Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words
| A-1 | Noun | Strong’s Number: g1939 | Greek: epithumia |
Lust (Noun and Verb):
denotes “strong desire” of any kind, the various kinds being frequently specified by some adjective (see below). The word is used of a good desire only in Luk 22:15; Phl 1:23; 1Th 2:17. Everywhere else it has a bad sense. In Rom 6:12 the injunction against letting sin reign in our mortal body to obey the “lust” thereof, refers to those evil desires which are ready to express themselves in bodily activity. They are equally the “lusts” of the flesh, Rom 13:14; Gal 5:16, 24; Eph 2:3; 2Pe 2:18; 1Jo 2:16, a phrase which describes the emotions of the soul, the natural tendency towards things evil. Such “lusts” are not necessarily base and immoral, they may be refined in character, but are evil if inconsistent with the will of God.
Other descriptions besides those already mentioned are: “of the mind,” Eph 2:3; “evil (desire),” Col 3:5; “the passion of,” 1Th 4:5, RV; “foolish and hurtful,” 1Ti 6:9; “youthful,” 2Ti 2:22; “divers,” 2Ti 3:6; Tts 3:3; “their own,” 2Ti 4:3; 2Pe 3:3; Jud 1:16; “worldly,” Tts 2:12; “his own,” Jam 1:14; “your former,” 1Pe 1:14, RV; “fleshly,” 1Pe 2:11; “of men,” 1Pe 4:2; “of defilement,” 2Pe 2:10; “of the eyes,” 1Jo 2:16; of the world (“thereof”), 1Jo 2:17; “their own ungodly,” Jud 1:18. In Rev 18:14 “(the fruits) which thy soul lusted after” is, lit., “of thy soul’s lust.”
See DESIRE, A, No. 1 (where associated words are noted).
| A-2 | Noun | Strong’s Number: g3715 | Greek: orexis |
Lust (Noun and Verb):
lit., “a reaching” or “stretching after” (akin to oregomai, “to stretch oneself out, reach after”), a general term for every kind of desire, is used in Rom 1:27, “lust.”
| A-3 | Noun | Strong’s Number: g2237 | Greek: hedone |
Lust (Noun and Verb):
“pleasure,” is translated “lusts,” in the AV of Jam 4:1, 3 (RV, “pleasure”).
See PLEASURE.
Note: In 1Th 4:5, AV, pathos, “passion” (RV, “passion”), is translated “lust,” which is the better rendering of the next word epithumia, rendered “concupiscence.” Pathos is described by Trench as “the diseased condition out of which epithumia springs.” In 1Cr 12:6: epithumetes, a luster after, is rendered “to lust.”
Nouns are affected by adjectives used in a sentence and have relevance to a particular subject at hand. Lust is not as cut and dried as one simple noun or verb. In our translations it is a matter of how it is used in connection with a subject matter. Quoted: “Such “lusts” are not necessarily base and immoral, they may be refined in character, but are evil if inconsistent with the will of God.”