1I, Paul, am writing this letter. I serve Christ Jesus. I have been appointed to be an apostle. God set me apart to tell others his good news.2He promised the good news long ago. He announced it through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.3The good news is about God’s Son. He was born into the family line of King David.4By the Holy Spirit, he was appointed to be the mighty Son of God. God did this by raising him from the dead. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.5We received grace because of what Jesus did. He made us apostles to the Gentiles. We must invite all of them to obey God by trusting in Jesus. We do this to bring glory to him.6You also are among those Gentiles who are appointed to belong to Jesus Christ.7I am sending this letter to all of you in Rome. You are loved by God and appointed to be his holy people. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
Paul longs to visit Rome
8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. People all over the world are talking about your faith.9I serve God with my whole heart. I preach the good news about his Son. God knows that I always remember you10in my prayers. I pray that now at last it may be God’s plan to open the way for me to visit you.11I long to see you. I want to make you strong by giving you a gift from the Holy Spirit.12I want us to encourage one another in the faith we share.13Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that I planned many times to visit you. But until now I have been kept from coming. My work has produced results among the other Gentiles. In the same way, I want to see results among you.14I have a duty both to Greeks and to non-Greeks. I have a duty both to wise people and to foolish people.15So I really want to preach the good news also to you who live in Rome.16I want to preach it because I’m not ashamed of the good news. It is God’s power to save everyone who believes. It is meant first for the Jews. It is meant also for the Gentiles.17The good news shows God’s power to make people right with himself. God’s power to be made right with him is given to the person who has faith. It happens by faith from beginning to end. It is written, ‘The one who is right with God will live by faith.’ (Hab 2:4)
God’s anger against sinners
18God shows his anger from heaven. It is against all the godless and evil things people do. They are so evil that they say no to the truth.19The truth about God is plain to them. God has made it plain.20Ever since the world was created it has been possible to see the qualities of God that are not seen. I’m talking about his eternal power and about the fact that he is God. Those things can be seen in what he has made. So people have no excuse for what they do.21They knew God. But they didn’t honour him as God. They didn’t thank him. Their thinking became worthless. Their foolish hearts became dark.22They claimed to be wise. But they made fools of themselves.23They would rather have statues of gods than the glorious God who lives for ever. Their statues of gods are made to look like people, birds, animals and reptiles.24So God let them go. He allowed them to do what their sinful hearts wanted to. He let them commit sexual sins. They made one another’s bodies impure by what they did.25They chose a lie instead of the truth about God. They worshipped and served created things. They didn’t worship the Creator. But he is praised for ever. Amen.26So God let them continue to have their shameful desires. Their women committed sexual acts that were not natural.27In the same way, the men turned away from their natural love for women. They burned with sexual desire for each other. Men did shameful things with other men. They suffered in their bodies for all the wrong things they did.28They didn’t think it was important to know God. So God let them continue to have evil thoughts. They did things they shouldn’t do.29They are full of every kind of sin, evil and ungodliness. They want more than they need. They commit murder. They want what belongs to other people. They fight and cheat. They hate others. They say mean things about other people.30They tell lies about them. They hate God. They are rude and proud. They boast. They think of new ways to do evil. They don’t obey their parents.31They do not understand. They can’t be trusted. They are not loving and kind.32They know that God’s commands are right. They know that those who do evil things should die. But they continue to do those very things. They also approve of others who do them.
Romans 1
English Standard Version
Greeting
1Paul, a servant[1] of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, (Ac 13:2; 1Co 1:1; 1Co 9:1; 2Co 1:1; Ga 1:10; Heb 5:4)2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, (Lu 1:70; Ro 3:21; Ro 16:26; Tit 1:2)3concerning his Son, who was descended from David[2] according to the flesh (Mt 1:1; Ga 4:4)4and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, (Ac 10:38; Ac 13:33; Ac 26:23; 2Co 13:4; Eph 1:19; Php 3:10)5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, (Ac 1:25; Ac 6:7; Ac 9:15; Ro 6:16; Ro 12:3; Ro 15:15; Ro 15:18; Ro 16:26; 1Pe 1:2)6including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, (Ro 8:28; Ro 8:30; Re 17:14)7To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1Co 1:3)
Longing to Go to Rome
8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. (Ro 6:17; Ro 16:19; 1Co 1:4; Eph 1:15; Php 1:3; Php 4:6; Col 1:3; 1Th 1:8; 2Ti 1:3)9For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you (Ac 24:14; Ro 9:1; 2Co 1:23; 2Co 11:10; 2Co 11:31; Php 1:8; 1Th 2:5; 1Th 2:10; 2Ti 1:3)10always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. (Ro 15:32; 1Th 3:10)11For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— (Ac 19:21; Ro 15:22)12that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. (2Pe 1:1)13I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,[3] that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. (Joh 4:36; Ac 19:21; Ro 15:22; Php 4:17; 1Th 2:18)14I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians,[4] both to the wise and to the foolish. (Ac 28:2; 1Co 9:16)15So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (Ro 2:5; Ro 5:9; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6)19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. (Ac 14:17; Ac 17:24; Ro 2:14)20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[7] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Ps 19:1; Jer 5:21)21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (2Ki 17:15; Jer 2:5; Eph 4:17)22Claiming to be wise, they became fools, (Jer 10:14; 1Co 1:20)23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (De 4:16; Ps 106:20; Jer 2:11; Ac 17:29; 1Ti 1:17)24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, (Ro 1:26; Ro 1:28; Eph 4:19; 1Th 4:4)25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Isa 28:15; Isa 44:19; Jer 10:14; Am 2:4; Ro 9:5; 2Th 2:11)26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; (Ro 1:24; Ro 1:28; Col 3:5; 1Th 4:5)27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Le 18:22; Le 20:13)28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. (Jer 6:30; Ro 1:24; Ro 1:26; Eph 5:4)29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.32Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Lu 11:48; Ac 8:1; Ac 22:20; Ro 2:26; Ro 6:21; Ro 8:4; 1Co 13:6; 2Th 2:12)