The Twelve Apostles

¹² During those days he went out to the mountain to pray^(A) and spent all night in prayer to God. ¹³ When daylight came, he summoned his disciples,^(B) and he chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:^{(C) 14} Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; ¹⁵ Matthew and Thomas;^(D) James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; ¹⁶ Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

The Guilt of the Gentile World

¹⁸ For God’s wrath^(A) is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,^{(B) 19} since what can be known^[a] about God is evident among them,^(C) because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world,^(D) being understood through what he has made.^(E) As a result, people are without excuse. ²¹ For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.^{(F) 22} Claiming to be wise, they became fools^{(G) 23} and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.^(H)

²⁴ Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts^(I) to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth of God for a lie,^(J) and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever.^(K) Amen.

From Idolatry to Depravity

²⁶ For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions.^(L) Their women^[b] exchanged natural sexual relations^[c] for unnatural ones. ²⁷ The men^[d] in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men^(M) and received in their own persons^[e] the appropriate penalty of their error.

²⁸ And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. ²⁹ They are filled with all unrighteousness,^[f] evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,^{(N) 30} slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful,^(O) inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,^{(P) 31} senseless, untrustworthy, unloving,^[g](Q) and unmerciful. ³² Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die^[h](R)—they not only do them, but even applaud^[i](S) others who practice them.