Romans 1:23,24 - God gave them up in their lusts

1:23

Instead of worshipping the immortal God, the one who actually created all things, and keeps all things going, men chose to worship images supposedly of God. These images resembled men or creatures of various sorts. When man rejects God he exchanges the worship of the true God for something that devalues life and humanity. So today in the West the most common view I suppose is to say that we got here by chance. So this robs us of any true meaning and leads to us treating each other inhumanely. Human life is not valued, we see this at both ends of the spectrum. The right to kill life in the womb is considered a “human right”. In parts of the US partial-birth abortions are allowed. At the other end of life there are repeated moves to allow euthanasia. This is argued for on humanitarian grounds, and no doubt many of its advocates are well intentioned  (as were some of the early proponents of abortion). Well-intentioned, but seriously misguided. In countries where euthanasia has been legalised, such as Belgium, Holland and Canada, the grounds for euthanasia have steadily expanded, and even young people can be killed.

1:24

“God gave them up”. This phrase is repeated several times in this passage. It can be taken in various ways, and all of them contain some of the truth. Three interpretations are (Gardener):

1. God lets them experience the inward consequences of their actions, these being the consequences of the destructive effects of sin on their souls;

2. God let’s them experience the outward consequences of their sin;

3. God makes deliberate acts of judgement on them.

All three of them contain elements of truth. 1 & 2 are very similar, but one concerns the destructive effects of sin on our souls, or personalities; while the other relates to the outward consequences, e.g. The greater prevalence of disease for the sexually promiscuous.