converted and where every unbeliever stands. Even today, this is where the unbeliever stands. We have, however, a decree to proclaim to the nations the gospel of Christ crucified.

The question is; how do we preach this message to people in a spot like this? To answer this question, let me turn to verse 32. “Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.

What this says in terms of evangelism is simple; hellfire and brimstone will not work. Like the two people I mentioned earlier, they do things that make them miserable people. They are spiritually dead and they know it. Doing the kinds of things they do creates feelings of envy, of fear, of misery. These cannot feel good so, as Paul writes, they are already dead. The thing is, they do this stuff anyway. This means they don’t care that these sins result in death, so why would telling them convert or you will spend eternity in hell work? I cannot say it enough. THEY DO NOT CARE. If they do not care now, then why would spitting hellfire and brimstone convert them? I would say a different tactic would be in order. The question is what?