For what reason did God give them up to dishonorable passions in Romans 1:26-27?

Rom. 1:26-27 ESV states, "For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error."

Idolatry is the reason why God gave them up to their dishonorable passions?

What "dishonorable passions" is Paul referring to?

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Idolatry is the reason why God gave them up to their dishonorable passions?
Homosexuality Is Not a Sin Homosexuality Is a Sin

When one reads Rom. 1:26-27"For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error" Rom. 1:26-27 ESV. by itself outside of any other context, one may initially believe that the passage condemns, at the very least, all male homosexual activity. However, the very first phrase of the first sentence of the first passage, "For this reason," references another verse or set of verses in the Bible to help explain why the individuals gave into their sexual temptations. Thus, we cannot read these passages exclusively without considering the surrounding passages.

Rom. 1:22-25"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. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen" Rom. 1:22-25 ESV. explains what reasons the individuals addressed above gave themselves up to fornication with each other. As explained in Rom. 1:22-25"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. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen" Rom. 1:22-25 ESV., the men and women who fornicated with each other were men and women who had at least been introduced to God, who turned their hearts away from God, and who were worshipping animals and man-made gods instead of God. Furthermore, because they were worshipping other gods, God allowed them to be driven by their evil ways as punishment.

In fact, Jews often associated idolatry with fornication.1 This is a common theme throughout the Bible.2 Usually, sexual immorality is either referenced in the same chapter as idolatry, or the biblical verses addressing both sins are situated immediately next to each other. For literal and figurative biblical examples that tie sexual immorality to idolatry, see Exod. 34:15-16"(L)est you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods" Exod. 34:15-16 ESV.; Lev. 17:7"So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations" Lev. 17:7 ESV; 18:21-22"You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination" Lev. 18:21-22 ESV.; Num. 25:1-2"While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods" Num. 25:1-2 ESV.; Deut. 23:17"None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute . . ." Deut. 23:17 ESV.; Jer. 3:1"If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD" Jer. 3:1 ESV.; Ezek. 16:17"You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore" Ezek. 16:17 ESV., 35"Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them . . ." Ezek. 16:35 ESV., 23:7"She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted" Ezek. 23:7 ESV., 23:29-30"(A)nd they shall deal with you in hatred and take away all the fruit of your labor and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your whoring shall be uncovered. Your lewdness and your whoring have brought this upon you, because you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols . . ." Ezek. 23:29-30 ESV., 23:43,49"Then I said of her who was worn out by adultery, Now they will continue to use her for a whore, even her! . . . And they shall return your lewdness upon you, and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry, and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD" Ezek. 23:43, 49 ESV.; Hos. 4:10-14"They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the LORD to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding. My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore. They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good.

Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your brides commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin" Hos. 4:10-14 ESV.
, Hos. 4:16-19"Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn . . . Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone. When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring; their rulers dearly love shame. A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices." Hos. 4:17-16 ESV., Hos. 9:1"Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute's wages on all threshing floors . . ." Hos. 9:1 ESV.; Mic. 1:6-7"Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return" Mic. 1:6-7 ESV., Col. 3:5"Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" Col. 3:5 ESV.; 1 Pet. 4:3"For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry" 1 Pet. 4:3 ESV.; and Rev. 2:14,20"But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. . . . But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols" Rev. 2:14, 20 ESV.. So, it comes as no surprise to us that Paul also associates sexual immorality with idolatry and paganism. Unfortunately, many Christians who focus on the perceived homosexual activity in Rom. 1:26-27"For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error" Rom. 1:26-27 ESV. miss the important lesson that Paul taught in Rom. 1:17-32: That idolatry leads to sexual immorality and, eventually, complete moral corruption.3

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Rom. 1:26-27"For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error" Rom. 1:26-27 ESV. condemns sexual acts committed by men with men and women with women. It is true that one must read the entire passage to understand the full meaning behind Rom. 1:26-27"For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error" Rom. 1:26-27 ESV., but the verses clearly describe a group of people who turned away from God and who fornicated with each other. God was not happy with their sexual indiscretions, and as they moved farther away from Him, he allowed their hearts to be filled with evil.

In Rom. 1:22-25"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. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen" Rom. 1:22-25 ESV., we learn that the men and women who fornicated with each other were men and women who had at least been introduced to God and who turned to idolatry instead of following God. When we turn away from God, we may be tempted to fornicate with people of the same sex or opposite sex, outside of a God-sanctioned marriage. If we give into these temptations, we will become more and more depraved, and we will become dangerous to ourselves and society, as did the individuals in Rom. 1:29-31"They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless" Rom. 1:29-31 ESV.. In order to remain faithful to God, we must be willing to turn away from these temptations and follow God's commandments

Furthermore, in Rom. 1:26 ESV"For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions." Rom. 1:26 ESV., we know that the men's and women's homosexual desires were "dishonorable" and in Rom. 1:26 KJV"For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections . . ." Rom. 1:26 KJV. their desires were "vile." Ἀ̓τιμία or atimia is the ancient Greek word translated as "dishonorable" and "vile." According to Strong's Concordance, it means "infamy, that is, (subjectively) comparative indignity, (objectively) disgrace: - dishonour, reproach, shame, vile."1 Similarly, according to A Greek-English Lexicon, ἀτιμία means "dishonor, disgrace."2

What "dishonorable passions" is Paul referring to?
Homosexuality Is Not a Sin Homosexuality Is a Sin

Obviously, Paul was not condemning all sexual activity in the passage. Instead, he attacks deviant sexual activity committed by idolaters, which is all sexual activity committed outside of a monogamous relationship - a marriage - by pagans. Paul is not addressing sexual activity between Christian homosexual and heterosexual couples who are married or who would be married if given the legal opportunity to do so because such sexual activities cannot be viewed as dishonorable towards God. These couples are committed to each other, and the unconditional love that a heterosexual couple feels towards each other is analogous to the unconditional love that a homosexual couple feels towards each other.

Love is love. Even though a couple's love for each other should radiate outwards, a person outside of a relationship who tells a monogamous homosexual couple that it is impossible for them to feel love towards each other is as illogical as that person telling a monogamous heterosexual couple that it is impossible for them to feel love towards each other. The outsider cannot possibly understand or comprehend the feelings of the parties involved in either relationship since the outsider is not involved in either relationship.

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We know that God allowed the men and women to be taken over by their "passions" (ESV translation) or "affections" (KJV translations). The ancient Greek word translated as "passions" is pathos or πάθος and it means "of the soul, emotion, passion; to excite passion," according to A Greek-English Lexicon.3 Based on these definitions and the context of the surrounding verses, we know that the men and women's sexual passions were enflamed, and that these passions were vile and not honorable to God. Thus, based on Rom. 1:26 ESV"For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions." Rom. 1:26 ESV., we know that the men and women who committed homosexual sins with each other dishonored God.

1"According to Jewish view of the world, idolatry is the sin that leads to all other sins. The Wisdom of Solomon, an Alexandrian Jewish text virtually contemporary with Paul, sums up the connection between idolatry and sin rather matter-of-factly: 'For the worship of idols . . . Is the beginning and cause and end of every evil' (citing Wis. 14:27). Sexually immoral behavior in particular seems to go hand and hand with idolatry, for it is almost as characteristically 'Gentile' as idolatry itself. 'For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication' (citing Wis. 14:12). It is not terribly surprising then, that when Paul makes his tirade against idolatry in Romans 1, he, too, associated with 'sexual perversion'” (Eisenbaum, 2009, p. 152). Return

2"The relationship established between the reduction of God and sexual disorder is not a Pauline invention; he is taking up a biblical and Jewish topos" (Jean-Noël, 1988, p. 1561). Return

3"This text is important today for many Christian denominations debating the acceptability of same-sex practice. To be sure, Paul does not look upon it favorably. What is often missed, however, is the content of this passage. It is crystal clear from Romans 1 that what Paul is speaking against is the sin of idolatry. The “degrading passions” are the byproduct of idolatry, and Paul's mention of it is almost incidental – the result of an instinctive Jewish association between idolatry and “unnatural” sexuality, which itself derives from nothing more than the Jewish stereotype of Gentiles in antiquity (Eisenbaum, 2009, p. 152-153). Return

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Romans 1:26-27 Home

1"ἀτιμία." Strong, 1995/1996, Greek section p. 15, entry 819 Return

2"ἀτιμία." A Greek-English Lexicon, 1940 Return

3"πάθος." A Greek-English Lexicon, 1940 Return

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