A Foolish Exchange

A Foolish Exchange
The question that Paul is answering in these verses is "what happens to a person when they suppress the truth about God—when they fail to honour Him as God and give thanks to Him?"
The long-term consequences are very clear. They come under the wrath of God and are separated from His presence forever. However, there are also short and medium-term consequences as well.
Paul tells us "For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to Him..."
as a result of this, three things happen:
1) They become futile in their thinking
2) Their foolish hearts are darkened
3) Claiming to be wise, they become fools and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
We are reminded here that the very purpose for man’s mind and heart are to know God and to love God. When we fail to use our minds and hearts for this purpose, they become futile and grow dark. This doesn't mean we lose our capacity to think, only that our thinking becomes ultimately futile because we're not using our minds to think about God. We can remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4. Nebuchadnezzar was a proud man who did not honour God with his mind, and so the Lord took his mind from him and he was driven out from among the civilized and forced to eat grass with the animals. But after seven years he lifted his eyes to heaven and his mind was restored. This is an illustration of the principle Paul is dealing with.
Paul also reminds us of how foolish it is to exchange the glory of God for images and idols, a very dark exchange indeed. We must be careful not to do this in our daily lives When we love earthly things more than God, or think of earthly things more than God we do the same, we exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Let's do as Nebuchadnezzar did at the end of his madness and look towards heaven and glorify the God who made us and made all things. Praise God with all your mind and all your heart!