Receiving in themselves that recompense, etc. - Both the women and men, by their unnatural prostitutions, enervated their bodies, so that barrenness prevailed, and those disorders which are necessarily attendant on prostitution and sodomitical practices. read more
They did not like to retain God - It would, perhaps, be more literal to translate ουκ εδοκιμασαν , They Did Not Search to retain God in their knowledge. They did not examine the evidences before them ( Romans 1:19 , Romans 1:20 ;) of his being and attributes; therefore God gave them over to a Reprobate mind, εις αδοκιμον νουν , to an Unsearching or undiscerning mind; for it is the same word in both places. They did not reflect on the proofs they had of the Divine nature, and God... read more
Being filled with all unrighteousness - αδικια , every vice contrary to justice and righteousness. Fornication - Πορνειᾳ , all commerce between the sexes out of the bounds of lawful marriage. Some of the best MSS. omit this reading; and others have ακαθαρσιᾳ , uncleanness. Wickedness - Πονηριᾳ , malignity, that which is oppressive to its possessor and to its object; from πονος , labor, toil, etc. Covetousness - Πλεονεξιᾳ , from πλειον , more, and ἑξω , I will... read more
Backbiters - Καταλαλους , from κατα , against, and λαλεω , I speak; those who speak against others; false accusers, slanderers. Haters of God - Θεοστυγεις , atheists, contemners of sacred things, maligners of providence, scorners, etc. All profligate deists are of this class; and it seems to be the finishing part of a diabolic character. Despiteful - Ὑβριστας , from ὑβριζω , to treat with injurious insolence; stormy, boisterous; abusing both the characters and persons... read more
Without understanding - Ασυνετους , from α , negative, and συνετος , knowing; persons incapable of comprehending what was spoken; destitute of capacity for spiritual things. Covenant-breakers - Ασυνθετους , from α , negative, and συντιθημυι , to make an agreement; persons who could be bound by no oath, because, properly speaking, they had no God to witness or avenge their misconduct. As every covenant, or agreement, is made as in the presence of God, so he that opposes the... read more
Who, knowing the judgment of God - Δικαιωμα , the grand rule of right which God has revealed to every man, the knowledge of which he has, less or more, given to every nation of the world, relative to honouring parents, taking care of their own offspring, keeping their engagements, etc., etc. In the worst states of heathenism this great principle has been acknowledged; but, through the prevalence of corruption in the heart, this law, though acknowledged, was not obeyed; and the corruption... read more
Verse 26 26.God therefore gave them up, etc. After having introduced as it were an intervening clause, he returns to what he had before stated respecting the judgment of God: and he brings, as the first example, the dreadful crime of unnatural lust; and it hence appears that they not only abandoned themselves to beastly lusts, but became degraded beyond the beasts, since they reversed the whole order of nature. He then enumerates a long catalogue of vices which had existed in all ages, and then... read more
Verse 27 27.Such a reward for their error as was meet. They indeed deserved to be blinded, so as to forget themselves, and not to see any thing befitting them, who, through their own malignity, closed their eyes against the light offered them by God, that they might not behold his glory: in short, they who were not ashamed to extinguish, as much as they could, the glory of God, which alone gives us light, deserved to become blind at noonday. read more
Verse 28 28.And as they chose not, etc. There is an evident comparison to be observed in these words, by which is strikingly set forth the just relation between sin and punishment. As they chose not to continue in the knowledge of God, which alone guides our minds to true wisdom, the Lord gave them a perverted mind, which can choose nothing that is right. (53) And by saying, that they chose not, (non probasse - approved not,) it is the same as though he had said, that they pursued not after the... read more
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Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Romans 1:26
For this cause God gave them up, etc. - Their system of idolatry necessarily produced all kinds of impurity. How could it be otherwise, when the highest objects of their worship were adulterers, fornicators, and prostitutes of the most infamous kind, such as Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, Venus, etc.? Of the abominable evils with which the apostle charges the Gentiles in this and the following verse I could produce a multitude of proofs from their own writings; but it is needless to make the subject... read more