The Old Man’s Moral Depravity (2)

The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:17-19 that the true Christian no longer conducts himself (or herself) like the non-Christian. He then actually lists a few characteristics that can really be boiled down to three traits. First, the Old Man is characterized Intellectual Deficiency (v. 17b), and, second, Spiritual Debility (v. 18).

Third, which we started last time, the Old Man is characterized by Moral Depravity (v. 19). Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. The latter part of the verse describes the practical outworking of moral depravity: Consider three characteristics.

1. Lasciviousness (aselgeia) speaks of unrestrained self-indulgence, especially in sexual sin. The Greek root behind uncleanness is katharos, which means clean or pure, so with the prefix (a) added (akatharos), it forms the opposite: “the whole realm of uncleanness, ranging from menstruation to moral pollution through wrongdoing.”

Actually, in fact, that is putting it delicately. The debauchery of the ancient world was beyond comprehension. As one scholar comments: “The refinements of art too often ministered to such groveling pursuits. The naked statues of the goddesses were not exempted from rape, and many pictures of their divinities were but the excitements of sensual gratification . . . There was a brisk female trade in potions to induce sterility and barrenness. In fact, one dares not describe the forms, and scenes, and temptations of impurity, or even translate what classical poets and historians have revealed without a blush.”

One such poet was the famous 1^st and 2^nd Century Roman poet Juvenal, whose sixteen Satires, especially the Sixth, were graphic depictions of and scathing attacks on the moral perversion of the Empire. In one place he wrote, “What neighborhood does not reek with filthy practices?” Satire ii, 8). Another poet of the day, Martial, wrote, “Long have I been searching the city through to find if there is ever a maid to say ‘No;’ there is not one” (Ep. iv, 71.). Worse, homosexuality and sodomy were considered acceptable and normal behavior. Is it any wonder that the Roman Empire fell and why our own nation is following suit?

The same was true of the Greeks, as the Ephesians were quite aware. Due in part to the fact of the pagan temple of Artemis (or Diana), Ephesus was a leading city in debauchery and sexual immorality. Some historians view it as the most perverted city of Asia Minor. The rituals and ceremonies merely justified the perversion of the people’s hearts. Every indulgent sexual practice was common and condoned. Artemis was, in fact, a goddess of sex, which was served by thousands of temple prostitutes, eunuchs, singers, dancers, priests, and priestesses. Even the pagan 5^th Century B.C. Greek philosopher Heraclitus referred to Ephesus as “the darkness of vileness. The morals were lower than animals and the inhabitants of Ephesus were fit only to be drowned.”

The general behavior of the Greeks was equally wretched. Theft was dishonorable only when the thief failed to conceal it. In other words, “It’s okay as long as you don’t get caught.” While they prided themselves in philosophy, and professed to desire truth, Truth was, in reality, not a priority. 4^th Century B.C. poet Menander lays down the general rule “that a lie is better than a hurtful truth.” The so-called great Plato allows us to lie as needed, as long as we do it at the proper time. 600 years later, this philosophy remained unchanged. 2^nd Century philosopher Maximus Tyrius asserted, “There is nothing decorous in truth, save when it is profitable, and sometimes a lie is profitable, and truth injurious to men.” In the 4^th Century, philosopher Proclus likewise asserted that “good is better than truth,” a philosophy we are hearing today even among evangelicals. During the same period, historian Herodotus records the common teaching of the day that, “When telling a lie is profitable, tell it!” These examples are more than sufficient to justify Paul in his condemnation of the crimes and corruptions of the heathen world. So important is this, in fact, that He returns to it later in verses 22 and 25-32, as will we. We’ll conclude next time.

The Old Man’s Moral Depravity (1)

The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:17-19 that the true Christian no longer conducts himself (or herself) like the non-Christian. He then actually lists a few characteristics that can really be boiled down to three traits. First, the Old Man is characterized Intellectual Deficiency (v. 17b), and, second, Spiritual Debility (v. 18).

Third, the Old Man is characterized by Moral Depravity (v. 19): Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. This trait is, indeed, the result of the first two. 

What happened in man’s mind now expresses itself in his behavior. He is, indeed, past feeling. This term is among the most graphic in Scripture. The Greek used here (apalgeo) appears only here in the New Testament and means to cease from feeling pain or grief. Men, women, and even adolescents can do unthinkable things to other people—murder, torture, mutilation, abortion, and more—but feel absolutely nothing. I have heard police officers say that they have seen adolescents do such things but see not a glimmer of guilt or remorse in their dead eyes. This develops over time, a little at a time.

One commentator writes: “[It could be translated] ‘having got over the pain.’ How expressive! When conscience is first denied, there is a twinge of pain; there is a protest that can be heard. But if the voice is silenced, presently the voice becomes less clear and clamant; the test is smothered; the twinge is less acute, until at last it is possible to ‘get over the pain.’”

Indeed, every person starts out feeling guilt when wrong is done, but the sin gets easier and easier until they finally “get over it” and no longer feel anything. Writing concerning the sin of Israel, Jeremiah declared, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush” (Jer. 6:15). How true that is today! Recall the immorality of former president Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski. Graphic sexual terms were talked about in the evening news and few people seemed to care. Indeed, society has lost the ability to blush.

Another commentator writes: Unmoved by the approaching judgment of God, whom they offend, they go on at their ease, and fearlessly indulge without restraint in the pleasures of sin. No shame is felt, no regard to character is maintained. The gnawing of a guilty conscience, tormented by the dread of the Divine judgment, may be compared to the porch of hell; but such hardened security as this—is a whirlpool which swallows up and destroys.”

Famous 19^th Century Presbyterian minister and lecturer Thomas Dewitte Talmage recounted the time he was taking a tour of a medical museum in Philadelphia with a very learned surgeon of that day. The surgeon pointed out glass cases containing splintered bones, and the cancerous protrusions, and fractured thighs, and he said: “What beautiful specimens they are.” Talmage’s thought was that if that man had to endure the agonies that those things suggested, he would not have thought they were such splendid specimens. Likewise, men are past feeling; they have become detached from that which should affect them deeply.

The rest of the verse graphically describes the practical outworking of such depravity: they have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. We’ll examine these next time.

The Old Man’s Spiritual Debility

The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:17-19 that the true Christian no longer conducts himself (or herself) like the non-Christian. He then actually lists a few characteristics that can really be boiled down to three traits. First, the Old Man is characterized by Intellectual Deficiency (v. 17b).

Second, the Old Man is characterized by Spiritual Debility (v. 18): Having the understanding darkened . . . through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. The person who does not know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord has a complete spiritual debility, a feebleness, weakness, and impediment. As mentioned last time, we live in a day of unparalleled knowledge. Without doubt, many in our day, as in Paul’s, would be much more insulted to be called “ignorant” than they would “sinful.” But man is indeed ignorant and feeble. The reason is because his understanding has been darkened. As in verse 17, the mind is again in view. Man cannot understand spiritual things because his mind has no light in it. In other words, there’s no light in his mind because there’s no life in his heart.

It’s significant that a description of the non-Christian is that he or she is in darkness. As Jesus declared in John 3:19: “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” People talk often about being “enlightened” or “seeing the light” in some new philosophy. But Scripture declares with certainty that light is found only in Christ. As Jesus Himself declared, “I am the [definite article—one and only] light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12). Only when we follow Christ, do we have light. Recounting his conversion, Paul said that the Lord called him to be a witness to the Gentiles, “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light” (Acts 26:18).

Paul goes on to say that this darkness is true because of man’s ignorance, which is the Greek agnoia (English, “agnostic”). As one Greek authority tells us, this ignorance is not caused by something external, but by man himself. In ancient use, it could refer to a man who lives without knowledge does so either because he hasn’t heard the truth or because he has refused the truth, and that if he “had received it, it would have freed him from his ignorance of his own origin. In other words, he just closed his eyes to the Truth, he refused to believe what was right in front of him. This certainly exposes the so-called “agnostic.” He says that he doesn’t believe we can know if there is a God, but he says this only because he does not want to know. His ignorance is deliberate, but if he would just believe, he would be freed from his ignorance.

Paul further adds that all this is because of the blindness of their heart. Here is a fascinating truth. The Greek for blindness (porosis) not only means “blindness,” but also “hardness.” It comes from poros, “to harden, to form a callous (when broken bones heal), and thus to petrify, to become hard.” And may we add, the callous is harder than the bone it self. Man was, indeed, broken at the fall, and his heart has deliberately continued to grow calloused toward God, with the result that it is petrified, stone hard. The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of the salvation that would be revealed in the New Testament when he wrote: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26).

Paul painted a similar picture when he wrote to Timothy that man’s “conscience [has been] seared with a hot iron” (I Tim. 4:2). The Greek for “seared” is kauteriazō (English, “cauterize”). Just as scar tissue looses feeling because of nerve damage, man has no spiritual feeling because sin has cauterized him. This thought leads directly to a final condition, which we’ll examine next time.

The Old Man’s Intellectual Deficiency

The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:17-19 that the true Christian no longer conducts himself (or herself) like the non-Christian. He then actually lists a few characteristics that can really be boiled down to three traits.

First, the Old Man is characterized by the vanity of their mind, that is, Intellectual Deficiency (v. 17b). You know, men are very clever. There is no denying their staggering advancements and accomplishments. Computer technology, for example, is utterly amazing. Today’s computers are capable of doing trillions of calculations per second, enabling us to accomplish tasks in minutes or seconds rather than months or days.

Yet, in all that genius, and many other examples we could list, the unregenerate man is still intellectually deficient. In other words, he thinks differently. Paul speaks here of the vanity of the mind. The Greek behind mind (nous) speaks of intellect, thought, reason, and understanding. Vanity (mataiotes) is that which is aimless, futile, empty, fruitless, and worthless. Men were smart in Paul’s day and even before that. Even in our day, for example, engineers can’t figure out how the Egyptians built the pyramids, how they could have designed them and how they moved stones weighing several tons. Still Paul says men’s minds are vain.

Second Timothy 3:7 sums it up best: “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Does that not say it perfectly? Men are smart, ever coming up with new technology, inventing clever devices. But while clever, he is foolish, while smart, he is stupid, for “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Ps. 14:1).

One commentator illustrates our text by picturing a soap bubble. It’s perfectly symmetrical, colorful, and pretty, but it bursts and leaves nothing. Many people are living such a life. When the bubble bursts, there is nothing left. All the accomplishments of man’s cleverness, all the benefits it brought are in the end nothing because they leave out God and are only temporal.

The Greek for vanity (mataiotes) appears only two other places in the New Testament. In Romans 8:20, Paul uses it to describe the misery of nature, that, “The creature was made subject to vanity.” Peter used it to describe apostates, that they “are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest . . . they speak great swelling words of vanity” (II Pet. 2:17-18). In the end, all man’s thinking is aimless and futile because it is totally of self, without regard for God.

As one Greek authority comments on our text: “According to Eph. 4:17, mataiotēs is the characteristic of the pagan way of thought and life. In ingratitude man forsakes God, the fountain of life. In his thought he takes counsel only for himself, and in carrying out his vain thoughts he thwarts himself and the world he lives in.”

Likewise, as the Greek 4^th Century expositor Chrysostom wrote: “That is called ‘vain,’ which is bare and purposeless, which is of no use . . . What then, tell me, is the end? Corruption. Let us put on clothing and raiment. And what is the result? Nothing. Such are the lives of the Greeks. They philosophized, but in vain. They made a show of a life of hardship, but of mere hardship, not looking to any beneficial end, but to vainglory, and to honor from the many. But what is the honor of the many? It is nothing.”

While technology is certainly useful, while it certainly makes life easier, even it is empty because God is ignored. Further, man will do anything and think it’s alright to do. Left to his own aimless thoughts, he recognizes no absolutes.