Debauchery is the habitual and unrestrained indulgence of lust and sensuality. There are several places in Scripture where the word debauchery is used to indicate what we would today call “partying.” It encompasses several aspects of unholy living, including but not limited to sexual immorality, drunkenness, crude talk, and generally out-of-control behavior.
Examples of the use of debauchery in the Bible include:
Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
1 Peter 4:3, “For you have given time enough in the past to the doing of the things which the Gentiles delight in—pursuing, as you did, a course of habitual license, debauchery, hard drinking, noisy revelry, drunkenness and unholy image-worship.”
Luke 15:13, in reference to the lifestyle of the prodigal son, “No long time afterwards the younger son got all together and traveled to a distant country, where he wasted his money in debauchery and excess.”
Romans 13:13, “Living as we do in broad daylight, let us conduct ourselves becomingly, not indulging in revelry and drunkenness, nor in lust and debauchery, nor in quarreling and jealousy.”
Romans 13:14 goes on to contrast a debauched lifestyle with one that honors God: “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” The idea of debauchery is always used in reference to the ungodly (Galatians 5:19). There is no support in Scripture for a Christian to engage in debauchery. “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11). Those who are filled with the Spirit will not live in licentiousness.
Debauchery encompasses all that God hates (Romans 1:18), and it brings destruction in the end (Galatians 6:8). A Christian is one who has chosen to deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Christ (Luke 9:23). The lifestyle of carnality and the lifestyle of spirituality are incompatible and therefore cannot coexist. First John 5:18 says, “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin.” Galatians 5:23 says that those saved from debauchery exhibit self-control. “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (verse 24).
Debauchery is the polar opposite of godliness. It characterizes those who do not know Christ, those who are on the “broad way” that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13). No one who chooses a lifestyle of debauchery can also be a follower of Christ (Romans 6:1-2; 1 John 2:3; 3:10).
The Bible uses words such as iniquity, transgression, and trespass to indicate levels of disobedience to God. They are all categorized as “sin.” Micah 2:1 says, “Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.”
The Hebrew word used most often for “iniquity” means “guilt worthy of punishment.” Iniquity is sin at its worst. Iniquity is premeditated, continuing, and escalating. When we flirt with sin, we fall for the lie that we can control it. But like a cute baby monkey can grow to be a wild, out-of-control primate, sin that seems small and harmless at first can take control before we know it. When we give ourselves over to a sinful lifestyle, we are committing iniquity. Sin has become our god rather than the Lord (Romans 6:14).
When we realize we have sinned, we have a choice. We can see it for the evil it is and repent. When we do, we find the forgiveness and cleansing of God (Jeremiah 33:8; 1 John 1:9). Or we can harden our hearts and go deeper into that sin until it defines us. Partial lists of iniquities are given in Galatians 5:19–21 and in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10. These are sins that become so consuming that a person can be identified by that lifestyle. The psalmists distinguish between sin and iniquity when they ask God to forgive both (Psalm 32:5; 38:18; 51:2; 85:2).
If we continue to choose sin, our hearts harden toward God. One sin leads to another, and iniquity begins to define our lives, as it did when David sinned with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:3–4). His initial sin of lust resulted in a hardening of his heart, and his sin deepened. He committed adultery, then had Bathsheba’s husband killed (verses 14–15). Iniquity had taken over David’s life. It was only when confronted by the prophet Nathan that he repented with great sorrow. His heartfelt cry for forgiveness is detailed in Psalm 51. Verse 2 says, “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” David is a picture of someone who clearly understood the progression of iniquity and who experienced the mercy and forgiveness of God (Psalm 103:1–5).
The second half of Romans 1 outlines the progression of sin (verses 10–32). The end result for those with such hardened hearts is that God turns them over to a “reprobate mind” (verse 28, KJV), and they no longer have the desire or ability to repent. Reprobate means “thoroughly depraved, given over to evil until the conscience is seared.” The Scripture is clear that God forgives even iniquity (Micah 7:18), but if we persist in it, we will reap the wages of sin, which is eternal separation from God (Romans 6:23).
All the various forms of modern idolatry have one thing at their core: self. Most of the world no longer explicitly bows down to idols and images. Instead we worship at the altar of the god of self. This brand of modern idolatry takes various forms.
First, we worship at the altar of materialism which feeds our need to build our egos through the acquisition of more “stuff.” Our homes are filled with all manner of possessions. We build bigger and bigger houses with more closets and storage space in order to house all the things we buy, much of which we haven’t even paid for yet. Most of our stuff has “planned obsolescence” built into it, making it useless in no time, and so we consign it to the garage or other storage space. Then we rush out to buy the newest item, garment or gadget and the whole process starts over. This insatiable desire for more, better, and newer stuff is nothing more than covetousness. The tenth commandment tells us not to fall victim to coveting: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17). God doesn’t just want to rain on our buying sprees. He knows we will never be happy indulging our materialistic desires because it is Satan’s trap to keep our focus on ourselves and not on God.
Second, we worship at the altar of our own pride and ego. This often takes the form of obsession with careers and jobs. Millions of men—and increasingly more women—spend 60-80 hours a week working. Even on the weekends and during vacations, our laptops are humming and our minds are whirling with thoughts of how to make our businesses more successful, how to get that promotion, how to get the next raise, how to close the next deal. In the meantime, our children are starving for attention and love. We fool ourselves into thinking we are doing it for them, to give them a better life. But the truth is we are doing it for ourselves, to increase our self-esteem by appearing more successful in the eyes of the world. This is folly. All our labors and accomplishments will be of no use to us after we die, nor will the admiration of the world, because these things have no eternal value. As King Solomon put it, “For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 2:21-23).
Third, we idolize mankind through naturalism and the power of science. We cling to the illusion that we are lords of our world and build our self-esteem to godlike proportions. We reject God’s Word and His description of how He created the heavens and the earth, and we accept the nonsense of atheistic evolution and naturalism. We embrace the goddess of environmentalism and fool ourselves into thinking we can preserve the earth indefinitely when God has declared that this current age will have an end: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Peter 3:10–13). As this passage states, our focus should not be on worshiping the environment but on living holy lives as we wait eagerly for the return of our Lord and Savior. He alone deserves worship.
Finally, and perhaps most destructively, we worship at the altar of self-aggrandizement or the fulfillment of the self to the exclusion of all others and their needs and desires. This manifests itself in self-indulgence through alcohol, drugs, and food. Those in affluent countries have unlimited access to alcohol, drugs (prescription drug use is at an all-time high, even among children), and food. Obesity rates in the U.S. have skyrocketed, and childhood diabetes brought on by overeating is epidemic. The self-control we so desperately need is spurned in our insatiable desire to eat, drink, and medicate more and more. We resist any effort to get us to curb our appetites, and we are determined to make ourselves the god of our lives. This has its origin in the Garden of Eden where Satan tempted Eve to eat of the tree with the words “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). This has been man’s desire ever since—to be god and, as we have seen, the worship of self is the basis of all modern idolatry.
All idolatry of self has at its core the three lusts found in 1 John 2:16: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” If we are to escape modern idolatry, we have to admit that it is rampant and reject it in all its forms. It is not of God, but of Satan, and in it we will never find fulfillment. This is the great lie and the same one Satan has been telling since he first lied to Adam and Eve. Sadly, we are still falling for it. Even more sadly, many churches are propagating it in the preaching of the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel built on the idol of self-esteem. But we will never find happiness focusing on ourselves. Our hearts and minds must be centered on God and on others. This is why when asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). When we love the Lord and others with everything that is in us, there will be no room in our hearts for idolatry.
