Less Is Less Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Less Is Less ------------------- Date: 2/20/2001 Keywords: "depraved" "godlessness" "indecent" "lust" "perversion" "wickedness" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Romans 1:26-32* 26. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, do to what ought not to be done. 29. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30. slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31. they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Questions 1. Because of what (verse 26 — see yesterday's study) did God give the people in the passage above over to shameful lusts?   2. Since what (verse 28) did he give them over to a depraved mind?   3. What is missing from those people that Paul is writing about (verse 31)?   Practical help Paul frequently writes very long thoughts that are all connected together. He uses the words "therefore," "since," "because," and the like a lot. When he does, you should always look for the connection between the thoughts. Here he builds on what he said in verses 18-25 (see yesterday's study). The reason God would allow people to fall into the traps of sexual sin and depravity, and all other kinds of evil, is that they have turned their backs on him. Although they knew what was right, they chose what was wrong and chose not to remember him. Verse 31 sums up what can be said about these people: 1. They have no sense. Senseless people do things that are contrary to their own knowledge. The knowledge of God isn't enough to save a person — it has to be combined with acceptance of that knowledge into a place beyond the intellect, into the heart, which brings us to: 2. They have no faith. Faithlessness is when you know the truth but don't believe it to the extent that you will follow it and act like you believe it. 3. They have no heart. This could be said in a different way: They have no love. Truth has no impact on someone who doesn't care one way or the other what happens to him or those around him. 4. They have no truth. OK, I'm not sure how this fits, but it must have something to do with carelessness, lovelessness, lack of concern for the truth of God. Let's dump the hypothetical "those people" and bring it home. Does this thinking fit with your own personal experience of sexual temptation and failure? In your lesser moments, were you remembering what you know about God, and giving him glory? I'll let you meditate on that for awhile. You can use more than three minutes if you like. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2001 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."