ACC ~ Romans 1 v28

THE FANTASY THAT GOD WOULD LOOK THE OTHER WAY. AMBROSIASTER: Because of the error of idolatry they were handed over to doing evil things with each other, as has already been said. And because they thought they could get away with it and that God would look the other way, and were therefore prone to neglect what they were doing, Paul adds here that they were more and more reduced to idiocy and became ever readier to tolerate all kinds of evils, to the point that they imagined that God would never avenge things which no one doubted were offensive to humanity as well. He now lists all the evils that were added to these, so that if they should be converted to normal reason, they might recognize that these evils befell them because of God’s wrath. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

NOT FROM IGNORANCE BUT PRACTICE. CHRYSOSTOM: Here too Paul shows that the heathen were responsible for their own sins, and he deprives them of all excuse. For he says that their evil deeds did not come from ignorance but from willful practice. This is why he did not say “because they did not know God,” but rather “they did not see fit to acknowledge God.” In other words, their sin was one of a perverted determination of obstinacy more than of a sudden ravishment, and it was not in the flesh (as some hereticssay) but in the mind, to whose wicked lust the sins belonged and from which the fount of evils flowed. For if the mind becomes undiscerning, everything else is dragged off course and overturned. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 5.

PERNICIOUS LUSTS. AUGUSTINE: Whoever follows the pernicious attractiveness of his lusts and tries to push aside those who would stop him heads straight into sin. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 6.

GIVEN OVER TO A BASE MIND. PELAGIUS: Not only did they not know God, they did not want to know him. … So they were given over to a base mind. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

DENYING THE CREATOR. THEODORET OF CYR: If they had wanted to know him, they would have followed the divine laws. But because they denied their Creator, he stopped looking after them. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

GOD DOES NOT UNILATERALLY DESTROY ANYONE. GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: Paul does not say that God destroyed them because of their loathsome outrages. For God is not responsible for destroying anyone. … Paul says rather that God went away from them and left them to their own devices, so that their false understanding of God might appear to be the cause of their evil life. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

Rom