<p>1:21 <i>For although they knew God- </i>Only those who &lsquo;know God&rsquo; have the potential to give Him glory and true thanks; but the problem is that some can know God and yet not go forward from that point to glorify God. Knowledge of God isn&rsquo;t therefore an academic matter in itself; it leads on to gratitude towards Him and glory of Him.</p><p><i>They did not honour Him as God or give thanks to Him</i><i>- </i>To &ldquo;honour&rdquo; here is to praise. Fundamentally praise is mental appreciation of Yahweh's Name, seeing His characteristics expressed in all things around us, e.g. food, weather, situations in life etc. Knowledge of God (and this doesn't&nbsp;<i>only</i>&nbsp;refer to abstract doctrine, but to an awareness of how He works and expresses Himself in our lives) is therefore proportionate to the quality of our praise (Rom. 1:21).</p><p><i>But they became futile in their thinking- </i>Or 'Imaginations', Gk.&nbsp;<i>dialogismos</i>. Their internal dialogues with themselves, the internal self, the mind at its deepest and most personal level, became vain- when the true knowledge of God should have made them so much more dynamic, purposeful and productive. The focus of the Bible is so often upon the &lsquo;heart&rsquo;, the most intimate and internal thought processes.</p><p><i>And their foolish hearts were darkened- </i>The foolish heart of Israel was darkened / blinded, the Greek implies (Rom. 1:21). God gave them a mind which wanted to practice homosexuality and lesbianism (v.28), and therefore they received a recompense appropriate to the delusion which they had been given (v. 27 Gk.) . Note that their punishment was to be given and encouraged in homosexual tendencies (diseases like AIDS are the result of upsetting nature's balance rather than the recompense spoken of in Romans 1). Christian men in the first century gave themselves over to sexual immorality (Eph. 4:19), and therefore God &quot;gave them over to a reprobate mind&quot; (Rom. 1:24,26,28). &ldquo;Blind yourselves and be blind&rdquo;, God angrily remonstrated with Israel; yet God had closed their eyes, confirming them in the decision for blindness which they had taken themselves (Is. 29:9,10 RVmg.). Later in Romans, Paul speaks of the Jews as the ones whose hearts were darkened (Rom. 11:10).</p>