Path of the Wicked

Yesterday some of my middle school guys and I began Romans for our mostly-weekly small group gathering. When I read the Bible, I spend a bit of time around each line, making sure I understand it on the surface before moving on. It's very easy the way most Bibles are written to simple read the words and not internalize any meaning from them. Anyway, as I read and try to follow along, I wait for something strange to jump out at me. Usually it's a very odd wording, or something that the author repeats over and over again. In this case, it happens to be an incredibly long list of things wicked men do. After a pretty wordy paragraph on homosexuality, Paul adds....

Romans 1:28-31
28Furthermore, 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. 29They 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, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Paul lists off at least 22 forms of wicked things. My personal favorite is in the middle of all these acts, it clearly wasn't enough, so the people invented NEW ways of doing evil that didn't even exist yet. It's interesting that a lot of the things on this list are things we do occasionally. Greed, disobeying parents, senselessness, envy.... But clearly Paul pants a picture of a people that are just... so far off the deep end it's depressing. As we (our small group) were going through this passage, it's interesting to note that this whole cacophony of evil begins ever so simply. If you wonder how a people could possible fall so far into depravity, you only need to look a few paragraph up....

Romans 1:21
21For 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.

Even though they knew and understood God, they never glorified him or gave him thanks. That's it....

It doesn't say they cursed him, they ran away from him, it doesn't even really say they ignored him. All it really says is that they never gave him thanks or glory. That was all it took to allow their hearts to be filled with wickedness.

When we glorify God and give him thanks for the many blessings in our lives, we keep our eyes fixed forward, and it's a lot easier to run the race when you're looking in the right direction.