32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:32 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Here Apostle Paul closes the chapter with the blackest character that could be given of the Gentiles’ sin, namely, That although by the light of nature and the dictates of natural conscience, they knew that their adulteries and unnatural lusts did deserve death, and expose them to the wrath of God, yet they not only committed those sins themselves, but took a real pleasure and delight in those that committed them. Now this was the top and height of their wickedness. It is a greater wickedness to approve and applaud sin than it is to act and commit sin; to delight in sin is worse than to do sin. A man may fall into sin by the policy of the tempter, and the prevalency of temptation, but by considerations may be brought to a sense of his folly, and repent that he not only approves and applauds, but takes pleasure and delight in the wickedness of others; this demonstrates such a strong affection for sin, as brings a man nearest to the devil in sinning.
Learn hence, 1. That there is in God an avenging justice, engaging him to punish sin with the eternal death of the sinner.
2. That there is that evil and malignity in sin, which deserves the judgment and sentence of eternal death.
3. That this desert of sin, as also the vengeance of God upon the sinner, is sufficiently made known to all men; to some by the light of nature, to others by the superadded light of scripture.