Romans 1

¹Paul , a servant of Christ Jesus , called to be an apostle , set apart for the gospel of God ,

²which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures ,

³concerning his Son , who was descended from David according to the flesh

⁴and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead , Jesus Christ our Lord ,

⁵through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations ,

⁶including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ ,

⁷To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints : Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ .

⁸First , I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you , because your faith is proclaimed in all the world .

⁹For God is my witness , whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son , that without ceasing I mention you

¹⁰always in my prayers , asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you .

¹¹For I long to see you , that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you —

¹²that is , that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith , both yours and mine .

¹³I do not want you to be unaware , brothers , that I have often intended to come to you ( but thus far have been prevented ), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles .

¹⁴I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians , both to the wise and to the foolish .

¹⁵So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome .

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel , for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes , to the Jew first and also to the Greek .

¹⁷For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith , as it is written , The righteous shall live by faith .

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men , who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth .

¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them , because God has shown it to them .

²⁰For his invisible attributes , namely , his eternal power and divine nature , have been clearly perceived , ever since the creation of the world , in the things that have been made . So they are without excuse .

²¹For although they knew God , they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking , and their foolish hearts were darkened .

²²Claiming to be wise , they became fools ,

²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things .

²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity , to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves ,

²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator , who is blessed forever ! Amen .

²⁶For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions . For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature ;

²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another , men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error .

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

²⁹They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness , evil , covetousness , malice . They are full of envy , murder , strife , deceit , maliciousness . They are gossips ,

³⁰slanderers , haters of God , insolent , haughty , boastful , inventors of evil , disobedient to parents ,

³¹foolish , faithless , heartless , ruthless .

³²Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die , they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.