Homosexuality in Romans 1

ROMANS ONE

In Romans chapter one, Paul borrows an argument from the apocryphal book of Wisdom chapters 13-14. In Romans 1, Paul uncovers the root of Gentile sin which is idolatry, thereby carrying with it the wrath of God. In Romans chapter one, the wrath of God is presently revealed (not in the future) by 3 acts of God: Three times God "gives people over to" something human - desires, passions, and reprobate minds. Ultimately we see God's wrath in the immoral actions of the very same people that God created. The fact that people go so far into sin is an outward sign that God has given up / given them over to their own sins.

Paul wrote a step by step account of how idolatry resulted in a list of evils which reveal God's wrath, of which, one seems to be emphasized a bit more than the rest. And that is homosexuality.

Some of the arguments in defence of homosexuality are as follows:

1. When Paul wrote that God gave the idol worshippers over to uncleanness, he was talking about an event that took place long before Roman times, so he was not talking about Roman homosexuality.

This argument does not hold any water, because even though Paul was talking about the beginning of times, he saw God's judgment on the sins of his day. In fact, he was pointing to those sins and claiming that those sins - the list of sins he mentioned in chapter one - all of those sins have their roots in idolatry.

2. Paul defines homosexuality as unnatural. He did the same when he said that it was unnatural for a man to have long hair (1 Corinthians 11:14).

3. The particular homosexuality that Paul was referring to was temple prostitution, because in Romans 1, the entire context is saturated in idolatry. The focus of Romans 1 is idolatry, so any mention of homosexuality is related to idolatry and not regular homosexuality.

It is true that Paul saw idolatry as the beginning of all types of sins, including some sort of homosexuality that was practiced in his day, but he began this entire argument by pointing out that God's wrath was already seen in the sins that permeated his society - in all types of sins. A summary of Romans 1 would be like this:

I. We can see the wrath of God at work today, in that 3 times God gave the Gentiles over to their own evil passions and poor excuses:

A. Even though God revealed Himself through nature, the Gentiles worshipped idols and not God, so God gave them over to their lusts.

B. The Gentiles did not worship God, but worshipped things made by God, so God gave them over to vile affections (EX: women lusting after women, and men lusting after men - which is against nature).

C. The Gentiles abandoned the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a twisted mind, doing things that shouldn't be done, such as: greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, gossip, backstabbing, hating God, insolence, pride, and boastfulness, inventing new ways of sinning, disobying parents. breaking promises, being heartless, and having no mercy.

CONCLUSION

In the end I feel like every side takes advantage of the fact that we are not 100% clear about the ancient biblical worldviews, cultures and settings. There is enough ambiguity for anybody to argue that their position is the correct one.

Nevertheless, it is pretty clear that Paul believed that homosexuality (the type practiced in his day, if not all types) was against the natural order of creation, and that it was one of many sins that demonstrated that God had given the Gentile world over to its own desires. However, because homosexuality is highlighted in Romans 1, I believe that Paul viewed homosexuality as the most visible or most obvious of the of sins of his day - not necessarily the worst of sins. The fact that Paul mentions homosexuality more clearly than other sins on his list may reflect the worldview of Paul's audience.