Romans 1:3-29

³concerning his Son who was a descendant of David according to the flesh.

⁴Through the Spirit of holiness he was declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

⁵Through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience of faith among all the nations, for the sake of his name.

⁶Among these nations, you also have been called to belong to Jesus Christ.

⁷This letter is to all who are in Rome, the beloved of God, who are called to be holy people. May grace be 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 throughout the whole world.

⁹For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, of how continually I make mention of you.

¹⁰I always request in my prayers that by any means I may at last be successful now by the will of God in coming to you.

¹¹For I desire to see you, that I may give you some spiritual gift, in order to strengthen you.

¹²That is, I long to be mutually encouraged among you, through each other's faith, yours and mine.

¹³Now I do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, that I often intended to come to you, (but I was hindered until now), in order to have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles.

¹⁴I am a debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish.

¹⁵So, as for me, I am ready to proclaim the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

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

¹⁷For in it God's righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, as it has been written, “The righteous will live by faith.”

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people, who through unrighteousness hold back the truth.

¹⁹This is because that which is known about God is visible to them. For God has enlightened them.

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

²¹This is because, although they knew about God, they did not glorify him as God, nor did they give him thanks. Instead, they became foolish in their thoughts, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

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

²³They exchanged the glory of the imperishable God for the likenesses of an image of perishable man, of birds, of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things.

²⁴Therefore God gave them over to the lusts of their hearts for uncleanness, for their bodies to be dishonored among themselves.

²⁵It is they who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and who worshiped and served the creation instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

²⁶Because of this, God gave them over to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that were unnatural.

²⁷Likewise, the men also left their natural relations with women and burned in their lust for one another. These were men who committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the penalty they deserved for their error.

²⁸Because they did not approve of having God in their awareness, he gave them up to a depraved mind, for them to do those things that are not proper.

²⁹They have been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, and malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and evil intentions. They are gossips,