NOTE: This is a portion of my sermon on 1 John 2:15-17 entitled “Don’t Decorate Your Cell” in 1 – 3 John: Fellowship in the Family (Crossway, 2013), 95-108.

Verse 16 defines what the world system consists in with three parallel phrases: our fleshly desires, our desire for things we see, and the boastful pride of life. Let’s unpack each of those phrases. When John talks about the “lust of the flesh,”^[i] the word translated “lust” means “inordinate desire.”^[ii]

In our vocabulary, “lust” is usually taken in reference to sexual desire and not chocolate cake. Here it includes but is not limited to sexual lust. The etymology of the word in Greek is “to be hot after something.” In this context, lust is any sinful desire that is contrary to the will of God.

What is your “flesh” in this statement? It is human nature corrupted by sin. Apart from the grace of God, the flesh offers a bridgehead to sin in our life.  “Lust of the flesh” describes what it means to live life dominated by the senses. In the extreme, it would include “gluttonous in food , . . . slavish in pleasure, lustful and lax in morals, selfish in the use of possessions; regardless of all the spiritual values; extravagant in the gratification of material desires.”^[iii]

The “lust of the flesh” is all desires centered in your nature without regard to the will of God. It is that which constantly fights against the things of God in your life. The lust of the flesh is contrary to the desire to do the will of God. In Galatians 5:19-24, we see probably the most familiar of all passages on the flesh versus the Spirit motif. Paul lists several examples of the deeds of the flesh followed by the familiar fruit of the Spirit. The contrast is stark!

Those who are “loving the world” and giving in to the “lust of the flesh” can expect to see these kinds of attitudes and actions characterizing their lives. On the other hand, those who are not loving the world system but rather are controlled by the Holy Spirit can expect to see the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.  As difficult as it is, Paul instructs us in Romans 13:11-14 to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.” Calvin used this Pauline passage to define the lust of the flesh: “When worldly men, desiring to live softly and delicately, are intent only on their own convenience.”^[iv] Calvin is spot on here because much of our flesh craves its own convenience. As the great Puritan Richard Sibbes said: “This flesh of mine is ready to betray me into the hands of the world and of the devil, therefore there must be a marvelous strong guard. I must not suffer my affections to rove.”^[v]

The second phrase, “lust of the eyes,”^[vi] means we desire what we see. In Scripture, the eyes are the primary organ of perception and often the principal avenue of temptation. We see that in the case of David who saw Bathsheba, lusted after her, and later committed adultery with her. David should have read and practiced Job 31:1: “I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully on a woman.”

As in the former phrase “lust of the flesh,” so here again sexual lust is only a fraction of the meaning of the phrase. In Matthew 6:22, Jesus asserts that the eye is the lamp of the body. “If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.” Your eyes are closely related to your heart! Proverbs 17:24 says that “wisdom is in the presence of one who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.” The Psalmist says of the arrogant in Psalm 73:7, “Their eye bulges from fatness; the imaginations of their heart run riot.”

The “lust of the eyes” describes someone who is captivated by an outward show of materialism. See a new car, must have it. See a dress, must have it. See a position, must have it. Cars, dresses, positions, etc., are not in and of themselves sinful. But the inordinate desire to have what we see is sinful. An inordinate desire to have anything contrary to God’s will is sinful.

The third phrase, “the pride of life,”^[vii] describes the arrogant spirit of self-sufficiency. It expresses the desire for recognition, applause, status, and advantage in life. The phrase describes the pride in what life can offer you. This word in Greek translated “pride” describes the pretentious braggart. This is the guy who has zero in his bank account, but tells you that he has all the money in the world. This is the man who always wants to “one up” you. This is the person who, when you tell him about a trip you took across the state line, will tell you about his trip to Europe. The root of this word in Greek means “a wandering about” and was the word used in the first century to describe one of these “wandering quacks who could be found shouting their wares in every market-place and in every fair-ground, and offering to sell men their patent cure-alls.”^[viii]

Everything we desire to have, to enjoy, or to pride ourselves upon, this is the “pride of life.” Everything from sensualism and self-indulgence to self-conceit; the ungodly gratification of fleshly appetites, of mental self-satisfaction, of egotistic arrogance; this is the pride of life. All false views of pleasure; false views of possession; false views of superiority; this is the pride of life.^[ix] Human egotism is like the mirror-lined walls in the old barber shops I went to when I was a kid. Sitting in the barber’s chair, you see yourself reflected a seeming infinite number of times. This is the pride of life – a million-fold reflection of self—I, I, I, everywhere.

[i] The genitive phrase in Greek is subjective: the flesh is doing the lusting.

[ii] The word is epithumia in Greek, a compound word composed of the preposition epi “upon” and thumos “heat.” The word connotes “heat upon heat” and suggests the notion of being “hot after something.”

[iii] William Barclay, The Letters of John and Jude, rev. ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976), p. 57.

[iv] John Calvin, The Gospel According to St. John 11 –21 & the First Epistle of John, in Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, eds. David Torrance and Thomas Torrance, trans. T. H. L. Parker (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), p. 254.

[v] Richard Sibbes, “The Pattern of Purity,” in Miscellaneous Sermons and Indices, Works of Richard Sibbes, vol. 7, ed. Alexander Grosart (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1982 reprint), p. 514.

[vi] The genitive phrase is subjective; it is the eyes doing the lusting.

[vii] The genitive phrase is objective; it is our boastful desire for life’s status.

[viii] William Barclay, New Testament Words (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964), p. 47. Barclay’s treatment of this word is the best I’ve seen. Don’t miss it!

[ix] Farrar, Truths to Live By, pp. 157, 158.