Last Saturday, we read:
Romans 1 – God’s Three Steps Back from a Nation
I try not to bother y’all on the weekend and want to address this critical passage, today.
Writing in Rome’s Pagan Platonistic worldview, Paul used concepts from Proverbs to write about nations in Romans 1: 18 - 32. By way of review, here’s a picture of the culture he took on in his letter to the Roman Church:
Why We Think the Way We Do
§ Pro 1:22 "How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge.
§ Three Types in a Nation’s fall:
§ Simple –
§ Rom 1:24 - 25 God steps back from their bodies
§ Pro 7:7 And saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, A young man devoid of understanding… The Immoral woman
§ Fool –
§ Rom 1: 26 – God steps back from their hearts
§ Pro 10:23 To do evil is like sport to a fool, But a man of understanding has wisdom.
§ Scoffer / Scorner –
§ Rom 1: 28 – God steps back from their Minds
§ Pro 21:24 A proud and haughty man—"Scoffer" is his name; He acts with arrogant pride.
§ Pro 22:10 Cast out the scoffer, and contention will leave; Yes, strife and reproach will cease.
§ Pro 24:9 The devising of foolishness is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to men.
Progression: Simple to Scoffer – Sinner to Debased Mind
Simple – linked to sexual immorality
God’s First step back from a nation’s body in Romans 1
Fool – linked to lack of reason and sexual depravity
God’s Second Step back from a Nation’s Heart in Romans 1
Scoffer
God’s Third step backwards from a Nation’s mind in Romans 1
Debased Mind (NKJV)
Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
Reprobate Mind in the KJV
Word for debased, G96 in Strong’s Concordance, in the Greek is ἀδόκιμος Adokimos ad-ok'-ee-mos: unapproved, that is, rejected; by implication worthless (literally or morally): - castaway, rejected, reprobate.
Pro 14:6 A scoffer seeks wisdom and does not find it, But knowledge is easy to him who understands.
Pro 15:12 A scoffer does not love one who corrects him, Nor will he go to the wise.
Pro 21:11 When the scoffer is punished, the simple is made wise; But when the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.