** The Letter to the Romans **
[Romans 1] {1:1} Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called as an Apostle, separated for the Gospel of God, {1:2} which he had promised beforehand, through his Prophets, in the Holy Scriptures, {1:3} about his Son, who was made for him from the offspring of David according to the flesh,
{1:4} the Son of God, who was predestined in virtue according to the Spirit of sanctification from the resurrection of the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ,
{1:5} through whom we have received grace and Apostleship, for the sake of his name, for the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, {1:6} from whom you also have been called by Jesus Christ: {1:7} To all who are at Rome, the beloved of God, called as saints. Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. {1:8} Certainly, I give thanks to my God, through Jesus Christ, first for all of you, because your faith is being announced throughout the entire world. {1:9} For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit by the Gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I have kept a remembrance of you {1:10} always in my prayers, pleading that in some way, at some time, I may have a prosperous journey, within the will of God, to come to you. {1:11} For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you a certain spiritual grace to strengthen you, {1:12} specifically, to be consoled together with you through that which is mutual: your faith and mine. {1:13} But I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, (though I have been hindered even to the present time) so that I might obtain some fruit among you also, just as also among the other Gentiles. {1:14} To the Greeks and to the uncivilized, to the wise and to the foolish, I am in debt. {1:15} So within me there is a prompting to evangelize to you also who are at Rome. {1:16} For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation for all believers, the Jew first, and the Greek. {1:17} For the justice of God is revealed within it, by faith unto faith, just as it was written: “For the just one lives by faith.” {1:18} For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven over every impiety and injustice among those men who fend off the truth of God with injustice. {1:19} For what is known about God is manifest in them. For God has manifested it to them.
{1:20} For unseen things about him have been made conspicuous, since the creation of the world, being understood by the things that were made; likewise his everlasting virtue and divinity, so much so that they have no excuse. {1:21} For although they had known God, they did not glorify God, nor give thanks. Instead, they became weakened in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was obscured. {1:22} For, while proclaiming themselves to be wise, they became foolish. {1:23} And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of flying things, and of four-legged beasts, and of serpents. {1:24} For this reason, God handed them over to the desires of their own heart for impurity, so that they afflicted their own bodies with indignities among themselves. {1:25} And they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And they worshipped and served the creature, rather than the Creator, who is blessed for all eternity. Amen. {1:26} Because of this, God handed them over to shameful passions. For example, their females have exchanged the natural use of the body for a use which is against nature. {1:27} And similarly, the males also, abandoning the natural use of females, have burned in their desires for one another: males doing with males what is
disgraceful, and receiving within themselves the recompense that necessarily results from their error.
{1:28} And since they did not prove to have God by knowledge, God handed them over to a morally depraved way of thinking, so that they might do those things which are not fitting: {1:29} having been completely filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness; full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, spite, gossiping;
{1:30} slanderous, hateful toward God, abusive, arrogant, self-exalting, devisers of evil, disobedient to parents,
{1:31} foolish, disorderly; without affection, without fidelity, without mercy. {1:32} And these, though they had known the justice of God, did not understand that those who act in such a manner are deserving of death, and not only those who do these things, but also those who consent to what is done.
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