Why won’t people listen to us when we explain to them what sin is and tell them why we must oppose it and try to help people out of it? Why does the world laugh at Christians who speak on things like saving sex for marriage and avoiding the party lifestyle? So much of our efforts as Christians these days go to refuting the sins the world tries to force us to accept, sins like homosexuality, abortion, premarital cohabitation, drug use, and the like. While it’s natural for us to gravitate toward those hot button issues, and it’s necessary for us to stand for the truth whenever possible, sometimes we kind of miss the point.
I encourage you to read through the second half of Romans chapter 1 and try to see the whole rather than how we typically see it. Most times we go to 1:20 in defending the existence of God (“they are without excuse”) and then jump to the condemnation of homosexuality in 1:24-28. What we overlook is the basis of all such sinful activity. How can people become so depraved of mind and impure at heart? Because they have rejected God’s authority and He has given them over (used in vv. 24, 26, and 28) to be enslaved by their sins.
Romans 1:18-20 doesn’t tell us that people should believe in God. It tells us that people already know that there is a God. He created within each of us the ability to understand His existence from what we see, and whether or not we acknowledge Him is a choice. In 1:21-23 Paul gives us the result:

Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. (NKJV)

Any time we start fighting effects rather than causes, we’re not going to do much good long-term. Recently I noticed holes starting to appear all over my yard. I filled them in whenever a new one would show up, but that did nothing to prevent more new holes from appearing. It wasn’t until the culprit (a gopher) was apprehended that the yard was able to remain free of holes.
Sadly, with our approach to sin it seems we spend most of our time trying to bury the ugly holes left in the world by various sins such as homosexuality or abortion, but we never catch the true culprit that is digging those holes – disbelief in God. We can argue with people all day long about how homosexuality is bad for the individual and bad for society, but until they realize the authority of God to speak on such matters, the people of today’s world won’t listen. We can tell people that abortion ends a human life, but until they recognize that life has value because it comes from God they won’t care to make any changes.
The three questions I believe every Christian should be able to answer and should not be afraid to ask put the issue of God and His authority directly into the spotlight: Is there a God? Has He spoken to us? What am I doing about it?
Every single person who has ever lived into adulthood has answered those questions, whether they think they have or not. The Christian’s goal should be to help people answer those questions intentionally and with all of the knowledge they need to make an informed decision. Until we get people to either assert or deny the existence of God, any debate with them over particular sins is futile, as God gives people over to their own sinful desires once they ignore Him. It’s the Christian’s job to make people reconsider their response to a God they already know exists. Are you ready to speak up and start asking the right questions to get to the heart of the matter?
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” Romans 1:16
By Jack Wilkie