The Companion Bible note at this point is "before = in defiance of" and refers to

Genesis 6: 11 "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with

violence". So to have any other `god' instead of, or alongside the Creator is to be `in

defiance of' the true God, and assuredly leads to `corruption' and `violence' as a reading

of Rom. 1: makes clear. The same chapter of Romans also makes clear the awful result

of persistence in this defiance: "God gave them up".

In our last study we saw that the lie does not necessarily involve the outright rejection

of God as Creator, but does involve the worship of something from the created order

alongside God. This is rebellion, and leads inevitably on to `corruption' and `violence',

as a result of which `God gave them up'.

They `changed the truth of God into the lie', but those who did so, and do so, first

`hold the truth in unrighteousness' (Rom. 1: 18). The word for `hold' (katecho) may have

the significance of `hold fast' (e.g. I Cor. 15: 2 where it is translated `keep in memory'),

or to `hold down', `suppress', `restrain'. With the thought of `restrain' in mind, it is

particularly significant that after having spoken of some who `received not the love of the

truth', in the second epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul then continues (3: 1) to ask for

prayer that `the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified'. In such a

situation as that envisaged in the second chapter nothing must be allowed to restrain the

`word of the Lord'. And in the days in which we live we need to have particular care to

see that nothing is permitted to restrain the truth, for there are many areas in which the

Word of the Lord is both restrained, and suppressed. Further, as we recognize this

restraint and suppression the increase in violence and corruption in society today should

come as no surprise to us.

In the time of which Paul wrote in the first chapter of the Roman epistle, the restraint

upon the suppression of `the truth of God' resulted, as the A.V. puts it, in that truth being

`changed into a lie'. But can the truth ever be changed into a lie, or even the lie? The

word for `change' in verse 25 is a strong one meaning, perhaps, to exchange, or

thoroughly to change. It is seldom, in the strategy of Satan that there is an outright

exchange of the truth for his lie: he is far more subtle than that. Chapter 3: of Genesis

shows how he normally works with the truth, thoroughly changing, or perverting the truth

into his lie. He takes the truth, placing it in the context of his lie and altering its meaning.

It seems that it would be better to translate the phrase: "changed the truth in the lie".

It may well have been, as some suggest, that in the O.T. record of Baal worship, the

worshippers had been persuaded (as some would have us believe today) "we all worship

the same God. It's only the name which is different". With the result that the children of

Israel not only countenanced Baal worship in others, but adopted it themselves. We have