Journey into the Heart of Darkness

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.~ Romans 21-23


Yesterday we looked at how the exchange of the truth of God for a lie manifests itself in sinful behaviour.

I dealt a little with sexual immorality yesterday, but, as I say, it is just one among many symptoms of an abandonment of God.

If we look at what follows, all spilling out from this initial bottle-cap of a verse (21), it is a descent into depravity.

"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity"

By the end we have an idolatrous society that rejects God and 'natural relations', and all the social and personal fall out that entails, which Paul asserts as 'the due penalty' for their actions. And the list doesn't stop there.

"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 have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy"

Paul isn't just making it up. The societal norms around the various cultures contained within, and not excluding, the Roman Empire are quite staggering, toe curling, even. Just read the issues he has to address in Corinth which include incestuous marriages between mothers and sons.

Paul identifies that all of this sinfulness springs from this abandonment of God,

And God abandons them, in turn, to their lusts.

We often see the judgement of God as being something directed at sin, but sometimes God's judgement is to give us over to sin.

But it gets even worse. (light one this morning!).

"they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."

Bad enough to sin, right? But to hold it up as good, as something to be endorsed and actively encouraged? Corrupting others, even children by inducting them into the same mentality?
Jesus says for those, it would be better that a large millstone be hung around their neck and they be drowned in the depths of the sea (told you it got dark).

Does he say that as a retribution against those corruptors? No. He says it would be better for them if this was to happen to them, than for what will happen to them if they partake in such practices.

And all the while they are behaving in this God-hating way, they are lauding themselves as wise, but no, Paul says, they are fools.
And listen, when did they become fools? When they, in spite of their suppressed knowledge of Him, refused to glorify Him, or thank Him.

Then, Paul says;

"Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened" 

Like I said in the title; Heart of Darkness. 

I am not going to try to put a positive spin on this, this morning. I am not going to sign out, like I usually do, either. Instead I am going to leave you with the purest antidote to darkness that I know, contained in scripture. Just read these words from the opening passage of  John's gospel and let it stir your heart and minister light into every dark corner.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

God bless you.