Romans 1
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for God’s good news.
2 God had promised this good news beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
3 It concerns his Son, who, in his human lineage, came from David’s family.
4 Through resurrection from among the dead, he was appointed Son of God in power, in keeping with the Spirit of holiness: Jesus Christ, our Lord.
5 Through him we received grace and apostleship, to bring all nations to the obedience that comes from faith, for the sake of his name.
6 You too are among them, called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be holy: may grace and peace be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8 First, through Jesus Christ, I thank my God for every one of you, because people throughout the world are speaking of your faith.
9 God, whom I serve with my spirit in the good news about his Son, is my witness that I remember you continually.
10 In all my prayers I keep asking that, if God wills, I may at last find a way to come to you.
11 I long to see you, so I can share some spiritual gift with you and help make you strong.
12 That is, so that we may encourage one another there through each other’s faith, yours and mine.
13 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that I have often planned to visit you, but have been prevented until now. I hoped to see some fruit among you too, as among the other nations.
14 I am under obligation to Greeks and non-Greeks alike, to the educated and the uneducated alike.
15 That is why I am eager to proclaim the good news to you in Rome as well.
16 I am not ashamed of the good news: it is God’s power bringing salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and also to the Greek.
17 For in it God’s righteousness is revealed, from faith to faith. As Scripture says, “The righteous will live by faith.”
18 For God’s anger is revealed from heaven against all human godlessness and wrongdoing, against those who suppress the truth through their wrongdoing.
19 What can be known about God is plain among them, because God himself has made it plain to them.
20 Ever since the world was created, his invisible qualities—his everlasting power and divine nature—have been clearly seen and understood through what he made. So they have no excuse.
21 Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give him thanks. Instead, their reasoning became empty, and their unthinking hearts grew dark.
22 They claimed to be wise, but became fools.
23 They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images shaped like mortal humans, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
24 So God handed them over, in the desires of their hearts, to impurity, so that they dishonored their own bodies among themselves.
25 They traded God’s truth for a lie, and worshiped and served what was created instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God handed them over to shameful passions: their women exchanged natural relations for those against nature.
27 In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and burned with desire for one another. Men engaged in indecent acts with men and received in themselves the fitting outcome of their error.
28 Since they saw no reason to keep acknowledging God, God handed them over to a corrupted mind, so they would do what is improper.
29 They are filled with every kind of wrongdoing, wickedness, greed, and malice; overflowing with envy, murder, strife, deceit, and spite. They spread rumors,
30 slander others, hate God, act arrogantly and abusively, boast, devise evil, and disobey their parents.
31 They are without understanding, unfaithful, lacking natural affection, and without mercy.
32 They know God’s just decree: those who do such things deserve death. Yet they not only do them; they also approve of others who do them.
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