You will have to look hard for a Bible that does not contain chapters and verses. However, the first Bible did not. The New Testament is compiled by letters and these letters were written to believers. That is very important to remember. They were not written to non-believing heads of state, just believers. I want to study more in depth Chapter 1 but before I do, I want to clarify. Remembering that there is no chapters or verses, we need to not take this chapter out of context. The beginning clarifies that Paul is writing to Christians, please keep this in mind. Because of verses and chapters, we (Christians) like to compartmentalize verses. Each verse in each chapter is meant to compliment the other. It is much like notes in music. By themselves, they make just a sound but put together they make MUSIC!
The history of the use of Chapter one is to define non-believers. Those who are of the world. Preachers use this on Sunday morning to show what people of the world look like. Unfortunately, they also use it to enforce their view to their congregations on homosexuality. In many situations it ends up degrading a person in such a lifestyle and making it seem as if they are leprous. This is one of the main reasons why I talk about chapters and verses not being there. Many of these preachers do not continue preaching on Chapter 2. All you have to do is read the first two verses and you will see what I mean.
The idea Paul is trying to get across is that we are all sinners. Not to condemn but to help people understand that we are not alone. We are in this together and together we are strong. More on this later.
This is really beautiful Adam! The Message version of the Bible only has chapter headings no verses:)
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