Romans 1

1From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. 2God promised this gospel long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. 3It concerns his Son, who by human descent was born of the line of David, 4and who was appointed Son of God in power, through the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5Through him we have received grace and apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations for the sake of his name. 6You are among them, you whom Jesus Christ has called to be his own. 7To all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his holy people: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8To begin with, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for every one of you, because people throughout the whole world are speaking of your faith. 9God, whom I serve with my whole spirit in proclaiming the gospel of his Son, can testify how constantly I remember you 10in my prayers. I am always asking that somehow, if God wills it, the way may at last be opened for me to come to you. 11I long to see you so that I can share some spiritual gift with you that will make you strong. 12What I mean is that, while I am with you, we will be encouraged together by each other’s faith, yours and mine. 13I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often planned to come to you, so that I might gather some harvest among you too, as I have among the other Gentiles, but until now I have been kept from coming. 14I am under obligation to Greeks and to non-Greeks, to the educated and to the uneducated. 15So, for my part, I am eager to bring the gospel to you in Rome as well.

16I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is God’s own power at work to save everyone who believes, the Jew first and the Greek as well. 17In it the righteousness of God is being revealed, from faith for faith. As it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”

18God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wrongdoing of people who by their wrongdoing hold down the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God himself has made it plain to them. 20Since the world was made, what cannot be seen of God, his everlasting power and divine nature, has been in plain view, understood from the things he made. So they have no excuse. 21Although they knew God, they did not give him glory as God or thank him. Their reasoning turned to emptiness, and darkness filled their senseless hearts. 22They claimed to be wise, but they became fools. 23They traded the glory of the God who never dies for images made to look like mortal human beings, or birds, or beasts, or creatures that crawl.

24So God handed them over, in the cravings of their hearts, to impurity, and they dishonored their bodies with one another. 25They traded the truth about God for the lie. They bowed down to the creation and served it, instead of the one who created it, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26That is why God handed them over to passions that bring dishonor. Their women gave up natural sexual use for what goes against nature. 27The men did the same: they left behind natural relations with women and were set on fire with craving for one another. Males with males, they did what is shameless, and they received in themselves the fitting penalty for their straying.

28And since they did not think God worth acknowledging, God handed them over to a worthless mind, and so they do things that should never be done. 29Every kind of wrongdoing fills them: wickedness, greed, malice. They are brimming with envy, murder, rivalry, deceit and spite. They whisper about others 30and speak against them; they hate God; they treat others with contempt; they are proud and full of boasting; they think up new evils; they defy their parents; 31they are without sense, without loyalty, without love, without mercy. 32They know God’s just decree, that people who do such things deserve to die, yet they not only do them but cheer on others who do them.