Romans 1:23

Changed. Better, “exchanged.” In their folly men had exchanged the worship of God for that of images. Instead of looking up to a Being clothed with majesty and power, they bowed down to reptiles and beasts. They exchanged a glorious object of worship for that which was degrading and humiliating (see Ps. 106:20; Jer. 2:11). Man was appointed the lord of the animal creation (Ps. 8:6-8), and he degrades himself by worshiping the creatures God made to serve him (cf. Hosea 8:6).

Uncorruptible. That is, not subject to death, and thus not liable to decay as are all creatures. Paul contrasts the “uncorruptibility” of God with the “corruptibility” of man. God only is unchanging, indestructible, immortal, and therefore the proper object of worship (1 Tim. 1:17).

An image. Men were not satisfied to worship God “in spirit” (John 4:23, 24). They were not content with God’s revelation of Himself in nature (Rom. 1:20). They chose to represent Him to themselves by images resembling men, birds, animals, or reptiles. Paul seems to be marking the successive stages of the moral and intellectual degradation of the heathen, ending in the representation of the living God of heaven by unclean reptiles and other creatures crawling upon the earth.

Gods in human form were common in Greek and Roman religion. The worship of all kinds of creatures, such as bulls, crocodiles, serpents, and ibis, was prevalent in Egypt. In imitation of the idolatry of Egypt the Israelites made their golden calf (Ex. 32:4). Later Jeroboam set up two golden calves at Dan and Bethel and offered sacrifices to them (1 Kings 12:28-32).

Some of the more cultured pagans may have regarded the images as mere symbolic representations, but many of the common people saw in the idols the very gods themselves. The Bible does not take any such distinction into account, but simply condemns all image worshipers as idolaters (Ex. 20:4, 5; Lev. 26:1; Micah 5:13; Hab. 2:18,19).