Observations of Consequences

Romans 1:26-32

God’s Response to Idolatry

In writing the most powerful statement of his theology to the heart of the Roman Empire, Paul. fully expects to change the world for and by the power of Jesus Christ. And what is it that Paul believes must change? What must change is the multi-faced idolatry that holds Rome in bondage and is a source of severe temptation to even the most faithful of believers.

Paul’s theological treatise to the people who control the world opens with essentially this declaration:

I AM OBLIGATED TO PREACH TO YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE EITHER TRAPPED IN IDOLATRY OR SEVERELY TEMPTED BY IDOLATRY.

But, what has God done about and what does God intend to do about idolatry?” The answer to this question is found in Romans 1: 26-32

Because of their idolatry...“...God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God— haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

Good friends, we need to walk carefully through this text because it does not go well with God for those who pass hostile judgment on others, while remaining ignorant of their own idolatry. Listen to Romans 2:1:

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”

Paul’s point is that we are all as guilty as sin of idolatry. And a close look at the list of sins in Romans 1:24-32 makes that crystal clear. Many Christians consider this to be the Bible’s most important statement on homosexuality, so, please not the lengthy list of sins that Paul sees as equally serious; idolatries committed with the mind and wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. Then come envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. And then there are gossips, slanderers and insolent, arrogant and boastful people. And, displaying the creative genius of the human species, there are those who invent new ways of doing evil. There are disobedient children and adults. And there are those who lack all common sense, are faithless, heartless and ruthless.

There is no hierarchy of sin and idolatry here. All deserve death, Paul says in verse 32. Since the consequences of idolatry are so severe, might it not be wise for all of us to be conscious of which idolatries bind us or tempt us most severely? Sexual license? Greed? Gossip? Arrogance?

Now, back to the question, what does God do about idolatry? Paul’s answer was given in 1.26 in the phrase, “God gave them over to...” God gave them over to what? God gave them, gives them and gives us, over to our “hearts desire”. “You want it”, God says, “you’ve got it!” “You want sexual lust, you’ve got it until it utterly consumes your life.” “You want possessions? Have them”, God says, “until they bury you.” “You want gossip”, God says, “then talk maliciously about people until there is nothing in your life but malice.” “You want booze or drugs or power to be the Lord of your life? O.K., they are. Now see the price you must pay for your choice!”

God punishes idolatry, Paul says, by not interfering with our choice for some other god and by allowing us to suffer the consequences. Romans 1.26 concludes with these words, “...received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” It is most likely here that Paul is referring directly in this verse to venereal disease. We pay the price for idolatry in our bodies, minds and souls.” The price is the logical consequence of our decision to break the First Commandment and serve some other god. Workaholics get heart attacks. They also lose their families and sacrifice their relationship with God. Control addicts, trying to run the world their way, lose their connection to the power they need to serve God in running the world God’s way. Food addicts and drug addicts and alcoholics destroy their bodies, which are the temple of God. A consumer addicted society overdoses on credit, destroys the environment, and eventually will bring the human enterprise to a grinding halt. We suffer the consequences of our perversions.

I hope you notice that Paul is making an extremely significant theological point. His interpretation is not the only way Christians and even other Biblical writers look at this matter. I once told the story in a sermon about Pastor Jay and a teenager in his church named Marcie. Marcie came to talk to her pastor because she was so about what had been said about her friend Eric at his funeral. The preacher had said that Eric had been killed in a boating accident because he had been a bad boy; maybe he had gotten drunk at a party some weeks before or maybe he had made out with his girl friend at the drive-in movie. Whatever the sin, God punished him by killing him with a boat.

People say such things. Some Christians believe such things. There are even some passages in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, that seem to suggest that God works this way. However, this is not Paul’s position at all. Paul believes that there are consequences of idolatry built into the creative order and God does not need to go around killing teenagers with boats.

By What Authority?

Now, here is an extremely interesting question that we are going to follow up on in coming weeks. By what authority does Paul conclude that God acts by way of logical consequences and not by way of killing people with boats? Where does Paul get his proof? You understand the question, I trust? I mean, if I stand before you and declare myself on some major point of theology or morality, aren’t you going to want to know upon what ground I stand? Did I just make my position up? Am I quoting some disreputable source? Did I get it from the Bible? Did Jesus appear to me in a dream and tell me directly? Do I claim the authority of prayer for my position? Am I standing on the tradition of the church? Or do I claim that what I have said is true just because it makes good sense. To Spock, in Star-Trek, logic is all that matters. Sometimes what matters most to me is that it feels right. Thus, intuition has authority. Upon what authority does Paul stand in declaring that God’s way of dealing with idolatry is to allow us to suffer the consequences of serving our false gods?

Paul has determined that this is the way God works because of what he observes happening in the lives of those guilty of idolatry.

In many other places, Paul stands on scripture, but not here. In other places he stands on the authority of his conversion experience. But not here. In other places he stands on the authority of an encounter with the Spirit of Jesus, but not here. Here Paul’s authority is his observations of human beings living with and dying from the consequences of their behavior and their decisions.

Our observations have authority. That means that when we are dealing with spiritual and moral and social issues, we have a right to take authority from the best observations available to us of the human condition and experience. We have a right, and a responsibility, to supplement Paul’s observations with our own. It is entirely possible that God will lead us to see something that Paul did not see. And it is extremely important that our observations be accurate and complete. .

Because of this need for a complete and accurate search for the truth, human beings have developed various disciplines of observation. Some of these disciplines are called physics, biology, astronomy, sociology and psychology. All of these disciplines have authority for us. But none are infallible. They must, for example, be tested by scripture and prayer. But they must also not be ignored in our search for truth.

An Application To The AIDS Crisis

I want to apply these insights on authority to an issue about which Christians have been making many observations. You have probably read and heard these observations quite a number of times. And remember, because what I am writing is grounded in my observations and reflections, you are completely free to gather your own data and come to different conclusions. The issue is AIDS. A common observation by Christians and many others is that persons guilty of homosexual activity are dying of AIDS. That is certainly a fact. Christian preachers, quoting Paul in Romans, have concluded that those dying of AIDS had “received into themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” They have further concluded, using the authority of their observations, that AIDS is God’s way of punishing all Homosexual persons for their perversion. The authority for this conclusion is primarily the authority of observations. And we have already concluded, from Paul’s precedent, that attention to observations is a valid authority for forming moral and spiritual conclusions.

The question is, are the observations of these preachers and other Christians accurate? Is the conclusion that AIDS is God’s punishment of Homosexuals consistent with all of the know facts that the attentive Christian might observe? What about the fact that AIDS did not begin among Homosexuals in America but rather among Heterosexuals in Africa? What about the fact that elsewhere in the world it is mostly Heterosexuals who are dying of AIDS? What about the fact that by the end of this decade, AIDS will be a primarily Heterosexual disease in America? If these observations are given their due weight, might it not be concluded by thoughtful Christians that AIDS is a logical consequence of any form of sexual promiscuity? That is certainly a more valid conclusion than the other. But does even this conclusion take into account all of the facts? What about babies who are dying of AIDS? And the innocent spouses infected by unfaithful partners? And those who get the AIDS virus through blood transfusions? If God is using AIDS to punish all persons who are sexually promiscuous, why is God’s aim so poor? It is almost like God is using a scatter gun instead of a rifle and is hitting thousands and millions of innocents.

I have read quite a few reports by people who, by way of their observations of the human situation, believe there is a far better explanation of the AIDS crisis. Rather than being a punishment for sexual license these observers believe AIDS is the logical consequence of the destruction of the environment by the entire human family, including you and me. We brought this on ourselves, they say. Just as certain forms of pollution cause increases in certain forms of cancer, the destruction of the environment is resulting in the creation of new diseases that are deadly to mankind. The AIDS virus is only one weapon in a war between the earth and the planets worst enemy, mankind. The entire human family is the target. There are no innocents. Just as a volcano does not discriminate among its victim--babies and children are buried by a lava flow just as certainly as women and men--so the AIDS virus does not discriminate among its victims. All who are infected die.

Now, before anyone gets carried away with this thesis please remember that it is, at this point, a conclusion grounded in incomplete observations. But the thesis that the entire human family is the guilty party--guilty of a terrible failure to exercise proper stewardship over the earth—-takes into account far more of the facts than many Christians consider when they blame the AIDS crisis on homosexuals.

Observations have authority, but those who make observations and then draw theological and moral conclusions have an enormous responsibility to make sure that those conclusions are grounded in fact and not in prejudice.

I believe that the human family is being forced by the AIDS crisis to make a critical choice. Will we allow the crisis to pull us apart or will it pull us together? Will we separate out a few victims for vicious condemnation or will we recognize that we all are guilty of the idolatries that have caused this epidemic? Again from Romans 2:1:

Romans 2:1 “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”

The Ground of Our Hope

The AIDS epidemic and other epidemics; environmental catastrophe and other potential catastrophes; the idolatry of power and other death—dealing idolatries; all are tragic parts of the human predicament in the twentieth century. Is there an answer? Is there a way out? Is there any salvation for this crooked generation and for our broken lives? As we continue our study of Romans we will read a proclamation from Paul that tells us of the one and only ground of our hope.