Exploring 1 John: The Character of the World
1 John 2:16 - The world tries to dominate our lives and turn us from the Father.
”For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.“
1 John 2:16 NASB1995
I thought this Unsplash photo was wonderfully ironic to go with this verse. It’s a perfume called Lust. John is telling us that all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. I know we have studied the word lust before, but let’s do the word study again. Lust comes from the Greek word ἐπιθυμία or epithymía, with the following Biblical usages; G1939 is used 38 times in the New Testament:
desire, craving, longing, desire for what is forbidden, lust
As I have noted with previous similar verses from other devotionals, this is really our culture in a nutshell. Advertising and our consumer culture aims at one or more of these states (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life). Luxury is the goal in having the right beautiful or handsome companion, the right pleasures, the right comforts, the right indulgences; luxury is Defined as:
1: a condition of abundance or great ease and comfort : sumptuous environment, lived in luxury
2a: something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary - one of life's luxuries
2b : an indulgence in something that provides pleasure, satisfaction, or ease; had the luxury of rejecting a handful of job offer
Notice that lust is considered “archaic” as an alternate definition for luxury by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. We just can’t have those old, quaint, archaic Biblical definitions of sin to contend with, can we?
Observe how these young people are looking at the Lamborghini. There is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life captured in one photo. The people that exited this car in front of the Hotel Paris in Monaco probably did not look like the average tourist in the streets. A stripped-down more common model of a Lamborghini starts at about $211,000; this car is probably well over $1 million in price. I don’t judge those who want such luxuries, but this lust is from the world and not from the Father.
Here is what Enduring Word commentary has to say about this passage - this is a superb and sobering commentary:
For all that is in the world: The character of the world expresses itself through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These lusts seek to draw our own flesh away into sin and worldliness.
The idea behind the pride of life is someone who lives for superiority over others, mostly by impressing others through outward appearances – even if by deception.
To get an idea of how the world works, think of the advertising commercials you most commonly remember. They probably make a powerful appeal to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or to the pride of life. Many successful ads appeal to all three.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life: In listing these aspects of the world, John may have in mind the first pursuit of worldliness, that of Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6).
Of Eve in the Garden of Eden, it is said that she took of the forbidden fruit when she saw that the tree was good for food. She thought about how good the fruit would taste, how it would satisfy her flesh. She went after the lust of the flesh.
Of Eve in the Garden of Eden, it is said that she took of the forbidden fruit when she saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes. She saw how pretty and desirable it was, and it pleased her artistic sense. She went after the lust of the eyes.
Of Eve in the Garden of Eden, it is said that she took of the forbidden fruit when she believed that it was desirable to make one wise. How smart the fruit would make her! How her husband would admire her! She went after the pride of life.
Is not of the Father but is of the world: This explains why the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are sin even though they feel good and satisfy something in us. God knows we have a fleshly, bodily nature, and physical needs that feel good when satisfied. Yet it is not in God’s nature to influence us through the lust of the flesh.
God knows we have eyes, and that appearance means a lot to us. He made a beautiful world to please us! But God always looks beyond the outward appearance, and it is not in God’s nature to influence us through the lust of the eyes.
God knows we have emotional and psychological needs to be wanted and to accomplish things. He made us this way! But it is not in God’s nature to influence us through the pride of life.
Not of the Father but is of the world: We often rarely appreciate how much the world dominates our thinking and how often our thoughts are more of the world than of the Father.
We usually believe that we think much more Biblically than we really do. We should rigorously measure our habits of thinking and see if they follow more the world or God our Father.
Think of your standard for success: is it worldly or godly? Would you consider the apostle Paul a failure or a success?
Think of your standard for what makes a person of the opposite sex appealing. Is it a worldly standard or a godly standard?
Think of your standard for spirituality: is it worldly or godly? There is a worldly spirituality out there, and many people embrace it.
This shows how great our need is to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2).
What are your standards for success? Most of us are probably trapped in worldly standards based on our incomes, our status, our achievements, our possessions, our pleasures, and the performance of our retirement accounts. I confess to being trapped in those things, even now. Even the standard for spirituality is worldly and getting more so in this age of “do your own thing”.
If you will recall, I recently shared a great commentary from John Piper on these passages in 1 John and how we are to put God first in everything. Here is more from that commentary on how the lusts of the world are not just the obvious ones (Piper is writing from his personal experiences with venues and areas in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area):
So the phrase “pride of life” means pride in what you possess — the things you have. Now we can see how the three descriptions of the world relate to each other. The first two — lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes — refer to desires for what we don’t have. And the third — the pride of life — refers to the pride in what we do have. The world is driven by these two things: passion for pleasure and pride in possessions.
If you try to satisfy your longing by sucking in the air of the world, you will not be able to drink the water of heaven.
And the passion for pleasure is described in two ways because there are two large classes of pleasure — physical and aesthetic. There is the lust of the flesh — bodily pleasures; and the lust of the eyes — aesthetic and intellectual pleasures. John is not naïve. He knows that the world is not limited to Hennepin Avenue [note: this was historically a notorious and bawdy district in Minneapolis].
There is the lust of the gutter and the lust of the gourmet. There is the lust for hard rock and the lust for high Rachmaninoff. There is the lust of Penthouse and the lust of Picasso. There is the lust of the Orpheum and the lust of the Ordway. First John ends with this ringing command: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols!” — whether they are crude or whether they are cultured (1 John 5:21).
Note: The Orpheum and the Ordway are different performance venues in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Piper is saying the cultured world can be just as much an idol of the flesh as the world of pornography.
This was very convicting to me. For years and years, we collected cultural experiences (operas, major art exhibits, art galleries, symphony concerts, Broadway shows, special theater productions). We traveled to New York over twenty years ago specifically to see the Ring Cycle (four Wagner epic operas) at the Met, calling it a “bucket list” thing. We spent many days in summers past attending productions at the Santa Fe Opera. We also focused heavily on dragging ourselves to many games and cheering for our local hapless MLB team, with our emotional responses (well, mainly my responses) tied to the winning and losing record of a bunch of well-paid grown men playing a child’s game.
We still attend the occasional event, but have given up all of the season tickets that we used to have. We stubbornly cling to travel as a way of satisfying these lusts of the eyes, justifying it in our minds because we love the Creator and His Creation. But God must come first and last! He is the One that should be there with us as we undertake any activity in this life, with His providence and blessing coupled with our obedience. Oh, how I pray that I can put these things away, as they are truly idols.
My next devotional examines 1 John 2:17 - The folly of worldliness.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Please help me to continue to turn away from the lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh and the boastful pride of life. You are my first love and all that is good, true and beautiful in this life and the next is due to Your grace, mercy and love. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 4/16/2024 to review the lexicon for lust.
Commentary in Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For more than thirty years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. He is author of more than fifty books, and his sermons, articles, books, and more are available free of charge at desiringGod.org.
In all cases of republishing, the following attribution must be included:
By John Piper. © Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org