Romans 1:28

Romans 1:28 says, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;  We do not have to listen hard today to hear people express the thought that there is no God.  Again, especially in my generation, there was the God is dead movement. There are definitely people today who don't even want to keep God in their knowledge.  Some feel they are just too smart to believe in what they call wishful thinking or a fairy tale.  We as God's followers may even have times when we don't want to retain Him in our thoughts.  If we start to stray from His will for our lives, we do not want to think about God.  Verse twenty-nine adds, Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,  Verse thirty continues, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,  Verse thirty-one states, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:  We should notice that the first thing on this long list of sinful actions is unrighteousness.  Since righteousness comes only from God, when we refuse to acknowledge Him, then we begin to fall deeper into sin. Sin affects every aspect of our lives.  We know today that sexual temptation is rampant in America especially, but right after this Paul lists wickedness and covetousness.  Some people today are just plainly wicked or evil, and we say they should be condemned, but what about those who covet?  We never really want to classify what we do as coveting, but we often desire what others have.  Without God, people become malicious and full of envy.  We do not generally take these sins as seriously as we do others but notice that Paul placed them before the next sin, which is murder.  Again, we often attempt to rate sins as big sins or little sins, which are not considered as bad.  We must remember though that the penalty for any sin is the same.  The list goes on and is not all inclusive, I'm sure.  We should note that disobedience to parents is listed ahead of unnatural affections.  I believe Paul's message to us is that without God, sin abounds in all things.  Verse thirty-two adds, Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. We cannot claim ignorance.  Knowing the judgment of God, we still not only rebel against Him, but we delight in those who do.  Just as an example, how often do we want to hear the latest gossip and enjoy the way it portrays another?  God expects us to honor Him in all things, and actions such as this does not.