When Paul reflects on the behavior that had become standard among pagans, he speaks of God “giving them up” to an unfit mind, and the worst thing he can say about pagan immorality in chapter 1 is the last verse, that “they not only do such things, but approve those who practice them.”15 It’s one thing to be lured into sin, quite another to change the moral compass and call good evil and evil good. And this cast of the mind links directly to the major command of 12:1: do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds. This is inaugurated eschatology; this is
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