The desires of the eyes

Resisting Worldly Affections – Part 2

(1 John 2:16-Part 2, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 15, 2016)

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

The desires of the eyes

Not every impulse is from the Father. Some need to be actively resisted. For example, what John calls “the desires of the eyes” will not lead to freedom and life, but only to bondage and decay.

John breaks down what he refers to as “all that is in the world” into three categories: “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life.” They have much in common with each other. We are using these three expressions to explore the eager passions of the body, the need to see and know everything, and the drive to own, Today, the second of these: “the desires of the eyes.”

John is referring hear to something beyond the physical organ of vision. Since he is talking about our eager desires in connection with our eyes, we know that he would direct our attention to most eager longings of our hearts. Paul uses the phrase, “the eyes of our hearts” in Ephesians 1.

People have a strong yearning, more of panic than faith, to know the unknown, to see the infinite. Our problem is that we look for the fulfillment of this desire in all the wrong places. We do not go to the One who formed the eye and ask Him to open the eyes of our hearts. Instead of receiving good eyesight as a gift from the Father, we too often yearn for the kind of sneak peak at the unknown that is a trademark of the heart that cannot find rest in God.

God Himself has perfect eyes. “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13) He is happy to grant to us a clear vision of that which he chooses to reveal to us, but He does not want us to go around His back in search of hidden matters for which we lust. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Meanwhile he allows us to see more with the eyes of our hearts according to His own perfect will. Like the blind man in Mark 8 who was healed in two stages, we need a second touch from the Lord throughout our lives.

Since the best kind of eyesight is a gift from the Father, we can ask Him, as Paul did when he prayed for the Ephesian church. He knew that holy eyesight came from a “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.”

This is the only way that we will have eyes that see the hope of God, the love of God, and the power of God. [Example: Samuel Zwemer] In John 9, Jesus healed a man who was born blind. This was an occasion for some of the Pharisees to display their own blindness. But the humble blind child of Abraham was gently led by the hand toward the best kind of vision.

We do not have to know everything or see everything. But we can know and see today the hope, love, and power of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. No excuse for passing by that heavenly vision.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 94 – He who formed the eye

Gospel Reading—Luke 6:37-42 – First take the log out of your own eye