Glorified Him Not. Romans 1:21 There is something wired up in us as human beings that makes us aware of God. The knowledge of God's existence does not mean that we are accepted by Him. We ought to worship and give glory to Him, but men refuse to express gratitude and thanksgiving to Him. Instead of being thankful for life itself and all the blessings that accompany it, people have become thankless and godless. The conscience and its condemnation would not go away, so men became idolaters to escape their thoughts of responsibility to God.
In the desire to avoid accountability to God, people begin to follow futile and vain speculations about God. They dream up their own ideas, and what they consider "reasoning" is simply a product of their imagination. These Gentiles could see and know about God through creation, but instead of giving Him thanks, their imagination led them to form idols based on the sun, moon, stars, or strong animals God created. This leads to worshipping the creature instead of the Creator.
The result is that the heart, the seat of knowledge and emotion, lost the little light it had when it could see evidence of God. Instead of becoming wiser, they wandered foolishly through the darkness of their own thoughts. Created beings refused to recognize the One who created them. Daily, they experienced God's provision but never stopped to consider where it came from and thank God for it. This was how it was with people in the past, and it is getting worse now than ever before. Now, instead of accepting the truth of God and Christ as their Savior, they have made men themselves to be their gods. In their effort to exalt man to the place of human-made deity, they also seek to bring the True God down to being simply a form of humanity.
Bad Choice. The downward spiral begins with rejecting God. Then comes the exaltation of our own ideas. Then, the rejection of a values system leads to sexual sin, greed, malice, and all other forms of perversion of that which is right. Once choices like these are made, Christ can only give them a way of escape. It is beyond man’s ability to reverse the result of bad choices. Sins that are in the vortex of that awful whirlpool of degradation are:
No knowledge - sin against the light: The light of morality has been wired into each person. There is in every rational person a sense of right and wrong. Because of that inherent part of our personality, we all are aware of One who is larger, higher, and far exceeding us in intelligence and character. There is a general knowledge of God so that we are acquainted with His existence and character. But those philosophies of men arose that shut up the glories of God seen in creation, conscience, and goodness. The lives of true believers, pain on the bed, and the chosen symbols of Christ’s person and death also speak to us without words. In exchange for the knowledge of God, they gave people an image.
No respect - did not glorify God: Some of the more famous philosophers looked within themselves to find God. Plato, Socrates, Lucretius, and others like them were in the vanguard of existentialism, which afflicts many people today. In the vanity of their reasoning and stupidity and nonsense when speaking about God, they reject the God revealed to us in the scriptures of truth. They sought Him in the darkness of their own hearts, and because they did not find Him there, they didn’t bother looking elsewhere.
No honor—unthankful: God was not in their thoughts. Their lack of respect and reverence for God was the source of their abominations. To glorify God is to reverence Him and everything about Him. To glorify God is to venerate His name. To take things for granted as our right is to dishonor God. We become like that which we worship.
No gratitude - self-conceited: There is a hardness and an insensitivity to God and even to others when the darkness of rejected light, an unthankful heart, and a high-minded arrogance claim a person's mind. Vain imaginations arise as a result of man at the center of his life and world.
No understanding - foolish heart darkened: These people are condemned because they choose darkness over light, ideas over evidence, imagination over evidence, idols over God, and religion over salvation. When people see themselves as the center of their little universe, they invent their own gods. Then, these gods become something they can’t do without, and they form idols to look to. When truth is forsaken, errors multiply.