ACC ~ Romans 1 v26

NATURAL MALE-FEMALE SEXUALITY VALIDATED. TERTULLIAN: When Paul asserts that males and females changed among themselves the natural use of the creature into that which is unnatural, he validates the natural way. THE CHAPLET 6.

GIVING THEM UP TO GODLESSNESS. ORIGEN: This is the third time that the apostle uses the phrase “God gave them up.” Each time he gives reasons for this, but the reasons do not seem to correspond to the causes. … It is therefore better to take all three instances together and regard them as a single cause for the abandonment of men to their lusts. … And similarly, all of these lusts are found in every case of abandonment. … It seems that in these three points the apostle has enumerated every kind of godlessness—one group worships idols, another serves the creation instead of the Creator, and the third has refused to pay attention to God. The first group must be the pagans, the second group includes the wise men and philosophers, while in my opinion, the third group refers to the heretics who either deny God or utter different blasphemies against the Most High. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

DISHONORABLE PASSIONS. ORIGEN: Would those so condemned not have remained in the lusts of their hearts, even if they had not been given up to them by God? Would they not have fallen into dishonorable passions, even if they had not been given up to them by God? Would they not have fallen into an unfit mind quite apart from being given up to it by God? ON PRAYER 29.12.

WOMEN EXCHANGED NATURAL RELATIONS FOR UNNATURAL. AMBROSIASTER: Paul tells us that these things came about, that a woman should lust after another woman, because God was angry at the human race because of its idolatry. Those who interpret this differently do not understand the force of the argument. For what is it to change the use of nature into a use which is contrary to nature, if not to take away the former and adopt the latter, so that the same part of the body should be used by each of the sexes in a way for which it was not intended? Therefore, if this is the part of the body which they think it is, how could they have changed the natural use of it if they had not had this use given to them by nature? This is why he said earlier that they had been handed over to uncleanness, even though he did not explain in detail what he meant by that. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

TRUE PLEASURE ACCORDING TO NATURE. CHRYSOSTOM: No one can say that it was by being prevented from legitimate intercourse that they came to this pass or that it was from having no means to fulfill their desire that they were driven into this monstrous insanity. … What is contrary to nature has something irritating and displeasing in it, so that they could not even claim to be getting pleasure out of it. For genuine pleasure comes from following what is according to nature. But when God abandons a person to his own devices, then everything is turned upside down. Thus not only was their doctrine satanic, but their life was too. … How disgraceful it is when even the women sought after these things, when they ought to have a greater sense of shame than men have. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 4.

LEAVING PEOPLE TO THEIR OWN DEVICES. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: God gives no one up; the word is used only when he leaves people to their own devices. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

FORSAKING THE AUTHOR OF NATURE. PELAGIUS: Because of the reasons given above, they were abandoned to their disgraceful behavior. Those who turned against God turned everything on its head. For those who forsook the author of nature could not keep to the order of nature. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

WHAT THEY WANTED. OECUMENIUS: God gave them up because that is what they wanted. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

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