Ephesians 4:17-19 – “I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”
The Apostle Paul reminds us that, as people made in the image of God, everyone is born with a conscious awareness of right and wrong. A callous heart comes from people giving themselves over to practice things that violate their conscience. The hard heart is ignorant of the life of God because of their choice to give themselves over to indecent acts they know better than to commit. When the Bible says that God turns people over, it is always in relation to their will. God enables people to draw near to Him and He enables people to have what they want besides Him.
Having this understanding, the Apostle Paul warns Christians not to give their hearts over to sin. The temptation is to believe that upon giving into the lusts of the flesh you can just bring your heart right back to Jesus again. The truth is, when you give the devil a foothold, it can hook your heart into a pattern of behavior that steals, kills, and destroys. That is why the Bible says, ‘Guard your heart above all else, for from it flows the wellsprings of your life’ – Proverbs 4:23. Jesus is greater than all our sin and He can restore any heart that cries out to Him. However, ‘sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay.’ – unknown