Ephesians 4:19 19who having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality, for the pursuit of every impurity with greediness.
Paul describes further the difficult situation in which the Gentiles live. There separation from God because of ignorance only exacerbates the drive of sin and self within them. When God is removed from the picture of one’s life, then everything else begins to crumble. This is especially true in behavior. Humans are by nature selfish. Our need for survival drives us to fight for our own way. It leads to the descriptive words Paul uses in this verse to describe the “old life” of the Ephesians. This is what they once were before they experienced God’s grace. Every human in one way or another experiences what Paul describes here. Not everyone will go to the same extreme. There is goodness in each person also. This goodness (sometimes expressed in the Bible as “light”) is due to God’s prevenient grace working in people’s lives, drawing them to something better. But this grace can be rejected. This rejection is what Paul describes in this verse.
The participle that begins this verse (apēlgēkotes) has a causal sense to it: “because they have become calloused,” the result is that they now have given themselves over to sensuality. Whenever people turn their back on God and the promptings of the Holy Spirit upon their consciences, the result will be the hardening of the heart and the depravity of the mind. The checks and balances God gives to us as an expression of his love and care, which have the purpose of leading to happiness and wholeness, are suppressed and replaced by our own distorted and deceived selfish desires. Sensuality (aselgeia) is where a person just lives by what feels good, with a self-abandonment and little care for long-term consequences. It is living for the good feelings of the moment. It is satisfying the flesh and its desires that have been fooled by sin and Satan. This is not God’s plan for humanity and only leads to more problems. Many of the problems people experience can be traced back to this very issue–of removing God from the proper center place in one’s life.
This drive of sensuality leads to impurity (akatharsias), the opposite of God’s design for us. This impurity sometimes expressed in sexual immorality, but it can change over the lifetime of a person. A person may have impure thoughts, sometimes expressed as bitterness, revenge, or anger. A person may have impure actions, such as theft, belittling speech, or abusive behavior. Paul will mention several of these issues in vv. 25-32 as he continues to call the Ephesians to a higher, more fulfilling level of living. This drive for impurity is intensified with greediness. This is not simply passive rejection of God and holiness but is a drive for more. Sin is an insatiable appetite that can never be satisfied. It will consume more and more unless there is a check to it.
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