Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans John Calvin
John Calvin they ought alone to have honored and worshipped, and from whom it was not right to take away any thing, no, not even the least."
26. God therefore gave them up, etc. After having introduced as it were an intervening clause, he returns to what he had before stated respecting the judgment of God: and he brings, as the first example, the dreadful crime of unnatural lust; and it hence appears that they not only abandoned themselves to beastly lusts, but became degraded beyond the beasts, since they reversed the whole order of nature. He then enumerates a long catalogue of vices which had existed in all ages, and then prevailed everywhere without any restraint.
It is not to the purpose to say, that every one was not laden with so great a mass of vices; for in arraigning the common baseness of men, it is proof enough if all to a man are constrained to acknowledge some faults. So then we must consider, that Paul here records those abominations which had been common in all ages, and were at that time especially prevalent everywhere; for it is marvelous how common then was that filthiness which even brute beasts abhor; and some of these vices were even popular. And he recites a catalogue of vices, in some of which the whole race of man were involved; for though all were not murderers, or thieves, or adulterers, yet there were none who were not found polluted by some vice or another. He calls those disgraceful passions, which are shameful even in the estimation of men, and redound to the dishonoring of God.
27. Such a reward for their error as was meet. They indeed deserved to be blinded, so as to forget themselves, and not to see any thing befitting them, who, through their own malignity, closed their eyes against the light offered them by God, that they might not behold his glory: in short, they who were not ashamed to extinguish, as much as they could, the glory of God, which alone gives us light, deserved to become blind at noonday.
28. And as they chose not, etc. There is an evident comparison to be observed in these words, by which is strikingly set forth the just relation between sin and punishment. As they chose not to continue in the knowledge of God, which alone guides our minds to true wisdom, the Lord gave them a perverted mind, which can choose nothing that is right. 53 And by
53There is a correspondence between the words {οὐκ} {ἐδοκίμασαν} — they did not approve, or think worthy, and {ἀδόκιμον} — unapproved, or worthless, which is connected with {νοῦν}, mind. The verb means to try or prove a thing, as metal by fire, then to distinguish between what is genuine or otherwise, and also to approve of what is good and valuable. To approve or think fit or worthy seems to be the meaning here. Derived from this verb is {ἀδόκιμος}, which is applied to unapproved or adulterated money, — to men unsound, not able to bear the test, not genuine as Christians, 2 Corinthians 13:5, — to the earth that is unfit to produce fruits, Hebrews 6:8. The nearest alliteration that can perhaps be presented is the following, "And as they did not deem it worth while to acknowledge God, God delivered them up to a worthless mind," that is, a mind unfit to discern between right and wrong. Beza gives this meaning, "Mentem omnis judicii expertem — a mind void of all judgment." Locke's "unsearching mind," and Macknight's "unapproving mind," and Doddridge's "undiscerning mind," do not exactly convey the right idea, though the last comes nearest to it. It is an unattesting mind, not capable of bringing things to the test — {δοκίμιον} not able to distinguish between things of the most obvious nature. "To acknowledge God" is literally "to have God in recognition {τὸν} {θεὸν} {ἔχειν} {ἐν} {ἐπιγνώσει}." Venema says, that this is a purely Greek idiom, and adduces passages from Herodotus and Xenophon; from the first, the following phrase, {ἐν} {αλογίῃ} {ἔχειν} — to