9. I serve God with my whole heart. I preach the good news about his Son. God knows that I always remember you
10. in my prayers. I pray that now at last it may be God's plan to open the way for me to visit you.
11. I long to see you. I want to make you strong by giving you a gift from the Holy Spirit.
12. I want us to cheer each other up by sharing our faith.
13. Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that I planned many times to visit you. But until now I have been kept from coming. My work has produced results among others who are not Jews. In the same way, I want to see results among you.
14. I have a duty both to Greeks and to non-Greeks. I have a duty both to wise people and to foolish people.
15. So I really want to preach the good news also to you who live in Rome.
16. I am not ashamed of the good news. It is God's power. And it will save everyone who believes. It is meant first for the Jews. It is meant also for those who aren't Jews.
17. The good news shows how God makes people right with himself. From beginning to end, becoming right with God depends on a person's faith. It is written, "Those who are right with God will live by faith." (Habakkuk 2:4)
18. God shows his anger from heaven. It is against all the godless and evil things people do. They are so evil that they say no to the truth.
19. The truth about God is plain to them. God has made it plain.
20. Ever since the world was created it has been possible to see the qualities of God that are not seen. I'm talking about his eternal power and about the fact that he is God. Those things can be seen in what he has made. So people have no excuse for what they do.
21. They knew God. But they didn't honor him as God. They didn't thank him. Their thinking became worthless. Their foolish hearts became dark.
22. They claimed to be wise. But they made fools of themselves.
23. They would rather have statues of gods than the glorious God who lives forever. Their statues of gods are made to look like people, birds, animals and reptiles.
24. So God let them go. He allowed them to do what their sinful hearts wanted to. He let them commit sexual sins. They polluted one another's bodies by what they did.