Romans 1

1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

3concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh

4and was appointed the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

5Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations for the sake of his name,

6and you also are among them, called to belong to Jesus Christ.

7To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported throughout the whole world.

9For God, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, is my witness that I constantly remember you, always in my prayers

10asking that somehow, by God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

11For I long to see you, so that I may share some spiritual gift with you to strengthen you—

12that is, so that we may be encouraged together while I am among you, each by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.

13I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often planned to come to you—though I have been prevented until now—so that I might have some fruit among you too, just as I have among the rest of the Gentiles.

14I am under obligation both to Greeks and to non-Greeks, both to the wise and to the foolish.

15So, for my part, I am eager to proclaim the good news to you also who are in Rome.

16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew and also for the Greek.

17For God’s righteousness is revealed in it from faith to faith, as it is written, “But the righteous will live by faith.”

18For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness.

19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

20Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood through the things he has made, so that they are without excuse.

21For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him. Instead, they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

22Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

23and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

24Therefore God handed them over, in the desires of their hearts, to impurity, so that their bodies were dishonored among themselves.

25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what was created rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26For this reason God handed them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature,

27and in the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and burned with desire for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the penalty their error deserved.

28And since they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God handed them over to a worthless mind, to do what ought not to be done.

29They have been filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and spite. They are gossips,

30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

31senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless.

32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.