Self-betrayal

talks about giving oneself over to a certain work-ethic. Paul is not in a storytelling mode when he paints the picture of the completeness of the abandonment of light.

Ephesians 4:19

Beware of Gentile likes and ignorance

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

Ephesians 4:17

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Ephesian 4:18

Who being past feeling (apelgekotes) have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

These people who are “past feeling” are not just behaving without feeling, they are settled into the condition where they feel nothing for others. In the Bible this would be the people, seeing only themselves as beneficiaries of God’s gifts and deserving of his mercies, profess to love God so much that they do not need to help their neighbour. In our world this would be the thing that defines a lot of deeply religious people. They say “We care for the lost and the outsider” but they will stand outside their door, do everything not to eat with or be seen with the lost of the outsider. Peter and the early church was bullied to accept this attitude towards others.
They just wanted to continue as they have in all their generations, yet the prostitutes and tax-collectors heeded the message from God’s anointed and his messenger.