John Calvin Commentary Romans 1:28

"And even as they refused to have God in [their] knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;" — Romans 1:28 (ASV)

And as they chose not, etc. An evident comparison is to be observed in these words, by which the just relation between sin and punishment is strikingly set forth. As they chose not to continue in the knowledge of God, which alone guides our minds to true wisdom, the Lord gave them a perverted mind, which can choose nothing that is right. And by saying that they chose not (non probasse - approved not), it is the same as if he had said that they did not pursue the knowledge of God with the attention they should have, but, on the contrary, turned away their thoughts resignedly from God. He then intimates that they, making a depraved choice, preferred their own vanities to the true God; and thus the error by which they were deceived was voluntary.

To do those things which were not meet As he had until now referred only to one instance of abomination, which indeed prevailed among many but was not common to all, he begins here to enumerate vices from which none could be found free. For though every vice, as has been said, did not appear in each individual, yet all were guilty of some vices, so that every one might separately be accused of manifest depravity. As he calls them in the first instance not meet, understand him as saying that they were inconsistent with every decision of reason and alien to the duties of men; for he mentions it as an evidence of a perverted mind that men devoted themselves, without any reflection, to those vices, which common sense should have led them to renounce.

But it is labor in vain to connect these vices in such a way as to make them dependent one on another, since this was not Paul’s design; but he set them down as they occurred to his mind. We will very briefly explain what each of them signifies.