"Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen” (Romans 1:24-25)

By nature God created us to be in fellowship from the beginning, as Adam and Eve enjoyed a close connection with God in the Garden of Eden. God places such importance on us knowing Him. He innately set this knowledge in our hearts.

God chose us and desires for us to choose Him, but He does not force it. If we do not recognize Him as God, He will allow us to choose our own direction in life. The power of choice is necessary for a solid relationship.

Previously in this chapter, Paul stresses that we have intuitive knowledge of God (Rom. 1:19). He made this knowledge known to direct us to Him, but it also prevents us from sinning because the knowledge of God will counter these desires when recognizing His will above our own.

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles" (Romans 1:21-23)

Since God has revealed Himself to us from the beginning, it forces us to make a choice. We can either glorify Him as God or we can choose to walk away. Paul describes this dilemma from the very beginning of time. Our track record is that we chose not to acknowledge God so our thinking became frivolous and impractical. The result was a foolish, dark, and hard heart concerning God.

This condition of a hardened heart is a process. If we claim to be wise without recognizing God as the sovereign creator of all things, we are fools. This leads to looking to other things to satisfy our deep needs. It’s a sad day when we exchange the glory of God for made-made idols.

It is easy to look at this and think that we would never make and worship idols such as primitive civilizations did. But as our society progresses, so do our idols. According to Timothy Keller, in his book Counterfeit Gods, an idol “is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” ¹ Modern-day idols are just as prevalent but more disguised. Work, money, family, and material possessions have the potential to be idols. Everything and anything we exalt above God is the modern day idol.