Why Callousness and Sensuality Are Not Part of the Abundant Life of Jesus

Callousness in the spiritual life, what is it? Sensuality? Why is it deadly? According to God, in Ephesians four, these are two traits that are not to be named among Jesus followers. These two traits are part of the life you used to live and not the abundant life you should be that Jesus gave us. Oscar Wilde rose to become the toast of London, appreciated not only for his plays, Lady Windemere’s Fan, The Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, and his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, but for his grace, wit, and charm. And then, at the height of his success, his star fell. On trial at the Old Bailey, he was convicted of indecent behavior and sentenced to two years of hard labor, which ultimately broke his spirit and heart¹ In one of his last two books, he wrote the following. “The gods had given me almost everything. But I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease…Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search for new sensation. What the paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the sphere of passion. I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure where it pleased me and passed on. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character and that, therefore, what one has done in the secret chamber, one has some day to cry aloud from the housetop. I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my soul and did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace.² Oscar Wilde fell from the graces of his success because he gave into sensuality. Why Sensuality is Not Part of the Abundant Life of Jesus that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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The last time you followed your conscience, how did it turn out? Please share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 41 years, emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Callousness and Sensuality: The Life You Shouldn’t Live

Ephesians 4:17–22 (ESV) — 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

So, what we see in these set of verses, penned by the Apostle Paul via the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and part of what we talked about in a previous podcast, is the vocabulary that Paul uses to describe a life that should not be named among a Jesus follower.
There’s a different life you can choose to live.
Per Paul, we must not keep living our past life, the life we used to live when we were estranged from God.
Followers of Jesus must live the High life.
There are distinct kinds of life.

Matthew 10:38–39 (AMP) — 38 And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also] is not worthy of Me. 39 Whoever finds his [lower] life will lose it [the higher life], and whoever loses his [lower] life on My account will find it [the higher life].

Again, this is the Amplified translation.
It vividly shows the comparison between two kinds of life: the higher life and the lower life.
The higher life is the abundant life Jesus wants us to engage.
We were looking at this Abundant Life by understanding what it isn’t.
Paul describes what this abundant life is not here in Ephesians 4.
We can call the life you used to live before you met Jesus the ‘anti-abundant life.’
The life Jesus doesn’t want you to live.
It’s a manner of living that’s horrifying to your spirit man.
People who choose to live this life have the following at work in them.
- They walk in the futility of the mind.
  - We have covered that in a previous podcast.
- They have their understanding darkened and are alienated from the life of God because of inward ignorance.
  - We have also covered this in the second podcast on this subject.
- They are hardhearted.
  - We covered this in a third podcast.
- Callous
  - It goes right along with hardheartedness, and let’s hit on that for a moment.

Why Callousness Is Not Part of the Abundant Life of Jesus

Let’s reread the verses that we are on.

Ephesians 4:19–20 (ESV) — 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—

Callousness is what we are looking at, and with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
The Greek word callousness means to be unfeeling and without shame.
It’s close to hardheartedness.
It means to lose the capacity to feel shame or embarrassment³
BDAG has it as dead to feeling without a sense of right and wrong.
We are talking about a seared conscience.
Sin that should bother you doesn’t bother you anymore.

2 Corinthians 1:12 (ESV): 12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.

Paul’s testimony was that he lived and conducted himself in a holy manner.
His conscience matched the words in his mouth.
That means his heart was sensitive, not calloused.
It bore witness to the fact that he lived with godly sincerity.
What is godly sincerity?
The Greek word ‘sincerity’ means the quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech.
It implies the absence of airs or pretense.
The picture is of a person who is what he says he is and does what he says he will do.
He has no facade.
He does not try to portray himself as more prominent than he is, more competent than he is.
Pretense is pride, and it will lead you to a fall.

Proverbs 16:18 (ESV) — 18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

With that God thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

In a certain pond on one of the farms in the East were two ducks and a frog. Now these neighbors were the best of friends; all day long they used to play together. But as the sizzling summer days came, the pond began to dry up and soon there was such a little bit of water that they all realized that they would have to move. Now the ducks can easily fly to another place, but what about their friend the frog? Finally, it was decided that they would put a stick in the bill of each duck, and then the frog would hang onto the stick with his mouth, and they would fly him to another pond. And so they did. As they were flying, a farmer out in his field looked up and saw them and said, “Well, isn’t that a clever idea! I wonder who thought of it!” The frog said, “I did …”⁴

Can you say splat!
One should learn to give God the glory, give others credit, and where they are concerned, keep their mouth shut.
Pretentiousness will trigger your conscience because its source is pride.
It stinks of the flesh and is unbecoming for any child of God.

1 Timothy 4:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,

Explicitly means in a manner precisely and clearly expressed.
The Holy Spirit of God is clearly and specifically saying that in the latter day’s callousness of heart will be a fundamental problem among mankind.
You can clearly couple this with Paul’s admonition here in Ephesians and with that, understand that though the end time will be a calloused time yet, you, as a Jesus follower, should not be caught up in it.
Learn to follow peace.
Understand how to yield to it.
You can have peace inside your heart and can and should follow that peace.
Peace is a sign of good spiritual health.
If your conscience bothers you, that is, if you don’t have peace, that’s a warning from the Spirit of God.
Responding to that warning is what keeps the heart supple and tender.
Your conscience can be clear, good, pure, and perfect.

Titus 1:15 (ESV) — 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

Follow this up with another passage on the conscience from the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 10:22 (ESV) — 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Here are three more conscience descriptors, all from the negative side.
Your conscience can be seared, defiled, or evil.
How does it become that way?
That’s how callousness can set in by this constant override and by ignoring the ‘lack of peace’ in your heart.
If you can sit up there and look at pornography and it doesn’t bother you, there is a problem with your conscience.
That’s callousness; that’s a seared conscience.
If you can sit down and drink alcohol until you get drunk and it doesn’t bother you, that’s callousness; your conscience is seared.
The Spirit of God is not going to lead you into these areas.
No, you allowed yourself to be led into these places.
The Bible says, ‘Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18–20 (ESV) — 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

If you can partake of sin and it does not trigger your conscience, it is seared — that’s callousness.
How does your conscious become calloused? — by continually overriding its warnings.
You override your spirit the first time, and your conscious lessens in intensity.
If you override it again, it becomes less again.
The more you override it, the harder you get.
You keep overriding it; it becomes, less and less and less until you no longer sense it; that is what seared means.
Seared means tough and hardened like leather.
As I said earlier, hardheartedness is akin to callousness.

Mark 3:5 (ESV) — 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Jesus was grieved because of the callousness of their heart.
The word hardness used here means “hard skin or induration.” It means literally “the covering with a callous.” ⁵
So, hardness of heart, callousness, and blindness are all related.
The problem with a seared conscience is that it is of no use in helping you determine what is right and wrong in situations other than sin areas.
We are supposed to follow peace — we are supposed to follow the witness.
What if your ‘follower’ is broke?
Do you understand what I mean by that expression?
In your daily affairs, you’re not hearing from God.
You’re wondering if changing jobs is right?
You make a purchase, and it blows up on you.
You decide to marry a certain so and so, and your life descends into hell shortly after.
How come God let you get into all that mess?
Didn’t He promise that this wouldn’t happen?
Sure He did.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) — 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

You have to do your part.
And part of your part is to keep your conscience supple and tender.
Your job is to obey the promptings and the urges of your spirit.
You want your conscience to be supple and sensitive, not seared.
The commission that has been laid on your doorstep is to repent when you miss it and keep a sensitive heart.

Acts 23:1 (ESV) — 1 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”

Acts 24:16 (ESV) — 16 So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.

Notice Paul’s use of the word ‘I.’
Paul said, “I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”
I did it – that was my responsibility.
Paul said, “I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.”
The Greek word ‘take pains’ means to practice, to learn by repetition and strenuous effort.
BDAG has it as to apply oneself with commitment to some activity⁶
Callousness, over-riding your conscience, will make hearing God utterly difficult.
To keep from it takes application — it takes you applying yourself with strenuous effort.
You must focus on this area.
Listen to Paul yet again.
Always remember you will maximize what you emphasize.
So, now here’s the question that naturally arises in this discussion of callousness.
How do you find your way back from callousness?
I am glad you asked.
To tenderize your heart and return it to a supple, sensitive state, you must legalistic-ally obey every prompting in your spirit, no matter how slight.
The more you respond, the more sensitive you will become to the promptings and urges of your inward man.
Eventually, it will get easier and more accessible and, the callous condition of your heart will fall away.
You will be easy to be led instead of difficult to be led.
Let’s talk a little about God’s leading.
Measure your heart sensitivity against these Holy Spirit of God dealings with man.

1 Corinthians 1:18–20 (ESV) — 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

God’s wisdom — versus man’s leading.
Does it make sense to build a boat of gigantic proportions when all you’ve known your whole life is a little rain here and there?
Yet God said to Noah to build a boat.
Would you have listened?
If not, maybe, consider the fact that you have some work to do.
What about meeting a strong army with praise, a couple of guitars, and a tambourine as your only weapon?
That’s what God said to Jehoshaphat.
Would you have obeyed the Lord?
Again, if not, maybe consider the fact that you have some work to do.
How about fighting a war against an enemy that the Bible describes as more than the sand by the seaside for multitude?
And then have the Lord tell you to cut your fighting army from 32000 fighting men to 300.
Would you go to war with those numbers?
Again, if not, maybe consider the fact that you have some work to do
What say you here?
In response to God’s direction, would you sacrifice your only son, a son you waited almost 100 years to father?
If you were in Abraham’s place, would you have offered up Isaac?
Wisdom of God — wisdom of man – do you think you might have some work to do?
What about leaving the comforts of home in a peaceful country to end up living as a nomad in tents in the middle of the desert?
Abraham did that.
Would you move in God’s direction?
If not, consider the fact that you have some work to do
Do you think it’s reasonable of God to ask you to return to a country where you know you are wanted for murder and, when you get there, demand that the President of that country obey what God told you to tell him or else?
That’s what Moses did.
Would you do it?
What if you are at war and you are the army’s commander and, God told you to walk around an enemy city seven times?
And, you had no idea why He asked you to do that?
And after you did that, He said to you, ‘Now yell and play the piano.’
Hello? Are you hearing me?
Is it believable that God could ask a man to walk on water as the best mode of transportation in the middle of a tsunami-like storm?
What about fathoming a child taking on a fully grown, highly trained, ninja assassin, navy zeal type bad boy, heavily decked in the latest technological weaponry of the day, and all you have to fight with a rubber band you got from Staples and stone off your driveway?
Maybe we have some work to do in this area of being led.
Let me ask you, do you want the Holy Spirit of God to leave you alone when you are getting ready to do something idiotic?
You want Him to tell you to stop, and you want to be able to hear Him.
Ultimate Love will warn you if you are going down a path that will lead you off a cliff.
Let’s go on to the next part, sensuality.

Why Sensuality Is not Part of Abundant Life

Ephesians 4:19–20 (ESV) — 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—

So living heathen, those who are callous have done something else that should never be named among us.
They have given themselves up to sensuality.
Wuest says the words given themselves means “sell down the river.” The verb means “to give into the hands of another, to betray, to hand over, give one’s self up, present one’s self” ⁷
These callous folk have sold themselves over into sensuality.
What is sensuality?
Try the word lasciviousness.
How about the words, no restraint?
The word speaks of complete surrender of self, especially over in the area of wrong sex.
Now, it’s not just wrong sex, but you will see this word in the company of those kinds of words.
How about a different word, licentiousness – Lacking moral discipline?
Sexually unrestrained.

Romans 13:13 (ESV) — 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Do you see that?
Orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and sensuality are all in the same breath.
Restraint and control are proper, right, and godly.
Saying no to urges is true righteousness.

Proverbs 25:28 (ESV) — 28 A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

Paul preached to a Roman governor named Felix.
Listen to the gospel Paul preached.

Acts 24:25 (ESV) — 25 And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.”

Paul preached to Felix about controlling himself.
The first thing I noticed that was different in me when I came to Jesus was that I had self-control that was utterly lacking in my life.

2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV) — 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

He gave it to you – self-control — he gave you the ability to say no — to reel in sensuality.
Paul is saying to you and me by the Spirit of God that we are to say no to wrong sex and unrestrained living.
If you do a Bible search on self-control, you will find that there are 18 verses in the Bible, 17 of them in the New Testament.
You can say no and, with it the power to say yes to the abundant life of Jesus.
You guys have a great God week, and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

#S2-004: Secrets to Hearing God: What’s the Number One Way God Leads You? [Podcast]

__________
References:

https://britishheritage.com/art-culture/life-oscar-wilde ↩
Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002). ↩
Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 309. ↩
Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 1100. ↩
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 107. ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 143. ↩
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 108. ↩

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Equipping people to pursue God's glory

Why Callousness and Sensuality Are Not Part of the Abundant Life of Jesus

Podcast: Light on Life Season Nine Episode Thirty-One

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

The last time you followed your conscience, how did it turn out? Please share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Subscribe to the Podcast

Podcast Notes

Callousness and Sensuality: The Life You Shouldn’t Live

Why Callousness Is Not Part of the Abundant Life of Jesus

Why Sensuality Is not Part of Abundant Life

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

The last time you followed your conscience, how did it turn out? Please share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Subscribe to the Podcast

Podcast Notes

Callousness and Sensuality: The Life You Shouldn’t Live

Why Callousness Is Not Part of the Abundant Life of Jesus

Why Sensuality Is not Part of Abundant Life

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