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 for ever. 1 John 2:15-17

Verse 16 gives us the worldly trio, the three things that we need to be careful of because these are the things that trip us up. Whenever you and I get tempted, we are tempted in these three categories. 1) The lust of the flesh, These are the natural cravings that we have and that need to be satisfied (e.g. hunger) that the devil uses to manipulate us and cause us to sin. 2) The lust of the eyes. These are cravings that originate from what we see, e.g. a good looking girl or guy, money, cars, clothing, gadgets, successful people and the list goes on. 3) The pride of life. This is our need to boast, even to ourselves, and our need to look good. Each of us has an ego that is hungry to attention and satisfaction, of course, some are more obvious than others 🙂

And that ladies and gentlemen is the worldly trio to look out for. If you stay away from those the traps, then you’ll be ok. Adam and Eve fell into all three. I’ll show you how. In Adam and Eve’s case, the devil whispers into Eve’s ear and then in Gen 3 verse 6 (parentheses mine) we read “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh) and pleasing to the eye (lust of the eyes), and also desirable for gaining wisdom (pride of life), she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

On the other hand, our Hero Jesus was tempted in all three and triumphed over all three. In Matthew 4 we read, “The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’” (lust of the flesh), next he takes him to a high place and tells him to throw himself down because the angels would catch him (pride of life – who doesn’t want to be served), then finally “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’” (lust of the eyes).

Why don’t you pray and ask God to help you in these 3 areas. In each case confess to God what things you are susceptible to, not because he doesn’t know but because it helps your heart and your relationship with God. Ask him to help you to look out for and avoid any traps the enemy has for you in these areas. Remember God is greater and he gives us victory! God bless you!

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