Paul declares that God gave people up ‘in the lusts of their hearts to impurity’ (1:24). The word ‘impurity’, as noted above, is not restricted to ritual or cultic purity, but, as 1 Thessalonians 4:7 shows, can embrace moral impurity, including in a sexual sense as here (see also 1 Thess. 2:3; Wisd. 2:16).20 Paul does not describe this sexual impurity initially, except to make two connections. Thus the words ‘in the lusts of their hearts’, which could also be rendered ‘in the desires of their hearts’,