¹⁸ But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, evil men who push away the truth from them. ¹⁹ For the truth about God is known to them instinctively;^[a] God has put this knowledge in their hearts. ²⁰ Since earliest times men have seen the earth and sky and all God made, and have known of his existence and great eternal power. So they will have no excuse when they stand before God at Judgment Day.^[b]

²¹ Yes, they knew about him all right, but they wouldn’t admit it or worship him or even thank him for all his daily care. And after a while they began to think up silly ideas of what God was like and what he wanted them to do. The result was that their foolish minds became dark and confused. ²² Claiming themselves to be wise without God, they became utter fools instead. ²³ And then, instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they took wood and stone and made idols for themselves, carving them to look like mere birds and animals and snakes and puny^[c] men.

²⁴ So God let them go ahead into every sort of sex sin, and do whatever they wanted to—yes, vile and sinful things with each other’s bodies. ²⁵ Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they prayed to the things God made, but wouldn’t obey the blessed God who made these things.