Romans 1:21

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Romans 1:19–23 · Berean Standard Bible

19 For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.

22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,

23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Greek words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Romans 1:19

For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

Romans 1:28

Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

John 3:19

And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.

Romans 15:9

so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise You among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to Your name.”

Psalms 50:23

He who sacrifices a thank offering honors Me, and to him who rights his way, I will show the salvation of God.”

Psalms 86:9

All the nations You have made will come and bow before You, O Lord, and they will glorify Your name.

Hosea 2:8

For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold— which they crafted for Baal.

Habakkuk 1:15

The foe pulls all of them up with a hook; he catches them in his dragnet, and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices gladly.

Habakkuk 1:16

Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet and burns incense to his fishing net, for by these things his portion is sumptuous and his food is rich.

Luke 17:15

When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back, praising God in a loud voice.

Luke 17:16

He fell facedown at Jesus’ feet in thanksgiving to Him—and he was a Samaritan.

Luke 17:17

“Were not all ten cleansed?” Jesus asked. “Where then are the other nine?

Luke 17:18

Was no one found except this foreigner to return and give glory to God?”

2 Timothy 3:2

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

Revelation 14:7

And he said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.”

Revelation 15:4

Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Genesis 6:5

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.

Genesis 8:21

When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

2 Kings 17:15

They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and themselves became worthless, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.

Psalms 81:12

So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

Ecclesiastes 7:29

Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

Isaiah 44:9

All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.

Isaiah 44:10

Who fashions a god or casts an idol which profits him nothing?

Isaiah 44:11

Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are only human. Let them all assemble and take their stand; they will all be brought to terror and shame.

Isaiah 44:12

The blacksmith takes a tool and labors over the coals; he fashions an idol with hammers and forges it with his strong arms. Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength; he fails to drink water and grows faint.

Isaiah 44:13

The woodworker extends a measuring line; he marks it out with a stylus; he shapes it with chisels and outlines it with a compass. He fashions it in the likeness of man, like man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.

Isaiah 44:14

He cuts down cedars or retrieves a cypress or oak. He lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a laurel, and the rain makes it grow.

Isaiah 44:15

It serves as fuel for man. He takes some of it to warm himself, and he kindles a fire and bakes his bread; he even fashions it into a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.

Isaiah 44:16

He burns half of it in the fire, and he roasts meat on that half. He eats the roast and is satisfied. Indeed, he warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”

Isaiah 44:17

From the rest he makes a god, his graven image. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”

Isaiah 44:18

They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand.

Isaiah 44:19

And no one considers in his heart, no one has the knowledge or insight to say, “I burned half of it in the fire, and I baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make something detestable with the rest of it? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”

Isaiah 44:20

He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

Jeremiah 2:5

This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me, and followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?

Jeremiah 10:3

For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.

Jeremiah 10:4

They adorn it with silver and gold and fasten it with hammer and nails, so that it will not totter.

Jeremiah 10:5

Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.”

Jeremiah 10:6

There is none like You, O LORD. You are great, and Your name is mighty in power.

Jeremiah 10:7

Who would not fear You, O King of nations? This is Your due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You.

Jeremiah 10:8

But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!

Jeremiah 10:14

Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them.

Jeremiah 10:15

They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.

Jeremiah 16:19

O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.

Ephesians 4:17

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

Ephesians 4:18

They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

1 Peter 1:18

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,

Romans 11:10

May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.”

Deuteronomy 28:29

and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.

Isaiah 60:2

For behold, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you, and His glory will appear over you.

Acts 26:18

to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.