All five terms exhibit a lack of self-control. God had created people to exercise dominion over God’s creation (Genesis 1:26–27), and that necessarily includes self-control. But the fall into sin corrupted the heart to such an extent that dominion over oneself is gone. The renewing work of the Holy Spirit includes self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). The Gentiles (the spiritually unborn among whom Peter’s readers live) happily give themselves to excesses of all sorts, a lifestyle that typifies general society. We find parallel lists in Galatians 5:19–21, Colossians 3:5–8, Ephesians 4:19, Ephesians 5:3–4, indicating how widespread such vices were in Asia Minor (and no doubt beyond).
3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.