“For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.”
in lewdness
Lewdness means excesses, licentiousness, absence of restraint, indecency, wantonness, debauchery, sensuality. Lewdness is wanton or unabashed sensuality. This person parades their deviant sexuality, not caring what people think of him. He has no concern about even his reputation must less his character.
Ro 13:13, “Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.”
“Lewdness” may relate to the Phallic cult of that day. This cult participated in unrestrained sexual activity. This was a dominant religion of that day. Everyone wanted to belong to that church! Their goddess was Aphrodite (Greek name; the Romans called her Venus, and the Semitic peoples called her Ishtar).
Eph 4:19, “Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
Jude 4, “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The behavior of these people completely lacks moral restraint. “Lewdness” usually implies sexual licentiousness of extreme immorality. They live like dogs promiscuous in sexual behavior
2 Cor. 12:21, “Lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced.”
Some Christians in the church at Corinth were guilty of this sin.
Gal. 5:19, “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness.”
The central idea is shameless conduct. Lewdness takes part in actions that disgust and shock public decency. These people carry open outrage against decency. They tolerate no check or rein on their will.
PRINCIPLE:
Lewdness is characteristic of a society without any standards.
APPLICATION:
The best picture of debauchery in our society is the homosexual who comes “out of the closet” and is proud of his perversion. There is nothing too dirty, too filthy, too sexy, or rotten for these people.
Unrestrained filth, smut, obscenity, and pornography fit into this word. The internet will launch unrestrained lewdness into greater influence in our world. Girls will unabashedly provocatively portray their whole bodies to the entire world. The filthier, the more blatant and flagrant, the more it will spread. We give people what they want and what customers demand.
The world demands filth because it runs alienated from God. Without God, there can be no standards other than arbitrary standards.
