Romans 1

Williams^{(i) 1} Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart to preach God's good news, ² which long ago He promised through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³ about His Son, who on the physical side became a descendant of David, and on the holy, spiritual side ⁴ proved to be God's Son in power by the resurrection from the dead -- I mean, Jesus Christ, our Lord, ⁵ through whom we have received God's favor and a commission as an apostle in His name to urge upon all the heathen obedience inspired by faith, ⁶ among whom you too as called ones belong to Jesus Christ -- ⁷ to all those in Rome who are God's loved ones, called to be His people: spiritual blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ First, through Jesus Christ I thank my God for you all, because the report of your faith is spreading all over the world. ⁹ Indeed, my witness is God, whom I serve in my spirit by telling the good news about His Son, that I never fail to mention you every time I pray, ¹⁰ always entreating God that somehow by His will I may some day at last succeed in getting to see you. ¹¹ For I am longing to see you, to impart to you some spiritual gift, that you may be strengthened; ¹² in other words, that we may be mutually encouraged, while I am with you, by one another's faith, yours and mine. ¹³ Furthermore, I want you to know, brothers, that I have often planned to come to see you (though until now I have been prevented), in order that I may gather some fruit among you too, as I have among the rest of the heathen. ¹⁴ To Greeks and to all the other nations, to cultured and to uncultured people alike, I owe a duty. ¹⁵ So, as far as I can, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome, too. ¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who trusts, of the Jew first and then of the Greek. ¹⁷ For in the good news God's Way of man's right standing with Him is uncovered, the Way of faith that leads to greater faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright man must live by faith." ¹⁸ For God's anger from heaven is being uncovered against all the impiety and wickedness of the men who in their wickedness are suppressing the truth; ¹⁹ because what can be known of God is clear to their inner moral sense; for in this way God Himself has shown it to them. ²⁰ Forever since the creation of the world, His invisible characteristics -- His eternal power and divine nature -- have been made intelligible and clearly visible by His works. So they are without excuse, ²¹ because, although they once knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks, but became silly in their senseless speculations, and so their insensible hearts have been shrouded in darkness. ²² Though claiming to be wise, they made fools of themselves, ²³ and have transformed the splendor of the immortal God into images in the form of mortal man, birds, beasts, and reptiles. ²⁴ So God has given them up to sexual impurity, in the evil trend of their heart's desires, so that they degrade their own bodies with one another, ²⁵ for they had utterly transformed the reality of God into what was unreal, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. ²⁶ This is why God has given them up to degrading passions. For their females have exchanged their natural function for one that is unnatural, ²⁷ and males too have forsaken the natural function of females and been consumed by flaming passion for one another, males practicing shameful vice with other males, and continuing to suffer in their persons the inevitable penalty for doing what is improper. ²⁸ And so, as they did not approve of fully recognizing God any longer, God gave them up to minds that He did not approve, to practices that were improper; ²⁹ because they overflow with every sort of evil-doing, wickedness, greed, and malice; they are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, ill-will; ³⁰ they are secret backbiters, open slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of evil, undutiful to parents, ³¹ conscienceless, treacherous, with no human love or pity. ³² Although they know full well God's sentence that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only practice them but even applaud others who do them.