- Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called
to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God
--
- the gospel he promised beforehand through
his prophets in the Holy Scriptures
- regarding his Son, who as to his human
nature was a descendant of David,
- and who through the Spirit of holiness
was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the
dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Through him and for his name's sake, we
received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles
to the obedience that comes from faith.
- And you also are among those who are called
to belong to Jesus Christ.
- To all in Rome who are loved by God and
called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ.
- First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ
for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.
- God, whom I serve with my whole heart in
preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember
you
- in my prayers at all times; and I pray
that now at last by God's will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
- I long to see you so that I may impart
to you some spiritual gift to make you strong --
- that is, that you and I may be mutually
encouraged by each other's faith.
- I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,
that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing
so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I
have had among the other Gentiles.
- I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks,
both to the wise and the foolish.
- That is why I am so eager to preach the
gospel also to you who are at Rome.
- I am not ashamed of the gospel, because
it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first
for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
- For in the gospel a righteousness from
God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just
as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
- The wrath of God is being revealed from
heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the
truth by their wickedness,
- since what may be known about God is plain
to them, because God has made it plain to them.
- For since the creation of the world God's
invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly
seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without
excuse.
- For although they knew God, they neither
glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile
and their foolish hearts were darkened.
- Although they claimed to be wise, they
became fools
- and exchanged the glory of the immortal
God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
- Therefore God gave them over in the sinful
desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies
with one another.
- They exchanged the truth of God for a lie,
and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator
-- who is forever praised. Amen.
- Because of this, God gave them over to
shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural
ones.
- In the same way the men also abandoned
natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.
Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the
due penalty for their perversion.
- Furthermore, since they did not think it
worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved
mind, to do what ought not to be done.
- They have become filled with every kind
of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
- slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant
and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
- they are senseless, faithless, heartless,
ruthless.
- Although they know God's righteous decree
that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do
these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
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