Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 5. Who being past feeling - Οιτινες απηλγηκοτες. The verb απαλγειν signifies,
1. To throw off all sense of shame, and to be utterly devoid of pain, for committing unrighteous acts.
2. To be desperate, having neither hope nor desire of reformation; in a word, to be without remorse, and to be utterly regardless of conduct, character, or final blessedness.
Instead of απηλγηκοτες, several excellent MSS. and versions have απηλπικοτες, being without hope; that is, persons who, from their manner of life in this world, could not possibly hope for blessedness in the world to come, and who might feel it their interest to deny the resurrection of the body, and even the immortality of the soul.
6. Have given themselves over unto lasciviousness - Lasciviousness, ασελγεια, is here personified; and the Gentiles in question are represented as having delivered themselves over to her jurisdiction. This is a trite picture of the Gentile world: uncleanness, lechery, and debauchery of every kind, flourished among them without limit or restraint. Almost all their gods and goddesses were of this character.
7. To work all uncleanness with greediness - This is a complete finish of the most abandoned character; to do an unclean act is bad, to labor in it is worse, to labor in all uncleanness is worse still; but to do all this in every case to the utmost extent, εν πλεονεξια, with a desire exceeding time, place, opportunity, and strength, is worst of all, and leaves nothing more profligate or more abandoned to be described or imagined; just as Ovid paints the drunken Silenus, whose wantonness survives his strength and keeps alive his desires, though old age has destroyed the power of gratification: -
Te quoque, inextinctae Silene libidinis, urunt:
Nequitia est, quae te non sinit esse senem.
Fast., lib. i. v. 413.
Thee also, O Silenus, of inextinguishable lust,
they inflame; Thou art old in every thing except in lust.
Such was the state of the Gentiles before they were blessed with the light of the Gospel; and such is the state of those nations who have not yet received the Gospel; and such is the state of multitudes of those in Christian countries who refuse to receive the Gospel, endeavor to decry it, and to take refuge in the falsities of infidelity against the testimony of eternal truth.