Flesh, Eyes and Pride

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First John 2:15-17 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” 

     You would think that a retired pastor would be able to recognize the pitfalls of life as he has studied and preached about it for the past forty years.  Well, not the case for yours truly.  I violated one of my own principles and fell prey to the “pride of life.”  Well, I can look on it this way, at least it gives me something to write about in my daily devotions but it is a bitter pill today and probably for a long time.  I won’t go into the details here except to say that I thought I could replace God by assuming I could help in a situation that was out of my realm.

     As I mentioned, I have looked at this passage above a number of times because the principle that is mentioned here is also seen in a very practical way in Genesis 3, Matthew 4 and in Luke 4.  Satan used the above practice in Genesis when  he tempted the woman in the Garden of Eden.  you can see all three actions, the lust of the eyes, (the fruit looked good) the lust of the flesh (it was good for food) and the pride of life, (it would make you healthy and wise). The same three principles were used in the New Testament in the temptation of Christ in the wilderness.  When Satan has a good thing going, he keeps on using it.  John wrote in the above epistle that the same tactics are being used in the world today and we can all fall victim of any one of the three in a moment's notice.  The world especially uses the lust of the eyes in its advertising programs to promote a new product.  Men are specifically targeted with some new product by advertising it with a beautiful young lady in the picture which has nothing to do with the product itself, but men especially fall victim to it because they are triggered so much by what they see.  The pride of life is also a big one as we feel that we can take care of anything ourselves and not let God even get involved.  After all, He needs to be working on world peace and the energy crisis so we think that we can take care of all of the small things.  The lust of the flesh is also a motivator to sin by making it a craving of the flesh.  Our actions need to be guided by the Word of God and certainly not of the body in which we live.  Well, praise God today for His principles.  May we learn to follow Him instead of the world system.