The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

— 1 Corinthians 2:14

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

— Ephesians 4:18

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

— John 3:19-20

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

— Jeremiah 2:13

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

Everything about God offends fallen human nature in Paul’s day and ours. Preferring the delusion of personal autonomy, we reject God’s sovereignty. Our desire to freely practice sin causes us to disregard God’s holiness. We resent God’s omniscience because we desire to live without accountability. We delight in the easy path of cultural conformity because we dislike God’s immutability, which overrules our ever-changing whims and demands.

God displays His wrath against “the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth” about Him, not accidentally but “by their wickedness.” Because of God’s abundant evidence of Himself, people must actively hold down truth to avoid God. But why do we do this? Self-satisfying sin lures us, then becomes more appealing than the revelation God provides and the submission His way demands. (Inspired by BSF’s Study of Romans)