Romans 1

1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the good news of God.

2God promised this good news long ago through His prophets in the holy Scriptures.

3It is about His Son. As a human being, the Son was born from the family of David.

4And by the Holy Spirit, He was shown to be the Son of God with power when He rose from death — Jesus Christ our Lord.

5Through Christ I received grace and the work of an apostle, to call people of all nations to the obedience that comes from faith, for the honor of His name.

6And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

7To all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be His holy people: May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because people all over the world are talking about your faith.

9God knows that I always remember you in my prayers. He is the One I serve with my whole heart by spreading the good news about His Son.

10And I always ask that, if it is God's will, I may at last find a way to come to you.

11I long to see you, so that I may share with you a spiritual gift to make you strong —

12or rather, so that you and I may encourage each other through our shared faith.

13Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that I planned many times to come to you, but until now I have been kept from it. I wanted to see good results among you, as I have among the other nations.

14I have a duty to everyone — to Greeks and to those who are not Greeks, to the wise and to the foolish.

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

16I am not ashamed of the good news, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes — first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

17For in the good news, God shows how He makes people right with Himself, a rightness that is by faith from start to finish. As the Scripture says: The person who is right with God will live by faith.

18The anger of God is shown from heaven against all the godlessness and evil of people who hold back the truth by their evil.

19They know what can be known about God, because God has made it plain to them.

20Ever since God made the world, His invisible qualities — His eternal power and His divine nature — have been clearly seen. People understand them from the things God has made. So people have no excuse.

21Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give Him thanks. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their foolish hearts became dark.

22They claimed to be wise, but they became fools.

23They traded the glory of the God who never dies for images that look like people, who do die, and like birds, animals, and reptiles.

24So God let them go after the sinful desires of their hearts, which led to shameful things done with their bodies.

25They traded the truth of God for a lie, and they worshiped and served created things instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26Because of this, God let them go after shameful desires. Even the women traded natural relations for unnatural ones.

27In the same way, the men stopped having natural relations with women and burned with desire for one another. Men did shameful things with men, and they suffered in themselves the punishment they deserved for their wrong.

28Since they did not think it worthwhile to keep knowing God, God let them go after their worthless thinking, so that they did what they should not do.

29They became full of every kind of evil, sin, greed, and hate. They were full of jealousy, murder, fighting, lying, and meanness. They were gossips,

30those who say evil things about others, haters of God, rude, proud, and boastful. They thought up new ways to do evil. They disobeyed their parents.

31They were senseless, they broke their promises, they had no love, and they showed no mercy.

32They know God's just rule, that those who do such things deserve death. Yet they not only keep doing them, but they also approve of others who do them.