Not of the Father

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. - 1 John 2v16

We saw the instruction yesterday to ‘love not the world, or the things in the world.’ Today we can see the reason why. It is simple enough, we are to love God with every aspect of our being and the things of the world are not of God. Therefore, we cannot love them.

What are the things of the world that we are not to love? They are the same things that troubled Eve in the very beginning – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. How did Eve encounter these? When Satan tempted her with the fruit from the tree she saw that it was:

Good for food – the lust of the flesh
Pleasant to the eyes – the lust of the eyes
Would make her wise – the pride of life

Even after all these years we still face the same battles. We encounter things that appeal to our fleshly gratification. We encounter things that just look so good and draw our eyes away from the things of God. Then of course we always deal with situations that appeal to our pride.

The problem is that these are things we encounter all the time. I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t have to deal with the things of the world. Admittedly I don’t always do well with them because there is that lingering world love that is a part of my flesh.

When we encounter these things we need to remind ourselves that these things are not of our Father, they are of the world and its system. We choose what we love no matter what the appeal. My love must be reserved for the things of God and never given to the stuff that the world offers.