Ephesians 4.19b-Unregenerate Gentiles Are Insensitive God's Will
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday June 19, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:19b-Unregenerate Gentiles Are Insensitive to God’s Will
Lesson # 261
Ephesians 4:17 Therefore, at this particular time I am communicating, specifically, at this particular time I am solemnly and earnestly making a request on the basis of the Lord’s sovereign authority. Namely, that each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to no longer make it your habit of conducting your lives as in fact the Gentiles are conducting their lives by means of the futility produced by their thinking. 18 Specifically, because they are darkened with respect to their understanding (of the three-fold revelation of the triune God). Consequently, they are alienated from the life, which originates uniquely in the character and nature of the one and only God because of the ignorance, which is a characteristic within them because of the hardness, which is produced by the function unique to their hearts. 19 Because they are characterized as insensitive (to God and His will and ways), each and every one of them as a corporate unit have given themselves over to self-indulgence for the purpose of practicing every type of sexual immorality in an inordinate and insatiable manner. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:19 continues Paul’s thought from Ephesians 4:17-18, in which he describes the ungodly thinking and resultant lifestyle of unregenerate Gentile members of the human race who are enslaved to their indwelling Adamic sin nature as well as Satan and his cosmic world system.
Ephesians 4:19 is composed of the following:
(1) causal participial clause: hoitines apēlgēkotes (οἵτινες ἀπηλγηκότες), “Because they are characterized as insensitive (to God and His will and ways)” (Author’s translation)
(2) declarative statement: heautous paredōkan tē aselgeia (ἑαυτοὺς παρέδωκαν τῇ ἀσελγείᾳ), “each and every one of them as a corporate unit have given themselves over to self-indulgence” (Author’s translation)
(3) prepositional phrase: eis ergasian akatharsias pasēs (εἰς ἐργασίαν ἀκαθαρσίας πάσης), “for the purpose of practicing every type of sexual immorality” (Author’s translation)
(4) prepositional phrase: en pleonexia (ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ), “in an inordinate and insatiable manner” (Author’s translation)
The causal participial clause hoitines apēlgēkotes (οἵτινες ἀπηλγηκότες), “Because they are characterized as insensitive (to God and His will and ways)” modifies the declarative statement heautous paredōkan tē aselgeia (ἑαυτοὺς παρέδωκαν τῇ ἀσελγείᾳ), “each and every one of them as a corporate unit have given themselves over to self-indulgence.”
It also presents the reason for this declarative statement.
Therefore, together they assert that the unregenerate Gentile members of the human race have given themselves over to self-indulgence because they are characterized as insensitive to God and specifically, insensitive to His holy character, will and ways.
The prepositional phrase eis ergasian akatharsias pasēs (εἰς ἐργασίαν ἀκαθαρσίας πάσης), “for the purpose of practicing every type of sexual immorality” presents the purpose of the declarative statement and the causal clause, which modifies it.
Therefore, all together, they assert that the unregenerate Gentile members of the human race have given themselves over to self-indulgence because they are characterized as insensitive to God and specifically, His holy character, will and ways for the purpose of practicing every type of sexual immorality.
Lastly, the prepositional phrase en pleonexia (ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ), “in an inordinate and insatiable manner” presents the manner in which the previous prepositional phrase is accomplished and so therefore, this asserts that the unregenerate Gentiles practice every type of sexual immorality in an inordinate and insatiable manner.
In the causal participle clause, Paul employs the qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις), which pertains to an undetermined person belonging to a class or having a status and emphasizes a characteristic quality, by which a preceding statement is to be confirmed.
This is the third time we have seen this word in our study of Ephesians.
In Ephesians 1:23, the word emphasizes the unique character of the Christian assemblies throughout the Roman Empire and in heaven when Paul wrote this epistle in the first century A.D.
Ultimately, the word refers to the totality of Christians who lived during the church age.
Also, this qualitative relative pronoun hostis emphasizes the characteristic quality of these Christian congregations or Christian assemblies throughout the Roman Empire and in heaven when Paul wrote this epistle in the first century A.D.
Ultimately, the word emphasizes the characteristic quality of the totality of Christians who lived during the church age.
It emphasizes that the members of the Christian community possess a unique character in that they are members of the body of Jesus Christ.
In Ephesians 3:13, the word emphasizes the unique character of Paul’s adversities and the unique character of Paul’s adversities because they are the result of being persecuted by his fellow unregenerate Jewish countrymen.
His unjust and thus undeserved suffering was unique in character because it was not as a result of his own criminal behavior but rather as a result of fulfilling his ministry to the Gentiles.
It was the result of proclaiming the mystery doctrine to the Gentile Christian community that they were on equal footing with the Jewish Christian community and that together formed the new humanity, which will dispossess Satan and his fellow evil spirits as rulers of planet earth.
This proclamation resulted in Paul experiencing persecution at the hands of unregenerate human beings who were deceived by Satan and the members of his kingdom for the purpose of hindering him from fulfilling this ministry.
However, unlike Ephesians 1:23 and 3:17, the referent and antecedent of the qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) in Ephesians 4:19 is the unregenerate Gentile members of the human race since this word agrees with the noun ethnos (ἒθνος), “the Gentiles” despite the fact that they do not agree in gender.
As was the case with the masculine plural form of the verbs skotoō (σκοτόω). eimi (εἰμί) and apallotrioō (ἀπαλλοτριόω), the referent of qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) in Ephesians 4:19 is the articular nominative neuter plural form of the noun ethnos (ἒθνος), “the Gentiles,” which we noted appears in Ephesians 4:17.
The reason why Paul changes the gender with these verbs and now this qualitative relative pronoun is because he is employing the figure of speech called, constructio ad sensum, which takes place when sense agreement supersedes syntactical agreement.
Here in Ephesians 4:19, Paul puts the qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) in the masculine rather than neuter gender because he wants to emphasize the unregenerate Gentile members of the human race as people rather than as a race in contrast to the Jews.
In Ephesians 4:19, the qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) pertains to Gentiles who belong to a particular class of the human race.
Namely, those who are unregenerate because they are spiritually dead as a result of being enslaved to the indwelling Adamic sin nature as well as Satan and his cosmic world system.
This word also emphasizes that which characterizes them, which confirms Paul’s preceding description of them in Ephesians 4:17-18.
Therefore, this qualitative relative pronoun emphasizes the character of these unregenerate Gentile members as belonging to a particular class of human beings who are enslaved to the indwelling Adamic sin nature and Satan and his cosmic world system.
Specifically, in context, it emphasizes the characteristic quality of these unregenerate Gentiles belonging to those members of the human race who have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness because they are callous in their hearts.
Therefore, this word introduces an assertion which confirms Paul’s statement in Ephesians 4:17-18.
In Ephesians 4:17, Paul reveals why this is the case is that they conduct their lives by means of the futility produced by their thinking.
Then, in Ephesians 4:18, he makes even more explicit as to why this is the case by asserting that it is because they are darkened with respect to their understanding (of the three-fold revelation of the triune God).
Consequently, they are alienated from the life, which originates uniquely in the character and nature of the one and only God because of the ignorance, which is a characteristic within them because of the hardness, which is produced by the function unique to their hearts.
In this causal participial clause in Ephesians 4:19, we noted that the referent of the verb apalgeō (ἀπαλγέω) is the unregenerate Gentile members of the human race.
Therefore, this verb speaks of these individuals and all of them as a corporate unit as in the state of being insensitive to God and His will and ways and speaks of them as having no capacity to feel shame and embarrassment regarding their sinful lifestyle because they are not bothered by the implications of what they are doing.
This callousness or insensitivity to God and His will and holy standards is the direct result of the rejecting God’s three-fold revelation of Himself in creation (Rom. 1:20-21) as well as in their souls (Rom. 1:19; 2:14-15) and through the communication of the gospel of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
This rejection is manifested by the fact that instead they practice idolatry.
The participle conjugation of this verb apalgeō (ἀπαλγέω) functions as a nominative of simple apposition, which serves to “describe” these unregenerate Gentile members of the human race.
The perfect conjugation of this verb apalgeō (ἀπαλγέω) is an intensive perfect, which expresses the idea of these unregenerate Gentile members of the human race “existing in the state” of being insensitive in their hearts with respect to God and specifically, His will and ways.
The participle conjugation of this verb apalgeō (ἀπαλγέω) functions as a causal participle, which expresses the idea that the unregenerate Gentile members of the human race have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness “because” they are insensitive to God’s will.
