You do you and see what happens
You do you and see what happens.
08 Romans 1.28-32
Have you heard the term, “You do you?” Man, I have, and in today's world, we hear it all the time. A Lot of times we hear it said, “You do you and let me be me, and we will all be happy.” When we live this way, most of the time we will fail to live God's way. What happens when we don’t live God’s way? Find out on this episode of The Grafted Podcast… You do you and see what happens.
The last episode we talked about Romans 1.16-18. About how we should not suppress the good news, but instead, we need to embrace and be shamelessly confident in it. This is because it’s the power of God, and it brings us into a relationship that leads us into eternal life in heaven.
This episode we are looking at Romans 1.28-32 and what happens for those who don’t acknowledge or have faith in God.
Verses 19 - 27 talk about how God has made himself known to everyone through the very beginning when He created the world and made everything. Specifically, with the Jews, who knew God, they decided in their heart that honoring and thanking God was foolish. They started following after idols, dishonorable passions and gave up the truth of God for a lie. Being the chosen people of God, the Jews had no real excuses for turning their back on God.
This is where we pick up in Romans 1:28-32
And 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. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though 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.
Remember we talked about the wrath of God that was revealed against ungodliness, unrighteousness, and for those who suppress the truth in verse 18. Three times Paul mentions how God gave them up in verses 24, 26, and 28. I believe Paul mentions this the way he does, to help remind the Roman church that they can have a relationship with God because the Jews turned away from Him.
The Jews failed to acknowledge, give recognition to, and follow after God. Instead, they chose to challenge the qualifications of God to see if He was a god of their liking. They got too big for their britches when they decided to put themselves above God. They chose to reject God saying, “God, just let me be me.” Therefore, God allowed them to do it and gave them up to their own ways.
God gave them up…
Now, I know there are a lot of people out there who read this verse and get hung up on where it says, “God gave them up….” or where The New Living Translation says, “He abandoned them.” Many people read this part and think that God gave up on or abandoned the Jews. This does not mean that at all. God never gave up on the Jews, nor does He abandon anyone. He does, however, allow people to go their own way. These words “gave them up”, or as the NLT says “abandoned,” are actually one Greek word, paradidomi. Paradidomi actually means to hand over, yield up, surrender, give over, and deliver. The Jews basically said, “God, we can do this on our own and we don’t need you.” So, God allowed them, and many people today, to follow after themselves because He has given everyone free will. “Free Will” is a theological topic that we are not going to get into on this episode because it's a theological can of worms that we will save for a future episode.
We know that God hasn’t given up on the Jews or anyone for that matter, because if he did, He would not have sent Jesus as the final sacrifice for sin.
Think about this from the standpoint of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It is found in Luke 15:11-32. A father had two sons. The younger of the two asked the father for his part of the inheritance. So the father divided the inheritance between the two brothers and gave the younger his share. When he received his share, he packed up and moved away. He ended up gambling all his money away on wild living. Then a famine came and the young son began to starve. He started looking for odd jobs and became a farmhand. He noticed that the slop he was feeding the pigs was better than what he was eating, or even getting paid for that matter. When he came to his senses, he realized that his father’s servants have plenty of food and are taken care of, but he was dying of hunger. So the young son returned home to ask his father to hire him as a servant. But his father, when he saw him, was filled with love and compassion and went out to meet his son. The son, knowing all he had done in separating himself from his father, asked his father for forgiveness and if he could be a servant in his father’s house. But instead, the father reinstated the young son, not as a servant, but back into the family. The son went from being lost to being found and was fully restored back to his rightful place in the family.
That is kinda what God was doing here with the Jews. God protected the Jews not only from themselves but from others as well. But when they chose to reject God, He allowed them to go away to do their own thing and to live the way they wanted. He gave them over to the way they wanted to live. But what did they do to make God hand them over to themselves?
What did they do?
What did they do that was so bad? What made God want to let them go their own way?
I believe the key to this is found in verses 21 - 22, & 25.
Vs 21-22: For 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. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
Vs. 25: because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,
This leads us into the first part of vs 28,
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,”
This is what is scary about the “You Do You” culture. It's a slippery slope. Where is the line drawn? Is it God’s law, governmental law, cultural norms, or ourselves?
The Jews knew God and were not ignorant. After all, God chose them as His people and showed himself to them. Even while knowing their own history of how God brought them out of slavery to become a mighty nation, they chose to go their own way. They traded their knowledge and relationship with God, to follow their own dishonorable passions. Instead of following the ways of God, they chose to follow the ways of the world. Basically, they wanted a God that they could control, who would approve of what they wanted. Their decision led them to have debased minds which meant they did what should not have been done. They failed to live up to God's standard, so they disqualified themselves.
As they rejected God, their thinking and behavior also changed. They became unethical and immoral as they violated God’s standards. They lost their ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
The Jews didn’t turn away from God all at once. It was a progression over time. They all started with the knowledge of God. But over time, they became entitled to what they were given, and eventually stopped acknowledging God as the one who provided for and protected them.
This led Paul to introduce a list of behaviors that people were doing that was against God’s standard. These weren't just things the Jews were doing but were things that were going on around the entire Roman empire at the time.
They changed their thinking which caused their hearts to become dark (v21)
They traded the true God for false idols (v22)
They had impure hearts and dishonored their bodies (v24)
They exchanged the Truth of God for the lies of the world (v25)
They practiced homosexuality (vs 26 & 27)
They filled themselves with every kind of ungodliness which 21 of those things Paul listed in vs 29 - 31.
Unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
All of this sounds a lot like what’s going on in the world today. Just spend 5 minutes watching the news or looking at social media and we can see all of these things that Paul mentioned.
Let their Conscience be the Guide
Now let's look at the first part of verse 32:
They know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die.
For the Jews, they knew God’s laws. And they knew the consequences of breaking those laws. This is something they were taught from a very young age. Many of the things the Jews were doing that Paul listed, broke the law and the penalty was death. Paul listed some of them which include Idolatry (Deut 17:2-5), encourage others to go after other gods (Deut 13:12-15), disobedient children (Deut 21:18-21), homosexuality (Lev 20:13), adulterers (Lev 20:10), and Murderers (Num 35:16). This is just to name a few. Many of these things people today see as being a minor offense, or no offense at all. But what we should note is that the penalty in the Old Testament was death for committing some of these offenses. That means that God must take them a lot more seriously than we do today. Even Paul himself was guilty of some of these things before becoming a Christian when he was a pharisee. Paul even testified against himself in the stoning of Steven in Acts 22:20 for approving and watching as Stephen was stoned to death.
Giving Approval
This leads us into the second half of verse 32.
“…, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
Rebellion from God quickly becomes a lifestyle for people who continue in it. Like with the things Paul mentions in these verses. That is what happened with the Jews. Their conscience became perverted. If they began to agree at all with God’s standard for their lives that would mean they would have to change their ways and repent. So what did they do? They encouraged others to live a life contrary to God’s standard. They couldn’t silence their own conscience, so they made themselves feel better when they approved of others doing what they were doing. This also increased their sense of security.
This reminds me of when kids get caught doing something they know they shouldn’t. For example, My wife, Bethany, used to babysit. One time she was babysitting two boys. Their mom told them they were not allowed to have any more gummy bears, and she told Bethany that as well. Bethany was sitting on the couch when she saw the reflection on the tv of the boys running behind her into the kitchen. As they were getting into the gummy bear jar one of them whispered loud enough for Bethany to hear, “Bethany is going to catch us!” And the other responded, “No she won't.” Then with their hands full of gummy bears they ran behind the couch again, when Bethany quickly popped up and said, “CAUGHT YA!”
As humans, we inherently know when we do something wrong. When we do something wrong it brings a sense of guilt and shame. But when it becomes a lifestyle for us, we don’t want to change or stop what we are doing. When it comes to living a lifestyle that is against God’s standards, it results in going down a spiritual path that leads to eternal destruction. And will be found out when we stand before God on the Day of Judgement.
When we make choices, whether good or bad, we usually want to reinforce that decision. What happens when we urge others to make the same choice, even when we are not 100% sure about our decision. That is what helps us feel secure about what we decided to do.
Think about it. I bet all of us have made a choice of some sort, good or bad, that we were not 100% sure about. I know I have. Just to keep things on a level playing field, let's use getting a new cell phone carrier as our example. You used one carrier, but they changed their prices, don’t have good coverage in your area, or their customer service is just horrible. So you start looking for a new carrier. You ask around and do your research. There are mixed reviews about each carrier, pros and cons, and you end up picking the one with the best offer. Once you make that decision, you mention to a few people that you changed carriers. You might even know someone looking to switch so you tell them about which carrier you chose.
This happens with a lot of decisions we make in life, especially when we are looking for places to live, where to go to school, what car to buy if we should look for a new job, who to marry, what church we go to. There are so many times we make decisions and choices.
Some people even make extremely dangerous decisions for the sake of “fun.” They say to themselves, “I know it’s dangerous, but it’s worth the risk.” Like those parkour guys who jump from one rooftop to another in the most creative way possible. At any moment, they could mess up, fall, and get hurt or even killed.
Where the real issues start happening is when we are starting to make life decisions that go against God’s standards. Some of which Paul mentions here in vs 18-32, you can read those for yourself. This is when people start saying, “I know it's wrong, but I really want to.” For some people, knowing that it's against God’s law, the morals of the community, or against common sense makes it all the more fun.
When people start using their own sense of right and wrong, they become fiercely defensive about their ways. People who are rebelling against God have a lot at stake. If they agree in any way shape or form with God in their lives, it would require them to repent and change. So they go running the opposite way and forcefully, sometimes destructively, defend their actions.
I know this lady who grew up in a somewhat of a Christian home. Her parents claim Christianity and she has some knowledge of God. But when she got to the age where she could make her own decisions, she decided to go down her own path in life. She has turned away from God, drinks heavily, smokes pot, is active in the LGBTQ community, she practices tarot card reading and witchcraft. Here decisions have hurt her own family and friends. So to make herself feel better about her decisions she encourages others to do the things she is doing. And anyone that doesn’t agree with her lifestyle, she immediately cuts them out of her life and calls them Bigots. This is funny because the definition of Bigot is a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion. Of which she is exceedingly intolerant of anyone who has any different beliefs, values, or opinions from her. She has turned her back on God to go her own way, and she believes that only her way is right. And essentially, she has traded her soul for the world, and if she doesn’t turn to God she will end up spending eternity in a place she doesn’t want to go. This is the danger of the "you do you" culture that we live in today.
The Good news
Now, I know this episode seems to be doom and gloom so far. Where is the encouraging part about all of this?
The encouragement comes when we realize that nobody is ever too far away from God. Regardless of how far from God a person is or what all they have done, if they turn to Him, ask for forgiveness and have faith in Christ, they will be accepted into the family of God with open arms. Just like with the Parable of the Lost Son. It doesn’t matter if a person has broken every last one of God’s laws, if they come to God as the lost son did with his father, God will throw their sins as far as the east is from the west as he forgives them of all of their offenses.
We will look at more encouraging aspects of Paul’s letter to the Romans in upcoming episodes.
Review
So let's recap. While God will never give up on someone, he will however allow them to go their own way, and to live the way they want to live. Looking at the example Paul used, through the Jews actions, we see that they decided to go their own way, follow the ways of the world which would eventually lead to suffering the consequences of their actions. They lived the “You do you” lifestyle. Then to help themselves feel better they encouraged people to do the same things they were doing.
Today as Christians, we should be using Paul's example in Romans 1:28-32 to live for Christ, stay on the right track with God, and do our best to live up to his standards through our faith in Jesus.
Growth Points
Was there a time in your life where you failed to acknowledge and follow after God?
Have you ever had to let someone learn a lesson the hard way, almost like you had given up on them? If so, Why? Was it because you stopped caring, or because you stopped hoping that change was possible, or simply because you knew they had to find out for themselves?
Does life without God look like freedom to you?
Think of people you know who are not living up to God’s standards. Take a few minutes to pray for them. Ask God how you can impact their lives and help them see that God’s way is the only way.
