Ephesians 4:19

19. Being past feeling The Greek verb so rendered signifies those who have had their crying spell but now are quiescent. Hence it comes to signify such as have become freed from all once-existing moral sensibility.

Lasciviousness Unrestraint, or license of every kind. It is by no means limited to sexual license, but applies to any vice.

Uncleanness Filth, nastiness, baseness, either material or moral. See note, Ephesians 5:3.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:3 it refers to avarice.

Greediness Rather, covetousness; grasping after more and more gain. From our definitions of these last three words, it will be seen that we find no reference in the verse to sexual impurity, but to secular and business profligacy. We render the whole verse: Who being past all sensitiveness, (either as to obligation or to reputation) have surrendered themselves to unrestraint for accomplishment of every baseness in gain-getting. Our reasons for finding no reference to sexual license here are:

1. That subject is fully treated in Ephesians 5:3-21.

2. All the vices to be put off, (Ephesians 4:25-32,) in contrast with the present dark pictures, belong to secular business life and not to sexuality.

3. The terms used, though some of them have a sexual side, yet do not here require that meaning, while the last word, rendered greediness, fairly excludes it. It is derived from πλεος , more, and εχω , to have, and is the normal Greek word to signify gain-greed, graspingness, avarice.

In the apostle’s day, as in ours, the supremacy of the money-power, the consequent unscrupulousness and profligacy with which gain was sought, and the readiness to sell one’s self for riches, were overwhelming. The conquered East poured boundless wealth into the Roman empire, and (to use, with Paul, a sexual term) debauched the West into utter prostitution to the baseness of greed. No wonder that St. Paul should have execrated it as a base filthiness.