Romans 1:21-23

Romans 1:21-23

Romans 1:21-23 (New American Standard Bible)

21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,

23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Men are without excuse. Verse 20 makes this clear. God is visible enough in creation that men are held accountable before God.

Paul carries this thought a little further in verses 21-23.

Through God's manifestation of Himself in creation, man knew God. They knew He existed. It was evident and apparent, an undeniable truth and reality (which man is still bent on denying today). However, man did not honor Him as God.

Honor
Greek word - Doxazo (1392); From the Greek word Doxa, glory. To glorify from dokeo - To esteem, think, be of opinion, to know intuitively, to know exponentially or by learning. The consequential meaning from the opinion which one forms is to recognize, honor,praise, invest with dignity, give anyone esteem or honor by putting him into an honorable position.

Man did not view God this way. While they knew He existed. They did not honor, esteem, or recognize Him as God; as an authority in their lives, as power to honor or praise.

Not only did they not honor Him as God, but they did not give thanks.

Give Thanks
Greek Word - Eucharisteo (2168) - To be thankful, to speak well of, to eulogize.

In context, I believe this refers to giving thanks TO God. They did not honor God, nor did they thank Him for what He had done for them; for who HE simply IS. In my thinking, this is a natural consequence of not recognizing Him as God. To recognize Him as God would invoke praise and thanksgiving for who He is and what He has done. To reject Him as God would necessitate having to NOT give thanks. To thank Him would be to acknowledge that He IS someone to you; that He has done something for you; that He is worthy of such thanksgiving and praise. In order to reject Him as God, they would have to without any thanksgiving. They could not give thanks to Him and still reject Him as someone who deserves praise and honor.

And this is only the first half of the verse.

The natural consequences of rejecting God as God; of rejecting God as deserving honor and granting it to Him is what Paul says next:

"...but they became futile (literally to be vain or worthless-such is to act as a fool) in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they become fools and exchanged the glory of an incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures."

The natural consequence of not honoring God is sin. To not honor God and recognize Him as the supreme authority and place Him in the place of authority is to open the door for sin to enter you life. The rest of chapter one details this. I look forward to looking more in depth at this later when I get to those verses.

However, for now the dominate thought in my mind is this: Do I honor God? Do I esteem Him? Do I exalt and lift Him up to a place of honor and significance in my life? Do I thank Him for BEING God? Do I thank Him for who He IS and what He has DONE? When I am honest, I know that it is not nearly as often as it should be.

This scares me and gives me reason for pause. When I am not honoring God in my life, I am sinning and I am allowing sin to master me. When I am not honoring God in my life, I following the naturally progression of that choice. The result, if allowed to continue, would be living in utter and total sin, in absolute rebellion and opposition to God. To be there, in that place against God, frightens me. And rightly so.

God, protect me. Help me to honor You in my life. Be my sole passion, my sole delight. Take such a place of preeminence in my life that all else pales and fades away in comparison to you. Protect my heart. BE my heart.