28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.

31 They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.

32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

— Romans 1:28-32

18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

— Romans 6:18, 22-23

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

Our world today seems to celebrate sin of every kind. Our society increasingly embraces behaviors such as glorifying violence, promoting self-centeredness, normalizing sexual immorality, shifting moral definitions and disdain for God’s teachings in His words. More and more we see a decline in moral standards, focusing on themes like materialism, pride, lust for pleasure, and a rejection of God’s law, contrasting it with Scriptural calls for righteousness, holiness, and love. Giving in to humanity’s inborn rebellion against God perpetuates sin’s death trap – now and forever. Those who refuse to acknowledge sin and reject God will ultimately bear sin’s penalty and receive God’s just sentence of eternal death.

When we understand the pervasiveness of human sin and the reality of God’s judgment, we comprehend how desperately we need a Savior. By grace, God has provided the way of salvation.
Freed from God’s judgment through confession of sin and faith in Jesus, believers experience freedom from sin’s clutches. For God’s children, the present, future, and eternity rest with God.