Romans 1:29-32 (NIV)
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

You should be a little taken back by the list of sins that Paul puts together. Paul places greed in between evil and depravity and then list gossip with slanderer and God-haters. One time I was preaching and I put my own list together as I was talking about dealing with sin in our lives. A man let me know that his sin should not be listed with the ones had I listed, since his wasn't really a sin like those sins. Never before then or after this incident has anyone been so honest to confront me about their being offended with such sin lists. All sin is sin, some sin brings more of a dire consequence, but all sin separates us form the fellowship of God.



In verse 32 we discover just how knowledgeable they really are with God's decree. They know it and then flaunt it. It is bad enough that they know it and disobey it, but they go around giving approval of those who practice such things. In the Message is said, "they hand out prizes for those who do such things." What can stop these things? It is the Gospel of God. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Do you believe it? Do you believe that the answer to the ills of mankind is the Gospel or is it the Gospel and something else? We need to really wrestle with this question? Your answer may surprise you. Your practice may surprise you more.