“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.”(Romans 1:28)
According to Romans 3:23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ALL… not half of the world’s population… not only those outside of the body of Christ. But every single person that has lived on this earth, that lives today and those who will live here in the future can be classified as sinners. Due to Adam and Eve’s decision to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, this genetic disposition to do life contrary to the standards and ways of God has been passed on from generation to generation. The result has been a world where people “do what ought not to be done” as they “choose to forgo a relationship with God” (Romans 1:28).
So what does a genetic disposition of living contrary to God look like? Romans 1 serves up a heap of these behaviors in verses 18-32. The following is a list derived from these verses:
| Idolatry | God-Hating |
| Worship of humans and animals | Malice (intentional act to hurt others) |
| Sexual impurity (sexual behavior outside of marriage) | Insolence (rude and lack of respect towards others) |
| Shameful lusts | Gossip/Slander |
| Unnatural sexual relations between women | Unnatural sexual relations between men |
| Wickedness/Evilness | Arrogance/Boastful |
| Greed/Envy | Depravity (moral corruption) |
| Inventing ways of doing evil | Disobedience to parents |
| Murder | Strife (conflict, dissension) |
| No understanding | No fidelity/No love/No mercy |
If we are truly honest with ourselves, even those of us in the body of Christ struggle with some of the aforementioned behaviors listed. None of us are immune to sin’s ability to influence us to be ungodly and fall short of God’s standards. Romans 7:19 speaks of the inner battle Paul and every believer face with sin: “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” And God is clear, that the consequences for giving into this desire to live contrary to Him, is death (Romans 6:23a). When we look at that list of behaviors, it would not take much to list the deaths that take place because of them; such as the death of the family, death of peace, death of unity, death of law and order, and inevitably the eternal death of a relationship between God and his most precious creation of all: mankind. Thankfully God has provided a rescuer to save us from this inevitable death. His gift to us is the person of Jesus Christ who swaps out death with life (Romans 6:23b).
And this is the only difference between us in the body of Christ and those in the world: we have taken Jesus Christ up on His offer to be our rescuer, our Savior. Those of us in Christ struggle just like those in the world but we have grabbed hold of Him who delivers us from the bondage of sin (Romans 7:25). That is all we can boast of; nothing of anything we have done (Ephesians 2:8-9).
So as we look at those who are in the world, living contrary to the ways of God, may we remember that we in the body of Christ, are sinners just like them and we all need Jesus to escape the depraved way of life that we are naturally inclined to live.
Considerations 