The book of Romans is an epistle, a letter, that Paul wrote during his early missionary journeys through the Mediterranean. This particular letter is addressed to those of the Jewish faith living in Rome.
Paul starts by describing himself three ways: a servant of God, an apostle, and someone set apart for the gospel. He also uses the same run-on sentence to describe what “the gospel” is: the promise of God given in the Old Testament and its fulfillment in Jesus. Jesus was from the direct lineage of King David, born in flesh, declared the Son of God, filled with the Spirit, risen from the dead. He then describes his audience: those in Rome, loved by God, called to be saints.
As 21st century Americans reading someone else’s mail, we are also loved by God, called to be saints, living in a time that is very much striving to emulate the Roman fashion.
Paul continues this introduction by wishing them grace and peace and remembering how much he prays for them and speaks of them. (After reading this flowery intro, I am going to definitely zhuzh up my text messages to friends and family.) He tells them that he’s wanted to come visit for a long time to speak to them, the Jewish believers, along with the Greeks and Barbarians, ie. outsiders, about the gospel. He speaks of it as his obligation, again referencing that he is a acting under command of God.
He says he is not ashamed of the gospel because “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” It may seem surprising to use the word “ashamed” here, but Christianity was very much in the minority at the time, and was condemned as a cult by both by the secular and religious authorities. Paul emphasizes that gospel is the righteousness of God through faith and, “the righteous shall live by faith.” This is the key to the next part he writes because he is showing us how to live godly in an ungodly culture: an act of faith.
The tone of the letter shifts. Paul is buttering up his audience before tossing them into the frying pan. The wrath of God, he says is for the ungodly and those whose unrighteousness to suppress the truth. He is not letting his audience hide behind ignorance, because they know the difference between right and wrong, and they are choosing wrong. They have access to the living God, but they choose images of living things. They serve the creation and not the creator.
Instead of punishing his people directly, God is letting them do whatever they want including debauched sexual desires. It cannot be ignored that this section in particular is used currently to condemn same-sex relationships, but it is not relationships being described, rather consuming passions and shameless acts.
Illicit sexual conduct is just the one area of sin described. All of the Ten Commandments are covered and more; evil, covetousness (desiring what others have), malice, murder, strife and deceit. Notice the attitudes and the actions are linked. It goes bad words, bad thoughts and bad actions. “They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” Again Paul reiterates the believers know that these attitudes and practices lead to death and destruction, but actively participate and encourage others to do as well.
As modern-day believers it is tempting to offload Paul’s condemnation on our pagan neighbors today, but Paul is calling out the believers themselves for these problems, not the outsiders. If we want to be the main character, then we have to be responsible for the main message. Do our words reflect love and life? Do our actions reflect faith or folly?
Stay tuned for chapter 2.
