Romans 1:18-23
What are you addicted to? That may sound a bit odd to ask, but it’s an important question. The soul is like a vacuum and sucks in whatever it can. If there is space left empty, it will look for a desire to fill itself. It could be Jesus, it could be family, or your love, or it could be alcohol or other drugs. Something is the most important thing to you, and that’s vital to know, as it will drive your life.
In this series we are going to explore the idea of Kingdom Living. What does it look like to live as a disciple of Jesus? The best starting point is our main desire – what drives us, because what we desire most is what we will get. Let’s look at this out of order today, if that’s alright.
Your Desire Defines Your Behavior (v21)
We all have that one desire. It is that part of our story that defines our most important thing in life, what we care about most, what drives us towards our goal. Mine was solidified as a young child when I was told that I would die young due to being born with cystic fibrosis. My life and opportunities would be short. Thankfully I learned about Jesus from my family and His promise of eternal life spoke powerfully to a child struggling for each breath.
Because of that belief, I ran as hard as I could after Him. Anytime I could be at church, I was there. Even as a high school, my resolve was complete. That even cost me first chair in band as I told my director that church would always come first. He didn’t appreciate that and demoted me. Whether it was band, athletics, friends, anything, I wanted God above all else. It even drove me to beg my youth pastor for an unpaid apprenticeship my senior year of high school that led to me spending my afternoons building foosball tables. V21 shows the opposite, and unfortunately the norm for people today. Their desires were not for God; their hearts had gone dark.
Your Desire Determines Your Path (v22-23)
Philosophy asks us this question: do actions dictate belief or does belief dictate action? If action dictates belief, then it’s our actions that need to change. If Bob is struggling with alcohol, for example, and that leads to depression, then by quitting cold turkey, that would solve his depression. It’s a nice fantasy, but untrue. It is beliefs that dictate action, as Paul declares in Romans 12:2. That’s why we have to allow Jesus to renew our minds, thus changing our behavior. Action is the output of belief. We DO what we desire.
The perfect example of v22-23 is Solomon. Despite all his wisdom, he did not desire God. He wanted to know everything. He sought all kinds of wisdom and knowledge, to his folly. Ecc. 1:16-17 shows his pursuits away from God and that it was all folly. He lived it out by engaging in sexual pleasure (1 Kings 11:2-4) which only turned Him further away and into every kind of idolatry you can imagine. The wisest of all became the world’s biggest fool.
Your Desire Declares Your Worship (v18-20)
Whenever I have to talk to the kids about their choices, I always end up saying this: good choices get good rewards and bad choices get bad rewards. Each path leads to a logical endpoint, a conclusion. Yours will be obvious. If your path is following after Jesus, He is your end result. But if it’s not Him, you have no excuse. It’s not so much that God is just heaping on pain to those who choose sin, like v18 says, it’s that their desire is their reward. You will find whatever you head out on that path to find, and that will be your reward. The definition of hell is simply that God’s not there. This is part of God’s justice, or His just-ness. If someone chooses sin, He is going to let them have it. If you don’t want God, He’s not going to force Himself on you, He will give you your desire. But don’t be mistaken, everyone chooses. No matter what.
Simply by looking at creation, we can get a glimpse of God. There is beauty, order, and planning-obvious simply by looking at a horse. But there is also brokenness. This should all come together to show us, whether we’ve heard of Jesus or not to realize that we need help. This means that, theoretically, a person could come to faith in Christ without hearing the gospel. Sin gets in the way of that, but God is perceivable to all, and all will answer. But our desire must be Him.
Next Steps
That’s the point: where are your eyes fixed? Our desires have the power to bring us towards God or towards darkness; in other words, we will seek what we find. Your desire will be your reward. Is it God? Try to open yourself in these ways:
- Challenge your desire and ask God to make sure you place Him as King
- Invite Christ to renew your mind by joining a Bible study
- Enjoy God’s work in this world. Embrace art, music, beauty, nature, and see Him come through
You see, we are all addicted. Our souls crave that filling. Who, or what, is filling yours?
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