Romans 1:21
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Most Christians could never see themselves living a life of depravity. When God goes through a list of sins in this chapter, it truly seems to be a list that is attainable to the average Christian. Verse 27 shows that the end of depravity is when men leave the natural use of the woman and the woman leaves the natural use of the man, and their lust burns toward each other. In other words, the reprobate and depraved person becomes a sodomite.
God goes further and shows how these people live. Verses 29-31 says, “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:” This is a very bad list that most Christians who attend church could never see themselves doing. I believe we could likely say that most parents could never see their little child living this type of lifestyle. There is no doubt that a person who lives this way is a depraved person.
What is it that leads a person to live this type of life? God shows us the first step when He says, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God…” Notice the first step is simply not glorifying God. This first step leads to a second step where they become ungrateful towards God. Two steps that people commonly take today lead them to a life of depravity. That would seem to be so easy to avoid. Yet, many people today have not only taken the first step of not giving God the glory for everything in their life, but they have also taken the second step and stopped being thankful to God for everything.
What would lead a person to stop giving God the glory and become unthankful? One word: Pride! Pride causes a person to take the credit for what is done instead of giving all the credit to God. Pride causes a person not to thank God for helping them accomplish what they have accomplished in life because they want to receive the credit. It is one’s pride that leads to their eventual destruction. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” All it takes is for the Christian to start thinking more highly of themselves than they ought to think.
Let me ask you, have you already taken the first step towards depravity? Do you honestly give glory to God for EVERYTHING in your life? When you got a promotion on the job, did you give God the glory? When your ministry begins to grow, are you giving God the glory? The answer to this can be found in what others close to you say about the recent blessings. Do they say that only God could get the credit for what is happening in your life or ministry? They should!
Friend, you had better guard against pride. Always keep in mind that you should deflect all glory to God. When God blesses you, thank Him. It only takes one time of not giving God the glory to allow pride and unthankfulness to set in and the journey towards depravity begins. If you don’t want to end up living the depraved life then be careful to give God all the glory.