Study Desk

The people kept thinking that Paul would either swell up or suddenly drop dead. They watched him for a long time, and when nothing happened to him, they changed their minds and said, "This man is a god."

Some of the followers in Rome heard about us and came to meet us at the Market of Appius and at the Three Inns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and was encouraged.

Paul said, "You may be sure that God wants to save the Gentiles! And they will listen."

From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. God chose me to be an apostle, and he appointed me to preach the good news

This good news is about his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ! As a human, he was from the family of David. But the Holy Spirit proved that Jesus is the powerful Son of God, because he was raised from death.

This letter is to all of you in Rome. God loves you and has chosen you to be his very own people. I pray that God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace!

First, I thank God in the name of Jesus Christ for all of you. I do this because people everywhere in the world are talking about your faith.

God has seen how I never stop praying for you, while I serve him with all my heart and tell the good news about his Son.

In all my prayers, I ask God to make it possible for me to visit you.

The good news tells how God accepts everyone who has faith, but only those who have faith. It is just as the Scriptures say, "The people God accepts because of their faith will live."

From heaven God shows how angry he is with all the wicked and evil things that sinful people do to crush the truth.

They know everything that can be known about God, because God has shown it all to them.

God's eternal power and character cannot be seen. But from the beginning of creation, God has shown what these are like by all he has made. That's why those people don't have any excuse.

They know about God, but they don't honor him or even thank him. Their thoughts are useless, and their stupid minds are in the dark.

They don't worship the glorious and eternal God. Instead, they worship idols that are made to look like humans who cannot live forever, and like birds, animals, and reptiles.

So God let these people go their own way. They did what they wanted to do, and their filthy thoughts made them do shameful things with their bodies.

They gave up the truth about God for a lie, and they worshiped God's creation instead of God, who will be praised forever. Amen.

God let them follow their own evil desires. Women no longer wanted to have sex in a natural way, and they did things with each other that were not natural.

Since these people refused even to think about God, he let their useless minds rule over them. That's why they do all sorts of indecent things.

say cruel things about others, and hate God. They are proud, conceited, and boastful, always thinking up new ways to do evil. These people don't respect their parents.