²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. ²⁵ For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Spiraling downward, neglecting God, and not giving Him gratitude lead to living a lie. Like a ship without an anchor drifts onto the rocks, life without God drifts into spiritual destruction. This is not about whether we give mental assent to God’s existence, but whether we place Him at the center of our lives, honored and appreciated as the Originator of our existence, the Cause of our being. Any attempt at living without God as central to life is destined for spiritual and moral disintegration.

We were created with a built-in reflex to worship; this reflects an inherent attribute of being created in God’s image. When He is removed, the “image-bearing-ness” is left void, and as a result we desperately try to fill that vacuum. We are created to worship, and we will worship something, if not God. So our passage speaks of the Lord giving “them over … to impurity.” That is the way He designed things. Without God there is no moral restraint in how we go about our worship, and so our lusts run unabated. That which we worship is that which we think we cannot live without, that which defines our reason for living and therefore controls our thoughts and behaviors. The longings (“desires of our heart”) need to be filled with something, but nothing else will satisfy; nothing other than God will give us a lasting or existential sense of meaning. Augustine said it well: “Thou hast made us for thyself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

How ironic that when we reject the One who created us, we would set about dishonoring our bodies. This means using our bodies as our servants to satisfy ourselves rather than using our bodies to glorify God (a theme Paul returns to in Romans 6:13). There is a shift in our allegiance, from worshiping our Creator to worshiping what He created. That’s like honoring the painting but rejecting the artist.

The absurdity is phrased in stark terms: “they exchange the truth of God for a lie.” When we put anything as central in our lives in place of God, we begin to live a lie, whether fame, fortune, or friends; whether prestige, privilege, or performance. Whatever it is that we think we cannot live without has supplanted the place of the One without whom we would not even be alive.

Lord, I desire You as the center of my life, and not my own desires that lead to the spiral of destruction.