Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
The extended passage this comes from started with Paul telling us that God has revealed Himself in the creation as the creator, specifically His eternal power and divine nature (Rom. 1:19-20). So people have no excuse for believing and living as if He did not exist.
Yet, Paul says, many have exchanged that truth for a lie. Instead of worshipping and serving God as their creator, they have worshipped and served the creation. God’s creation is good. But it should never take God’s rightful place in my life.
But it is not just the natural world that can take God’s place. We might exchange the truth of God for knowledge. Knowledge is good, but it should not become our master. We might exchange the truth of God for wealth, power, a job, family, possessions, or pleasure. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of them. But they can so easily take God’s rightful place in our lives. And in doing so, they become the gods we worship and serve.
Paul says here that when we exchange the truth of God for a lie, and begin to focus on the creation rather than the creator, He gives us up to impurity. He does not force us to worship and serve Him. But His giving us up leads to a downward spiral, with us focusing more and more on ourselves and the satisfaction of our own desires.
Not everyone will end up engaged in the sexual immorality that Paul refers to here and in the following verses. But when we turn away from the knowledge revealed in creation, and more specifically in Jesus and the Scriptures, and instead serve the creation rather than the creator, we have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And our lives will always be out of balance.
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