Daily Devotional #16 (1 John 2:15-17)

In 1 John 2:15-29, we discover three enemies to the believer's fellowship with God. Yesterday, we began considering the first of these three. Our first enemy to our daily walk with the Lord is the world. In 1 John 2:16, John describes this first enemy with three descriptors. Yesterday, we considered John's first descriptor of the world. Today, we will consider the second.

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

The second descriptor of the world, that first enemy of our fellowship with God, is "the lust of the eyes". Whereas, the lust of the flesh is a distorted desire for pleasure, the lust of the eyes is a distorted desire for possessions.

The last of the Ten Commandments says, "Do not covet." Without covetousness, all of the other nine commandments are not possible. As in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, in every garden of life, God has placed something that is beyond our created reach.

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6).

In Genesis 13:10-11, Lot chose the land next to Sodom according to the way it looked. Basing our decisions on how things look could fall under the purview of "the lust of the eyes." But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death (James 1:14-15). Lusts are pleasant to the eyes because they deceive us into thinking that we can run our lives for ourselves.

Not much is more enticing than to believe that we are self-operating-selves. This is the origin of self-effort and self-righteousness. Lust is thus believing that we have a life outside God and that we somehow can improve ourselves.