And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not proper;
All Commentaries on Romans 1:28 Go To Romans 1
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Lest he should seem to be hinting at them by delaying in his discourse so long over the unnatural sin, he next passes on to other kinds of sins also, and for this cause he carries on the whole of his discourse as of other persons. And as he always does when discoursing with believers about sins, and wishing to show that they are to be avoided, he brings the Gentiles in, and says, Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the other Gentiles which know not God. 1 Thessalonians 4:5 And again: sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 And so here too he shows that it was to them the sins belonged, and deprives them of all excuse. For he says, that their daring deeds came not of ignorance, but of practice. And this is why he did not say, and as they knew not God; but as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge; as much as to say, that the sin was one of a perverted determination of obstinacy, more than of a sudden ravishment, and shows that it was not the flesh (as some heretics say) but the mind, to the wicked lust whereof the sins belonged, and that it was thence the fount of the evils flowed. For since the mind has become undistinguishing, all else is then dragged out of course and overturned, when he is corrupted that held the reins! (Plat. Phaedr. 246 A. B.)
