Verse 25
Changed the truth of God into a lie - In the place of the true worship of God, they established idolatry. In various places of Scripture idols are termed lies. [Isa 44:20]; [Jer 10:14]; [Jer 13:25]. The true God was known among the primitive inhabitants of the earth, those who first became idolaters literally changed the truth of God into a lie: they did know the true God, but they put idols in his place.
Verse 26
For this cause God gave them up, etc. - Their system of idolatry necessarily produced all kinds of impurity. How could it be otherwise, when the highest objects of their worship were adulterers, fornicators, and prostitutes of the most infamous kind, such as Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, Venus, etc.? Of the abominable evils with which the apostle charges the Gentiles in this and the following verse I could produce a multitude of proofs from their own writings; but it is needless to make the subject plainer than the apostle has left it.
Verse 27
Receiving in themselves that recompense, etc. - Both the women and men, by their unnatural prostitutions, enervated their bodies, so that barrenness prevailed, and those disorders which are necessarily attendant on prostitution and sodomitical practices.
Verse 28
They did not like to retain God - It would, perhaps, be more literal to translate ουκ εδοκιμασαν, They Did Not Search to retain God in their knowledge. They did not examine the evidences before them ([Rom 1:19], [Rom 1:20]) of his being and attributes; therefore God gave them over to a Reprobate mind, εις αδοκιμον νουν, to an Unsearching or undiscerning mind; for it is the same word in both places. They did not reflect on the proofs they had of the Divine nature, and God abandoned them to the operations of a mind incapable of reflection. How men of such powers and learning, as many of the Greek and Roman philosophers and poets really were, could reason so inconsecutively concerning things moral and Divine is truly astonishing. But here we see the hand of a just and avenging God; they abused their powers, and God deprived them of the right use of these powers.
Verse 29
Being filled with all unrighteousness - αδικια, every vice contrary to justice and righteousness.
Fornication - Πορνειᾳ, all commerce between the sexes out of the bounds of lawful marriage. Some of the best MSS. omit this reading; and others have ακαθαρσιᾳ, uncleanness.
Wickedness - Πονηριᾳ, malignity, that which is oppressive to its possessor and to its object; from πονος, labor, toil, etc.
Covetousness - Πλεονεξιᾳ, from πλειον, more, and ἑξω, I will have; the intense love or lust of gain; the determination to be rich; the principle of a dissatisfied and discontented soul.
Maliciousness - Κακιᾳ, malice, ill-will; what is radically and essentially vicious.
Full of envy - Φθονου, from φθινω, to wither, decay, consume, pine away, etc.; "pain felt and malignity conceived at the sight of excellence or happiness in another." A fine personification of this vice is found in Ovid Metam. lib. ii. ver. 768-781, which I shall here insert, with Mr. Addison's elegant and nervous translation. - Videt intus edentem
Vipereas carnes, vitiorum alimenta suorum
Invidiam: visaque oculos avertit. At illa
Surgit humo pigra: semesarumque relinquit
Corpora serpentum, passuque incedit inerti.
Utgue deam vidit formaque armisque decoram,
Ingemuit: vultumque ima ad suspiria duxit.
Pallor in Ore sedet: macies in Corpore toto:
Nusquam recta acies: livent rubigine dentes:
Pectora felle virent: lingua est suffusa veneno.
Risus abest, nisi quem visi movere dolores:
Nec fruitur somno, vigilacibus excita curis:
Sed videt ingratos, intabescitque videndo
Successus hominum; carpitgue et carpitur una;
Suppliciumque suum est. - A poisonous morsel in her teeth she chewed,
And gorged the flesh of vipers for her food.
Minerva loathing, turned away her eye.
The hideous monster, rising heavily,
Came stalking forward with a sullen pace,
And left her mangled offals on the place.
Soon as she saw the goddess gay and bright,
She fetched a groan at such a cheerful sight.
Livid and meagre were her looks, her eye
In foul distorted glances turned awry;
A hoard of gall her inward parts possessed,
And spread a greenness o'er her canker'd breast;
Her teeth were brown with rust, and from her tongue
In dangling drops the stringy poison hung.
She never smiles but when the wretched weep;
Nor lulls her malice with a moment's sleep:
Restless in spite while watchful to destroy,
She pines and sickens at another's joy;