1:1 | From Paul,* a slave* of Christ Jesus,* called to be an apostle,* set apart for the gospel of God.* |
1:2 | This gospel* he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, |
1:3 | concerning his Son who was a descendant* of David with reference to the flesh,* |
1:4 | who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power* according to the Holy Spirit* by the resurrection* from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. |
1:5 | Through him* we have received grace and our apostleship* to bring about the obedience* of faith* among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name. |
1:6 | You also are among them,* called to belong to Jesus Christ.* |
1:7 | To all those loved by God in Rome,* called to be saints:* Grace and peace to you* from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! |
1:8 | First of all,* I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. |
1:9 | For God, whom I serve in my spirit by preaching the gospel* of his Son, is my witness that* I continually remember you |
1:10 | and I always ask* in my prayers, if perhaps now at last I may succeed in visiting you according to the will of God.* |
1:11 | For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift* to strengthen you, |
1:12 | that is, that we may be mutually comforted by one another’s faith,* both yours and mine. |
1:13 | I do not want you to be unaware,* brothers and sisters,* that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles.* |
1:14 | I am a debtor* both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. |
1:15 | Thus I am eager* also to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.* |
1:16 | For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.* |
1:17 | For the righteousness* of God is revealed in the gospel* from faith to faith,* just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”* |
1:18 | For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people* who suppress the truth by their* unrighteousness,* |
1:19 | because what can be known about God is plain to them,* because God has made it plain to them. |
1:20 | For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people* are without excuse. |
1:21 | For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts* were darkened. |
1:22 | Although they claimed* to be wise, they became fools |
1:23 | and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings* or birds or four-footed animals* or reptiles. |
1:24 | Therefore God gave them over* in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor* their bodies among themselves.* |
1:25 | They* exchanged the truth of God for a lie* and worshiped and served the creation* rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. |
1:26 | For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones,* |
1:27 | and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women* and were inflamed in their passions* for one another. Men* committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. |
1:28 | And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God,* God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done.* |
1:29 | They are filled* with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with* envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, |
1:30 | slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, |
1:31 | senseless, covenant-breakers,* heartless, ruthless. |
1:32 | Although they fully know* God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die,* they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.* |