Romans 1:27
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
The verse describes men leaving the natural sexual use of the woman and burning in mutual lust toward one another, men with men working what is shameful and receiving in themselves the fitting repayment of their error. It belongs to the sins of rejecting God's precepts, mercy, warnings and invitations and giving free rein to lust, sins for which the heathen came under judgment. When men persistently refuse to reform, God gives them over to their chosen sins, withdrawing divine restraint and His Spirit and abandoning them to blindness and to their own ways and self-will. Left thus, they are without power to control evil passions and without protection from Satan, so that stubbornness strengthened by Satan brings ruin and they reap what they have sown.
When parents or rulers neglect the duty of punishing iniquity, God takes the case in hand by withdrawing His restraining power in measure from agencies of evil and letting events take their natural course, so that a train of circumstances arises that punishes sin with sin. So it was when David as king and father left Amnon's crime unpunished and Amnon continued impenitent after two years of forbearance, and God did not restrain Absalom but permitted him to cut Amnon down to await the tribunal of the Judgment. When men use their influence to tempt one another away from truth, purity and holiness by shameful words and actions, they strengthen Satan's temptations against each other, and if they persist in irreligion without thorough conversion at the foot of the cross, their moral power grows weaker and weaker until the Spirit leaves them to carry out their own self-will, ending in ruin. God likewise leaves a person to follow the carnal promptings of his own mind when he disregards light about a harmful association, for keeping company that does not help morals or strengthen spirituality puts a person in the way of temptation, and persisting in it after warning brings abandonment to those impulses.
The verse describes the vile, corrupt indulgence practiced in the world just before the second appearing of Christ. Those who practice such habits must leave them forever if they place any value on health here and salvation hereafter, for when the habits have long been indulged self-control is lost and all the powers of body and mind are brought into subjection by Satan, so a determined effort is required to resist temptation and refuse the corrupt indulgence. Continuing in corrupt lust after repeated broken vows leaves a person to work his own ruin, with prayers unheard when God is asked to do what the person had power to do for himself. Such self-destruction forfeits eternal life, for those who destroy themselves and continue to abuse given health and life would not make right use of health and immortal life in God's everlasting kingdom, and the purity of heaven will never be marred by their society.
The verse is one specification in the whole first chapter of Romans that must be weighed, read until its particular meaning is grasped, and given in its full force. It reveals the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and women who hold the truth in unrighteousness against which the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, declares the condition of those who have failed to obey the truth in righteousness, and sets forth the true experience needed by families who claim to be sons and daughters of God. It applies to families having names on the church record who are not laborers together with God, charging fathers and mothers to seek the Lord and awaken to the strangely neglected work and responsibilities in home life that many households have left out of religious experience, a work that cannot be neglected without guilt. It charges ministers who preach the Word to be sanctified through belief of the truth and calls every family to be converted and cleansed from every species of iniquity through sanctifying grace in the home. Having a name on the record and knowledge of the truth does not cleanse, since claimed belief must sanctify the heart of the receiver rather than be denied by works, and those who hold the truth as supposed belief while denying it in works prove they do not understand this work.