Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 1:22

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools," — Romans 1:22 (ASV)

They became fools. — They were made fools. It is not merely that they expose their real folly, but that folly is itself judicially inflicted by God as a punishment for the first step of departure from Him.

Relying on their own wisdom, they wandered further and further from true wisdom, falling into the contradiction of supposing that the eternal and immutable Essence of God could be represented by the perishable figures of man, or bird, or quadruped, or insect.