debauchery diˈbô ch ərē| noun
‘excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures.’
Have you heard or used debauchery recently? Have you lived a life of debauchery? Or, are you living a life of debauchery?
Is Debauchery found in the Bible? If so, where? Does it apply to our living today? Or, was in for days gone by?
Would debauchery apply to why many people no longer attend church on a regular basis? Not only attend but take an active role in church? By the way have you heard ‘debauchery’ before or used in it conversation?
thedailylily.com 
Debauchery, while of archaic usage in our MOD society, is a precise word to describe the degeneration of the human condition into unchaste, immoral, intemperate, corrupt, perverse and prodigal behavior. That’s probably why the Lord God used that particular word in HIS WORD. It describes a life of unrestraint, licentiousness and waywardness, rebellion, dissipation, excess. I suppose if we were profligate or licentious in only one area of our lives, we might dismiss this concept from applying to us. But one of the definitions in ROGET’S Int. Thes. is “UNRESTRAINT”. That means unrestrained in any area of our lives that is NOT involved the godly, spiritual life of the HOLY SPIRIT. To be unrestrained in worship and praise is profitable to us and to God. But to be unrestrained in acquisition of material things, or in eating and drinking or in fornication and adultery and lust, whether physical or spiritual with idols, is debauchment of the human being and that defiles a person.
You ask if we have ever lived a life of debauchery.
Before I knew Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I was unrestrained in several areas of my life. And so accordingly, that is what He delievered me from…a life of profligacy and error. I imagine that I would have succumbed to a degenerate life of debauchery, eventually, if HE had not sent Jesus Christ and His prophet to help rescue me from my haughty self life. This world held many temptations.
Is debauchery found in the Bible and where?
In many scriptures and in alternate meanings of debauchery, we find in Rom. 13:13, (carousing and drunkeness); 1 Thess. 5:7, (getting drunk); 1Peter4:4 (excesses and dissipation that malign you). And thee are many places in the Old Testament that speak of excess and debauchery.
Evangelist John the Baptist lost his head because a debauched King Herod was so profligate that an immoral dance by Salome, moved him to do an ungodly act to please her and her mother.
If you are asking if there are people sitting in pews in the churches who are debauched and putting on a white-washed front we can check out 1 Corinthians 5:11 in which Paul admonishes this congregation…”But actually I wrote to you NOT TO ASSOCIATE with any SO-CALLED BROTHER/SISTER if he/she is an immoral person or covetous, or reviler or accusatory, or liar or drunkard or swindler.
The Message Bible puts it right where we live….”….I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when one of your Christian companions/friends is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude, gets drunk or greedy or predatory. You CANNOT just go along with this treating it as acceptable behavior. We have to some repsonsibility about those within our community of believers. God decides the outsiders but we need to decide when our brothers or sisters are out of line…and if necessary…clean house!!”
i guess that sort of answers the question whether is might be possible for debauchery to be alive and well among us believers.
The Lord is coming for a bride without spot or wrinkle. Some of us NEED to be taken to the CLEANERS!!
To add to MG’s comments, yes, the word debauchery is used in some Biblical translations. One particular one is in the story of the prodigal son who wasted his inheritance on sensual pleasures until, destitute, he finally came to a place of repentence.
“No long time afterwards the younger son got all together and travelled to a distant country, where he wasted his money in debauchery and excess.”
Luke 15:13 (Weymouth)
I think debauchery could be a reason why someone may not attend and/or play an active role in church. God’s truths confront us with choices that might make someone angry or uncomfortable about lifestyle choices.
The Bible instructs us to be careful about how we live and what we indulge in and provides choices for joyful, healthy living.
“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 5:15-20 (NIV)
# Romans 13:13 NIV
Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
Romans 13:12-14 Romans 13 NIV
I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
Galatians 5:19 NIV
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
Ephesians 5:18 NIV
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
1 Peter 4:3 NIV
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
Debi & I were discussing that since “debauchery” entails ungodly excesses, that too much talking and chatting and chit-chat about ungodly things or unprofitable notions, ideas and plottings is also ” debauchery”. Debi said that kind of talk was unprofitable.
I thought about the fig tree that Jesus and the disciples saw on the road. Jesus went to it looking for fruit as the tree was displaying lovely, plush, luxuriant leaves. That ordinarily is a sign that fruit is present & ready to plucked and eaten. But the tree was a fake..a sham… a pretend fruit tree. Jesus, our GOD and Lord, found no fruit on it. It was an unprofitable, though gorgeous looking, source of food. Jesus cursed the tree and it withered immediately.
Sometimes, God’s own people are luxurious, beautiful looking like the fig tree. But they are devoid of fruit. There’s no substance to them They sit in pews and look good. But it’s all show. By their FRUIT you shall know them, says Jesus.
sensual: relating to or consisting in the gratification of the senses or the indulgence of appetite : fleshly;2: sensory; 3 a: devoted to or preoccupied with the senses or appetites b: voluptuous c: deficient in moral, spiritual, or intellectual interests : worldly ; especially : irreligious (Miriam/Webster dictionary)
Galations 5:16, 17: “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
I had 2 or 3 short dreams about people talking and were all talk and no show in the last week or so. People talking and not making any profitable connections. When sickness and troubles confronted them they had no power.
I also heard about a potent vitamin for this unhealthy living. The best vitamin for a Christian is … B1
Sara, you have asked, several questions about “debauchery”, here. Debi, MG, and you have written some excellent information. I do think we are living in a society that lives like….”if it feels good, do it”. You recently shared a scripture with me that truly is a warning to us and our society, and I would like to share here. Read with me, Romans 1: 18-32, “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.”
Father, forgive us for living a life of “debauchery”, and have mercy on us. Help us, to turn from our wicked ways. In Jesus name, Amen.
“a life of self-absorption’ is another definition I found for debaucher. This sounds like some of us are “out to lunch.”
my online dictionary…out to lunch informal unaware of or inattentive to present conditions…PHRASES…out to lunch some of these therapists are more out to lunch than their patients… crazy, out of one’s mind, mad; out of touch, out of it, unaware, absentminded; cuckoo, batty, flaky, spacey, nutty,wingy, off one’s rocker.”
Needles quoted scripture from Romans 1 makes one think…someone is ‘out to lunch’ according to the Bible.
I love this blog! Wake up, cries the Lord to His people.
I am reading a marvelous devotional by Bill Johnson that a prayer partner has given me as a gift to celebrate our partnership in prayer. In one of the sections, the author speaks about guarding his heart against the the throes of the material world which assail us all, constantly, in one form or another. He calls it “stewarding his heart”. And he uses strategic tools…he calls them “calculated responses” to the warning signals” that his spirit gives out.
But we can only respond correctly and overcome if we understand the warning signals. He gives the example that if the oil light comes on in the car and his response it to take it to the car wash then he clearly does not understand what the warning light really means and it could mean big trouble, costly trouble.
This happens to God’s people, often. We get an admonishment and an exhortation that God gives through a pastor, or a prophet or a godly Christian friend. It is the warning light of the Holy Spirit indicating that there’s a problem afoot and that we need to tend to it. Sometimes it is an out and out reprimand and/or warning. It is a merciful GOD giving us a clue and a hint and a command, a second chance so to speak, to clean up a part of our life. But if we don’t heed the warning light and our response is to go out and indulge ourselves in our career more intensely, or give a gift to the poor, or help someone in need BUT WE DO NOT CLEAN UP THE SELF-INDULGENCE of keeping on with our secret sin….then, like the light shows on the dashboard…YOU ARE OUT OF OIL. And we know what Jesus told the 5 foolish virgins who ran out of oil…. “Go away. I do not know you”
One of the definitions I found for debauchery was dissipate
Dissipate – synonym is scatter, disappear, vanish
–verb (used with object)
1. to scatter in various directions; disperse; dispel.
2. to spend or use wastefully or extravagantly; squander; deplete: to dissipate one’s talents; to dissipate a fortune on high living.
Wow! We become too scattered and our God given talents seeming vanish. No one can recognize them. What was a talent is no longer useful to the body of Christ. Or according to the second definition we could spend our money on high living, not on what God had given most of the money for – the furtherance of His Kingdom.
Speaking of no oil – no light for him – our light has vanished.
MG, love the”devotional by Bill Johnson…“stewarding his heart”.
Rena, great definition for debauchery…all I can say is WHOA! If we every wonder why we are not being used in the Body of Chirst or our gift is not recognized by others this is the answer. I think Debi gave it above in the parable of the prodigal son that wasted his money and resources. Just what he did scattered them, wasted them, squander them, high living he did.
Dear God, forgive me for how often I have and still waste my time and resources.
And one of the things that scares me is that God give us over to a reprobate mind. Ouch! Some must not think that just because their little secret sin is not adultery or robbing banks that they don’t have to put restraints on their minds and “steward their hearts.”
Like the frog in the pot of tepid water that heats up slowly over the flame, and little by little his ‘goose” is cooked before he realizes it….the mind becomes darkened and there is very little light. The strength is waning and the determination is gone. It becomes very dark and the mind does not even notice until reprobation becomes the lifestyle and the oil is all gone. And they hardly notice it. Oh Lord Help.
When I study and read these scriptures (on debauchery) and look all around me and think, is there anything else but debauchery? I find hope in writings such as when the prophet Ezekiel saw heaven open and beheld visions of God, he had no language to describe that for which he saw.
We are very much aware daily of our situations on earth but there is more, much more, a lot more and we can gain glimpses into this reality with the hope we can learn to live each and everyday closer to the things Ezekiel saw. Paul, in I Corinthians tells us how to seek to pattern our thoughts by seeking God with an open heart and allowing The Holy Spirit to teach and reveal God’s nature to us and we can live a life separated from debauchery. What an amazing thought!
MG sounds like there must be a checks and balances system in place over our minds.
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)
It seems to me that we have to make good choices about what we think about, what we feed our minds with, because it will eventually process all throughout our bodies.
Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
Debi, I find your comment her On June 4 and Needles’ blog on June 5 to be about the same subject and using the exact scripture. How interesting. I had this analogy come to my mind.
I visited a condo my son wanted to buy and in the study it had double windows on two walls. One window looked out over the swimming pool and the other looked out over a green area. But, if someone came up to both windows and looked in they would see a sofa, same sofa, just a different view of the sofa. This is how I see Debi’s comment on debauchery and Needles blog on “What do you think?”
Shortly after Sara posted this blog on the tern dabauchery, I was listening to the DC metro news the other day(s) and heard a critique by Ann Hornaday of the movie “HANGOVER”. She used this word to describe what the film entailed…”DEBAUCHERY”. It contains evil, sensuous, lustful, degrading,
irreverent words and actions from what little she revealed of the so-called plot. It seems to contain every evil thing and work and deed, so it indicates. She used the term ‘DEBAUCHERY.”
Solomon said, “there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1
I can’t believe people live a life of debauchery and then want to go and pay and sit eating popcorn in a theatre to see more of their debauchery lifestyle looking back at them. Good for Ann Hornaday for giving the review.
Sara I have been thinking about your sofa view comment a lot today. It is very profound. One thought from my limited perspective is that it gives a glimpse of how God must see people’s differing perspectives and how and why they see, absorb and express things the way they do.
What determines how our window of perspective is framed? And even though our windows may be so near to each other, yet our view can be so different.
This scripture keeps coming to mind from I Cor 12:4-6 “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.”
When someone looks ‘in’ on us do they see that same Spirit at work. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” (vs 7).
Debi, interesting thoughts on window views…I would think from your thoughts on gifitings a person looking in would only see a gift or the giving of the gift as it applies to their life at the moment. Since the’ gift’ is for the Body of Christ what good would it be to one outside the family of God? It another part of the body was looking in they would see a part that would perfectly fit their need. The word says, ‘we are being fitted together.’
Sara, love your comment on the sofa-view, also, and applying it to the multi-faceted WORD of God. And concerning the debauched kind of thinking, the movie critic, Ann Hornaday said that movie was like a lesson in debauchery,(my words but she did use debauchery) while another critic told of its depraved scenes, gleefully, and gave it 3 stars. So I suppose those who revel in debauchery will rush to the theatres to see it, maybe twice. Jesus said in REVELATION,
“for the time is at hand…he that is unjust, let him be unjust still and he which is filthy be filthy still..and he that is righteous be righteous still and he who is holy be holy still…for I am coming quickly and I will give to every man his reward according to his works, shall it be.”
What we do in the secret places He will expose to the open. And what we think in our hearts will be a testimony for or against us when He comes to give us our reward for faithfulness or….CORRUPTION>