Romans 1:22-25 - Exchanged Truth for Lie

22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

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We Become Fools

Vs. 22 - Professing to be wise, they became fools,

“Professing to be wise” - That is: wiser than God. The height of arrogance is to decide human knowledge and reason is the ultimate end of what can be known or understood. Philosophers and scientists may choose to ignore God, but it is not without consequences.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day, “Science is Real”. Based on the other stickers on the vehicle, I am guessing the owner has decided God - or faith in God - is not real. There are several writers that have expounded on this subject far better than I can. (See: C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity”; Nancy Pearcey, “Total Truth”; Francis Schaefer, “How Should We Then Live”; R. M. Weaver, “Ideas Have Consequences”.)
Professing to be wise, many wise words and sayings have been written based on the belief man is the measure of all things. This “wisdom” leads us away from God, making it deadly.

“They became fools” - From Unger’s Bible Dictionary: The word fool “is used in Scripture with respect to moral more than intellectual deficiencies. The ‘fool’ is not so much one lacking mental powers, as one who misuses them; not one who does not reason, but reasons wrongly. In Scripture, the ‘fool’ by way of eminence, is the person who casts off the fear of God, and thinks and acts as if he could safely disregard the eternal principles of God’s righteousness. (Psa. 14:1; 92:6; Jer. 17:11; Pro. 14:9)” (See Note 1). This reminds me of the comedian Red Skelton. One of his ‘characters’ was the Mean Little Kid, who would say, “If if I dood [sic] this, I’ll get in trouble.” After a few seconds pause, “I’ll dood it anyway.” This type of unreasonableness can also be likened to: “Don’t confuse me with facts. My mind is made up.” The sense is the person knows the right thing to do, and rejects it in order to do as they please.
The word used here for ‘fool’ is similar to a Hebrew word meaning ‘rebel’, and similar to the Greek word from which we have derived ‘moron’.

Vs. 23 - and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

“Exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image...” - Worshipping an idol in lieu of Holy God. Most of the pagan gods were represented by a physical image - an animal, bird, person, or some combination of these. See the story of the “golden calf” (Exo. 32:4). Several other gods show up in scripture: Baal (1 Ki. 14:23; 2 Ki. 23:7); Dagon (Jud. 26:23-30; 1 Sam. 5:1-7); Ashtoreth (1 Ki. 11:5; Jud. 2:13; 2 Ki. 23:13). Often the worship of these false gods involved licentious behavior - substituting sex acts with a temple prostitute for the worship and relationship with God Almighty. Before we get all uppity, feeling superior to those pagan religions, realize that human nature has not changed. Now we worship ‘science”, ecology, nature, etc. For example, we idolize polar bears, spotted owls, snail darters; we bow to global warming, abortion, political power, etc. Some of these are images in the sense a representation of something that takes the place of worshiping God.
I just watched an interview with the famous author Orson Scott Card (“Ender’s Game”) in which he noted that everyone has a religion - it may be a belief in God, or some other god, or “science”. Many science fiction authors have their characters and world systems rejecting God Almighty - maybe not explicitly, but rejecting even so. Likewise, detective stories and murder mysteries seldom have a faith in God. They may believe in themselves and their personal prowess, but not in God.

Vs. 24 - Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

“gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity“ - Be careful of what you wish for; you may actually get it. Go to Exo 7:10-12:29, Pharaoh refused to listen to the requests to let the Israelites go. The common phrase is “Pharaoh hardened his heart”, and at least once the Lord hardened the heart. The Pharaoh was pre-disposed to rebel against the Lord’s commands. At some point, God lets him have his way. But that way leads to death (See: Exo. 11:29ff; 14:26-31)
For some reason, when we reject God our predilection is to give in to baser lusts: sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, parties, etc.

“their bodies would be dishonored” - It is reasonable to think that addiction to sex, alcohol or drugs is destructive to the body, or mind, or even the soul.

Vs. 25 - For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

“they exchanged the truth of God for a lie” - The Truth: God created us to have a loving relationship with Him. This is a two-way relationship - God loves us and cares for us. We can love and worship Him.

The lie: Humans don’t need God, and can get along very well - we can determine what is best for our bodies, our minds, our souls.
A line from the poem ‘Invictus‘ by W. E. Henley is often quoted to show fierce independence from God, “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul". It is to show resilience in the face of disaster, to defy an intractable and vengeful God. This saying only holds true for as long as you are alive. At some point in the future you must face the Lord God at His judgement seat. Your ‘captaincy’ or ‘mastery’ will determine the ultimate fate of your soul. “And as much as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgement.” (Heb 9:27) You have no control over what happens next. You face the Living God and the Lord Jesus Christ. If your ‘mastery’ meant you accepted Him as Lord and Savior, you spend eternity with Him in glory. If your ‘capataincy’ meant rejecting His freely offered gift of life, your fate is sealed and separated permanently from God. (See: Rev 20:11-15) No arguing. No debating. No bargaining. You have made a decision and you will live or die based on it. This is why professing to be wise is so scary. It may be said, “He chose poorly”, or better yet, “You have chosen wisely”. (See note 2)

Note 1: Unger, Merrill F.; “Unger’s Bible Dictionary”; Moody Press; 1966.
Note 2: From “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” ***