text: Paul begins with a summary of Hellenistic Jewish apologist discourse. His summary begins by suggesting that humans have taken up ungodliness and wickedness for which there already is wrath from God. People have taken God's invisible image and made him into an idol. Paul draws heavily here from the Wisdom of Solomon. This summary condemns "unnatural sexual behavior" and warns that such behavior has already resulted in a depraved body and mind ("reprobate mind" in the King James Version)  and says that people who do such things (including murder and wickedness ) are worthy of death. Paul stands firmly against the idol worship system which was common in Rome. Several scholars believe the passage is a non-Pauline interpolation.
  Paul's warning of hypocrites (2:1–4)
  On the traditional Protestant interpretation, Paul here calls out Jews who are condemning others for not following the law when they themselves are also not following the law. Stanley Stowers, however, has argued on rhetorical grounds that Paul is in these verses not addressing a Jew at all but rather an easily recognizable caricature of the typical boastful person (). Stowers writes, "There is absolutely no justification for reading  as Paul's attack on 'the hypocrisy of the Jew.' No one in the first century would have identified  with Judaism. That popular interpretation depends upon anachronistically reading later Christian characterizations of Jews as 'hypocritical Pharisees. (See also Anti-Judaism).
  Justification: The Gift of Grace and Forgiveness through Faith (3:21–5:11)