For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Here, in these few verses, we see the unraveling of humanity. It all begins with knowing about God.* Think about that. The unraveling of humanity begins with knowing about God. How many of us have found comfort in what we know about God? How many of us have leaned on our knowledge about Him as proof of our righteousness?
Knowledge of God is important, but what do we do next?
For those that Paul refers to in this passage, they did not honor God and did not give Him thanks. Meaning, they did not receive the knowledge about God and then worship Him and approach Him with gratitude.* This failure to respond to God resulted in a sickness of the soul that crippled their thought processes and evicted the light of truth from their hearts.*
It gets worse.
Not only did they lose their ability to think clearly, they lacked the ability to see their own foolishness. They engaged in a deception of self so deep that even through their folly, they convinced themselves that they were wise. How hard it must be to turn from sin and foolishness when you convince yourself that you are righteous and wise?
The extent of this foolishness reached beyond a rejection of God. Not only did they refuse to worship God and recognize Him as the source of all things, but they turned their worship to created things. O the foolishness! To worship something mortal rather than something immortal… to worship something made in the image of a person or an animal… how feeble. How strange. Why worship something that you can control? Why worship something that you can overpower? Why worship something that you can outthink? Foolishness.
It a good thing that only Paul’s society engaged in this level of foolishness. It’s a good thing that we do not worship athletes, celebrities, successful businesspeople, government officials, and animals. It’s a good thing that we do not look to created things to provide us with comfort, peace, joy, strength, and love. It’s a good thing that we do not look to mortal, temporal things to provide us with eternal things. It’s a good thing that we have not convinced ourselves that we are wise when really we are fools. It’s a good thing that we haven’t convinced ourselves through silly, broken logical that we are in right standing with God. It’s a good thing…
Oh my. I’m guilty.
Maybe I don’t have the name of an athlete that I whisper for inspiration, or a picture of a powerful person in my mind, but haven’t I worshipped by wanting to be like some picture of success that I have created in my mind? Haven’t I taken the best of all that I have seen and experienced and chased that image? Haven’t I thought that I knew much only to find out with a little seeking that I know almost nothing?
Lord help us… it’s not enough to know about God. We must know Him. We must open our hearts to allow Him to know us. We must worship Him.* We must approach Him with gratitude.*
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to repent for worshiping something other than Him. Perhaps God wants you to lay down the foolishness of what you think you know so that He can show you truth. Maybe today God wants you to spend time with Him to know Him. Perhaps today God wants you to let the light of His truth permeate your soul. Perhaps He wants you to see Him and worship and be grateful.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a water break… we all get thirsty.
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*Osborne, G. R. (2004). Romans (pp. 48-51). InterVarsity Press; Morris, L. (1988). The Epistle to the Romans (pp. 83-87). W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press; Kruse, C. G. (2012). Paul’s Letter to the Romans (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 95-98). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos; Moo, D. J. (2000). Romans (pp. 60-61). Zondervan Publishing House; Moo, D. J. (2000). Romans (p. 59-60). Zondervan Publishing House.