Hope for Home, Liberia: Romans Devotional #9: Given to Impurity

"Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen" (Romans 1:24-25).

Bound to Sin:

During a recent teaching in the bush, I used an illustration about sin that my mother taught me when I was a child. I had a young man come to the front of the room and asked him if he thought he was strong. He smiled but said nothing. Turning to a room full of pastors, I asked, "Is the man strong?" "Ya, da man strong," was their answer. I told them we were going to test the man's strength with a spool of thread. The class laughed. "Sin is like this thread," I said, "you think you master it but one day it will master you." With that, I unwound about 6 inches of thread, holding it between my two hands, I asked the class if they thought the man could break it. "Ya, da man break da tred" was their response (Liberian English). With no effort, the man snapped the thread. Next, I held out several pieces of thread and asked the class if they though the man could break them. The class laughed saying, "tred caunt hole da strong man." Again, with no effort the thread broke. Next, I read verses from Scripture that talk about sin leading to bondage. I looked intently in the young man's eyes and told him that sin could bind even him. I had the man hold the thread with his hands folded across his chest. While teaching, I had the man spin as the thread wrapped numerous times around his body. After a few minutes, I asked the class if they thought the man could break free. The class was fully convinced that thread could not hold a strong man. I told them, "I want you to never forget that sin is like this thread, you think you master it but one day, it will master you." We all counted down 3, 2, 1 and the man struggled with all his might but could not break free. The class was shocked. He was bound.

The theme of Romans 1 is, "They are under sin." Romans 1 talks about "their" sin while chapter 2 talks about "your" sin. While talking about "their" sin in chapter 1, Romans mentions 4 reasons why "they" deserve the wrath of God. During the last lesson, we learned the first reason: Though they "knew" God they did not worship Him, they betrayed Him. Today, we are studying the second reason.

Jesus once told a parable about a wayward son (Luke 15:11). In this story, the wayward son asked his father for his inheritance, early. The loving father graciously gave him his inheritance, resulting in the son leaving and spending it on wild living. In time, the son came to the end of himself and returned to the father. Jesus told this parable to help us understand what our Heavenly Father does to those who have a rebellious heart. God gives them over to their sins so they will come to their senses and repent. One of the sins God gives them over to is impurity.?

They were given to Impurity:

Lets read Romans 1:24-25 again.

24."Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves 25.because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen."

These two verses describe a tragic wedding that took place between people and sin. Due to their wayward hearts, God gave them to impurity. It is important to know that God gave them to impurity only after they had already given themselves to the sin. Ephesians 4:19 says, "They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity."

As you read Romans 1:24-25, picture God as a loving Father, "They" are the bride and "Impurity" is the groom. It is a dreadful thing for God to give a person away in marriage to sin! Think about the seriousness of the words you are about to read. In this verse, God walked them down a spiritual isle, placed "their" hand into the hand of impurity, let go, and gave ownership of their lives to impurity. God then steps back and "they" became slaves of impurity (Romans 6:16). They are now free from the control of righteousness. God lets "impurity" do its evil work in them hoping they will repent. Impurity now owns them.

What is "impurity?" The greek word for impurity means moral uncleanness. People become morally unclean as they follow the lust of their hearts (Romans 1:24). This sin looks different for different people. For some, the sin leads to substance abuse. Their flesh desires the high that comes from alcohol and drugs. They begin using alcohol and drugs to take the edge off their day rather than allowing God to be their source of peace. Slowly, they slip deeper and deeper into substance abuse and become impure. For others, their flesh desires sex. These people spend away themselves in various relationships or are filled with the lust of pornography. For many, their flesh hungers for material possessions. They work hard to acquire new possessions not realizing this pursuit will never satisfy. In time, these possessions begin to possess them. Many people chase after words of affirmation. These people work hard for the next complement and words of praise. Unfortunately, man's affirmation can never satisfy. The desire to look beautiful is another lust of the heart. Those who chase after beautify stop at nothing to have the perfect shape, wearing only the clothes that make them feel beautiful. The list could go on and on. Thinking they will never be mastered by impurity, impurity slowly wraps its evil chords around them until they are in bondage to sin.

Impurity has completed its work when they have exchanged truth for lies and begin worshiping and serving created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). God gave them to this sin hoping they would repent. If they refuse repent, God will give them to another sin. We learn about these other sin in the next two lessons.

Bible Marking:

Next to Romans 1:24 write, "They were given to impurity."

Prayer to Pray:

Father, we boldly walk before Your throne, humbly bow down, and ask You to please judge our lives now while we have time to repent. Reveal truth about ourselves that we do not see. Reveal all our sins and wickedness. Please forgive us for our sins. We are truly sorry for the times in our lives when we have served created things and not You. Please break the chords of sin that hold us so we can serve You in freedom. We want our only desire to be Your desire, our only love to be Your love. We give You our lives again. Please empower us to walk in righteousness. We love You.

Review:

Chapter Summary Picture: They are under sin