Open English Translation ROM Chapter 1

8 I’ll start by thanking my God through Yeshua Messiah for all of you, because the story about your faith has been told in many countries. 9 Yes, the God that I serve in my spirit, in the good message about his son, is my witness about how I never stop mentioning you Romans 10 in my prayers—asking that somehow God will favour me by allowing me to come and visit you, 11 because I’m longing to see you so that I can share a particular spiritual gift with you in order to strengthen you. 12 I want all of us to be encouraged together by each other’s faith—both me and you Romans.

13 [ref]Brothers and sisters, I don’t want you to be unaware that I’d planned several times to come to you, but I was vetoed until recently so that I’d also have a harvest among you similar to those among the other non-Jews. 14 Whether it’s Greeks or other foreigners, wise people or foolish, I have an obligation, 15 and so I’m also eager to talk about the good message to all of you there in Rome.

16 [ref]I’m not ashamed to talk about the good message, because it conveys God’s power to save everyone who believes it—first Jews and then non-Jews. 17 [ref]It explains how God makes us guiltless—by faith leading to more faith—as it’s been written: Godly people will live by faith.

18 God’s severe anger is being revealed from heaven on the ungodliness and disobedience of people who limit the truth by their disobedience, 19 because the fact that there is a god has been shown to them, because God himself has revealed it. 20 Ever since the creation of the world, God’s invisible attributes have been clearly seen through his workmanship—both his eternal power and his divinity—so people have no excuse. 21 [ref]Even though they know about God, they didn’t honour or thank him, but their theories made them incompetent and their minds turned from perception towards darkness. 22 They claimed to be scientific, but instead they believed foolishness, 23 [ref]and so they changed the greatness of the eternal God into the likeness of an image of a mortal human, or birds or animals or reptiles.

24 Therefore God reluctantly let their lusts lead to impurity and the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, 25 as they exchanged God’s truth for a lie, and worshipped and served the creation, instead of the creator, who should be praised throughout all time. May it be so.

26 Because of that, God reluctantly let them exercise their dishonourable passions, and their women exchanged natural behaviours for unnatural ones, 27 and similarly their men deserted the natural behaviours towards women, and stoked their lusts towards each other—man with man, and the shame that it produces, and then received back in themselves the payment which is appropriate for such deception.

28 They didn’t want to know about God, and so he reluctantly let their depraved minds be filled with unhelpful thoughts, 29 and so they were filled with disobedience, wickedness, greed, and malice, and full of envy, murder, strife, and deceit, becoming malicious people, gossips, 30 slanderers, god-haters, abusers, proud people, braggers, and inventors of evil, unable to be persuaded by their parents, 31 unintelligent, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. 32 They know that God must exercise justice towards people doing such things, yet they not only practice those things which will lead to a death sentence, but they also approve when others do them.