The Greek means failed the test, and Paul uses the same word about himself. If you are afraid you have one, the fear itself is the answer.
Reprobate mind is the King James rendering of Romans 1:28. The Greek is adokimos nous, and adokimos means failing a test, not approved, like metal that did not pass inspection. Modern translations say depraved or debased mind.
If you came here afraid you have one, here is the thing to hear first. The people Paul describes are not worried about it. Romans 1:32 says they approve of the things they do. The fear you are carrying is the opposite of the condition.
The rest of this page shows you why that is true from the passage itself, and names what this phrase gets used for that it should not.
The negative of dokimos, tested and approved. Used of metal or coinage that failed assay, and of a candidate rejected after examination.
1 Corinthians 9:27. He disciplines his body so that after preaching to others he will not himself be adokimos. Whatever the word means, Paul applies the possibility to an apostle.
2 Corinthians 13:5. Examine yourselves, unless of course you are adokimos. He expects them to pass, and he still tells them to check.
It is not a sealed eternal category with a list of names in it. It is a word about failing a test, used flexibly, including about people Paul was writing to encourage.
If adokimos named a permanent, irreversible spiritual state, Paul would not have used it about himself as a live possibility to guard against.
This is the most important thing to know about the chapter and it is almost always skipped. Paul is building a trap, and if you read Romans 1 on its own you walk straight into it.
Verses 24, 26 and 28. The judgment described is not lightning. It is God letting people have what they kept insisting on.
Verses 29 to 31 include greed, envy, strife, deceit, gossip, slander, arrogance, boastfulness and disobedience to parents. All of it, in the same sentence.
You therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another you are condemning yourself.
Romans 3:23, all have sinned. Then immediately 3:24, justified freely by His grace. The whole argument exists to land there.
Matt Skinner of Luther Seminary puts the conclusion of the argument simply: “God repairs the fractured relationship between humanity and God through Jesus' death”. Chapter 1 is not the point. It is the run-up.
A description of other people and how far gone they are, which is precisely the reaction Paul sets up in order to turn it on the reader in the next verse.
Everybody is in it, nobody is exempt, and the answer arrives in chapter 3 as a gift rather than as a sorting of people into categories.
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Manage My Giving"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7
Reprobate mind has become a label people apply to individuals and to whole groups, usually to say that a person is beyond reach and the conversation is over. We think that is a misuse and it is worth naming directly.
Paul is describing a pattern in humanity, not issuing verdicts on named people. No human being is given the job of declaring another person permanently unreachable.
The chapter is routinely aimed at one sin while the rest of the list, which includes gossip, arrogance and boasting, goes unmentioned in the same sermon.
Once somebody is labelled, there is no reason to talk to them, pray for them or listen. That is convenient, and it is not what the chapter produces in Paul.
By his own account he persecuted the church violently and was a blasphemer. If anybody qualified for a permanent label, it was the man writing the letter.
We do not believe any living person can be identified as beyond God's reach, and we do not think Scripture gives anybody the authority to say it about someone else. The one time the New Testament describes something close to a point of no return, in the blasphemy against the Spirit passage, the people it is applied to are not asking whether they have done it.
What Romans 1 does describe is real: a direction of travel, where refusing truth repeatedly makes you less able to see it, until you stop wanting to. That is a genuine danger and it is worth naming. It is also a description of a road rather than a gate that locks behind you.
Who does Romans 1 describe as having an adokimos mind?
The list in verses 29 to 31 includes gossip, arrogance, envy and disobedience to parents. Then Romans 2:1 says you who pass judgment have no excuse, and the argument runs to all have sinned in 3:23.
A lot of people find this page at two in the morning after reading something frightening. So here it is plainly, without conditions attached.
Romans 1:32 is explicit. The people described not only do these things but approve of those who practise them. There is no conscience left in the picture.
Being worried about your standing with God is evidence of a working conscience. The condition Paul describes is the absence of exactly that.
If all you can find in yourself is a wish that you cared more, that is still movement toward Him and He is not evaluating its size.
Whoever comes to me I will never drive away. John 6:37 has no exception clause attached, and Jesus did not put one there by accident.
Spiritual fear like this is heavy and it tends to get worse alone and at night. You are not being weak by finding it hard to shake. Send it to us and a real person will pray over it with you. You do not have to explain it well and you will not be assessed.
Paul's whole reason for writing Romans 1 the way he did was to remove any ground for one group of people to look down on another. He starts with the reaction everybody has, lets it build, and then pulls it out from under the reader in a single verse.
So the two ways this passage gets used are both the opposite of its purpose. Using it to categorise other people is exactly what verse 2:1 forbids. Using it to torment yourself misses that the argument ends with a gift you cannot disqualify yourself from by wanting it too anxiously.
What is left is what Paul actually wanted you holding at the end of chapter 3. Everybody needed rescuing, the rescue is free, and it was never a matter of who was far enough gone.
For related ground, see blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the unforgivable sin, whether you can lose your salvation, the book of Romans, grace and repentance.
Adokimos means failed the test, Paul used it about himself, Romans 1 is a trap that springs in chapter 2, and worrying that you have one is the clearest sign you do not.
Send it here and somebody at Sound of Heaven will. No conditions, no assessment, and you do not have to be a member or give details.
Reprobate mind is the King James rendering of Romans 1:28. The Greek is adokimos nous, and adokimos means failing a test or not approved, the word used of metal that did not pass assay. Modern translations render it depraved or debased. Romans 1:32 describes the people in view as approving of the things they do, which means there is no troubled conscience left in the picture.
Paul uses the same word about himself as a live possibility. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 he disciplines his body so that after preaching to others he will not himself be adokimos, and in 2 Corinthians 13:5 he tells the Corinthians to examine themselves unless they are adokimos, expecting them to pass. It is not a sealed eternal category with a list of names in it.
Building a trap. Paul describes a downward pattern, three times using the phrase gave them over, and lists sins in verses 29 to 31 that include greed, envy, gossip, slander, arrogance, boasting and disobedience to parents. Then Romans 2:1 says you therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else. The argument runs to 3:23, all have sinned, and then to being justified freely by grace.
We do not think anyone has that standing. Paul is describing a pattern in humanity rather than issuing verdicts on named people, and Scripture never gives a person the job of declaring another human permanently unreachable. It is worth remembering that Paul described himself as a violent persecutor and a blasphemer. If anybody qualified for a permanent label, it was the man writing the letter.
Notice what the passage says about the people it describes: they approve of what they do. Being worried about your standing with God is evidence of a working conscience, which is exactly what is missing in Romans 1. Wanting to want God still counts and He is not measuring its size. John 6:37 says whoever comes to me I will never drive away, and there is no exception clause attached.