Considerations

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” 
(Romans 1:21 ESV)

For although they knew God, they did not honor him… 

How can someone know God but choose not to honor Him? 

When I goggled the meaning of ‘knew’, two different definitions popped up:

1. be aware of through observation, inquiry, or information.
2. have developed a relationship with (someone) through meeting and spending time with them;

The first definition is an awareness of a subject based on visuals and information provided by a source; a surface knowledge of the subject. The second goes deeper than awareness. It suggests that an intimate relationship has provided insight that was obtained by spending meaningful and consistent time with the subject. For example, I can say I know my favorite celebrity. But do I truly know them? Have I spent time with them to get to know the real person? Or am I simply aware of their life through the public image seen and described in the media? In truth, without an established close relationship with them, I will never really know the person behind the public face. 

Knowing God vs. Knowing About God

The same can be said of knowing God. Without a close intimate relationship with Him, we will never really know Him beyond what others say about Him. A lack of relationship with God leads to “knowing about God” as described in the first definition; that is simply being aware of Him and nothing more. This type of knowledge describes a large portion of our human race today and impacts how they view God and connect with Him. 

“They know about God, but they don’t honor him or even thank him.” (Romans 1:21 CEV)

One doesn’t honor or thank those they don’t know. Therefore is it really that surprising that we live in a world where dark hearts are thriving, futile thoughts are raging and foolish choices are becoming more of the norm? As stated in our focal verses for this post, these are the consequences of a society who has heard about God but doesn’t know Him intimately to give the honor and gratitude that is due Him.

Knowing God: No longer worthwhile?

But what about us who are believers who have acknowledged God and have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ? Are we immune to these godless traits of dark hearts, futile thoughts and foolish choices that are common to those who don’t know God intimately? In Romans 1:28 the inclusion of the phrase in bold lettering below causes one to pause and consider that we are not so immune as we thought:

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 NIV)

They did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God. In other words, what they knew about God was not worth the time or effort to continue to possess or absorb. As believers living in this dark world, we are not immune to the temptations the enemy puts in our paths to distract us from our relationship with God. What was once a thriving, personal intimate connection with God can slowly dissipate as we unconsciously replace it with other things that take up our time.

Not so surprising consequences

As God becomes less in our lives, so does the transformation to be like Christ. The renewing process of our minds becomes stifled as disciplines in our lives that bring us close to God (prayer, studying the Bible and fellowshipping with other believers) gradually decline. Instead of a renewed mind, we end up with what verse 28 calls a depraved mind, which will cause us (those of us who profess to be followers of Christ) to do what ought not to be done! We end up with the same mindset as those who have never truly known God. All because we no longer found it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God. 

Is it really that surprising, then, to find those who were once passionate for the things of Christ, living more like the world and less like Christ? Romans 1 makes it very clear that whenever one decides that it is not worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, whether it be non-believer or believer, they are moving towards the godless life that is described in detail throughout verses 18 to 32. 

We as believers are not immune to the depraved mind and godless behaviour of Romans 1. We become susceptible to this mindset and these behaviours when our relationship with God is no longer priority #1. We end up disregarding the most important commandment of all: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12:30 NIV). It’s this all-encompassing love for Him that allows us to keep God as our top priority and not so surprisingly, helps us to be less like the world and more like Christ.