Door 2

1 John 2:15-17
15* Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16* 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. 17* The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

The scripture above is our base. In the last post we examined the 1st door, the lust of the flesh. In this post we will examine the lust of the eyes.

John says do not love the things of this world. Our first contact with the things of this world is through our eyes. However, St. Augustine, to paraphrase, has added that, in a broader sense our eyes represent all of our senses. We may say something like, let me see how good that cake is. Or, I want to see for myself how soft that pillow is. Or, let's see if that song is as good as everyone says it is. What Augustine was saying is that John used the term lust of the eyes, but that statement can and should be applied to all of our senses, i.e. lust of the nose, lust of the taste buds, lust of the ears, etc. Trust me, I know it sounds funny---but give it some thought.

Our senses allow us to experience the world God created for us. And He has created great things for us to enjoy. John does not say do not enjoy or appreciate beauty. He says, do not love those things which are pleasing to our senses. Brothers and sisters think about this, our senses connect us to this fallen world. Our thoughts and faith connect us to our true home in heaven. John is saying here that we should not allow ourselves to love the things of the world because our flesh enjoys those things so much. We should never be so wrapped up in the creation that we forget to worship the creator.

Satan loves this door! Your enemy is the most fantastic marketer of all time. The Devil knows how to advertise and get our attention off the things of God and on the things of this world. He is a master at it. Contemplate the number of things that are out there to stimulate your fleshly desire. It is no accident. There is a snare or a trap around every corner.

Relying on our senses to give us direction, or loving the things of this world because they please our senses will cause us to have a stronger connection with the world than we have with God. It will lead us down the sinful path of loving the creation instead of the creator. This will lead us to disobey God's word and will for our lives in favor of pleasures we derive from our senses. Look at what happened in the garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?



3:2
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:



3:3
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.



3:4
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:



3:5
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.



3:6
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.


When Eve saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, the sensual attraction of that fruit was so strong that she disobeyed the almighty God, creator of heaven and earth. And all that dirty devil had to do was direct her attention to the beautiful fruit that God made, and make the suggestion that she misuse it. That's all it took, and here we are, thousands of years later, struggling with our sins, because of the lust of the eyes.

Satan knew the fruit was appealing. He knew that it looked delicious. He also knew that all he had to do was make a little suggestion, and the lust would take over from there. He tried the same trick with Jesus when he tempted our savior in the wilderness.

Satan had already attempted to get Jesus to rely on his own strength and not wait on the Father. Here we see Satan playing upon the lust of the eyes.

Matthew 4:8-9
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

You see, Satan wanted to Jesus to so desire the things that he saw for himself than he would have forsaken the command of God. That is the great danger of Door #2. Our lust, whether through our eyes, nose, mouth, ears, or hands (or a combination of all), has the ability to separate us from God permanently. We can get so enthralled in what we see, that we get satisfied with the picture and never seek after the artist.

Hollywood, big radio, internet, television, fast food, are all things Satan can use to stimulate that lust. It is crucial that you begin to recognize when your enemy is at work and take corrective actions. We all have those things that physically move us, and our enemy knows them as well. As Christians, we need to become adept at identifying the handiwork of our enemy so we stand aganinst it. Too often we look at things through the eyes of the world and not through the eyes of God. The lust of the eyes requires us to view things in the flesh. The antidote is looking at the world's filth through a biblical lens.

When I was in school the nurse would do a lesson every year on how to brush your teeth. Then they would give us a tooth brush, and tell us to go brush our teeth. When we looked in the mirror our teeth looked clean. Then they gave us a tablet that when chewed left a red stain on any food particles left over. When we looked again after chewing the pill we could see that what we thought was clean was not so clean. Brothers and sisters when we look at things through the eyes of the world, it may look fine. But when we look at the same thing through the eyes of a holy God, we can then see the filth that lies just beneath the surface. Satan can only make evil look good on the outside. He can never make it good on the inside where it counts.

Satan wants us to feed our flesh so that it grows stronger. What we need to do is starve it.