1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not from the Father but from the world.
For all that is in the world
This phrase sets the stage for understanding the comprehensive nature of worldly temptations. The Greek word for "world" here is "kosmos," which often refers to the fallen, human-centered system that stands in opposition to God. Historically, the early Christian community faced a world steeped in paganism and moral decay, much like today. This phrase reminds believers that the allure of the world is pervasive and all-encompassing, challenging them to remain vigilant and separate from its influence.

the desires of the flesh
The Greek term "sarx" for "flesh" refers not merely to the physical body but to the sinful nature inherent in humanity. This phrase encapsulates the cravings and appetites that lead individuals away from God's will. In a historical context, the early church was surrounded by cultures that indulged in hedonism and sensuality. This warning is timeless, urging Christians to resist the temptation to satisfy bodily desires in ways that contravene God's commandments.

the desires of the eyes
This phrase highlights the covetousness and materialism that can ensnare believers. The Greek word "ophthalmos" for "eyes" suggests more than just physical sight; it implies perception and the longing for what is seen. In biblical times, as now, the eyes were considered a gateway to the soul, capable of leading one into sin through envy and lust. This serves as a caution against allowing visual temptations to divert one's focus from spiritual truths.

and the pride of life
"Pride" here is translated from the Greek "alazoneia," which denotes arrogance and self-sufficiency. "Life" is from "bios," referring to one's livelihood or manner of living. This phrase warns against the hubris that comes from worldly success and possessions. Historically, this pride was evident in the social hierarchies and power structures of the ancient world. For Christians, it is a call to humility, recognizing that true worth and identity come from God, not worldly status.

is not from the Father
This phrase draws a clear distinction between the origins of worldly temptations and divine nature. The Greek "ouk estin ek tou Patros" emphasizes that these desires are alien to God's character. It serves as a reminder that God, as the Father, is the source of all that is good, pure, and holy. Believers are encouraged to seek what is from the Father, aligning their lives with His will and purpose.

but from the world
The contrast here is stark, underscoring the source of these temptations. The Greek "ek tou kosmou" indicates that these desires are rooted in the secular, fallen order. Historically, the early Christians were called to be in the world but not of it, a principle that remains relevant. This phrase challenges believers to discern the influences in their lives, rejecting those that stem from the world and embracing those that reflect God's kingdom.

Persons / Places / Events
1. John the Apostle
The author of 1 John, one of Jesus' original twelve disciples, known for his close relationship with Jesus and his emphasis on love and truth.

2. The Early Church
The audience of John's letter, consisting of early Christians facing challenges from false teachings and the temptations of the world.

3. The World
In this context, "the world" refers to the system of values and desires that are opposed to God and His will.
Teaching Points
Understanding Worldly Desires
Recognize that the desires of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life are rooted in a fallen world system that opposes God.

Guarding Against Temptation
Be vigilant in identifying and resisting these desires in daily life, using Scripture and prayer as tools for defense.

Living in the Spirit
Cultivate a life led by the Holy Spirit, which empowers believers to overcome worldly temptations and live according to God's will.

Pursuing Godly Desires
Focus on developing desires that align with God's character and purposes, such as love, humility, and service.

Reflecting Christ's Victory
Remember that Jesus overcame these temptations, and through Him, believers have the power to do the same.
Bible Study Questions
1. How do the desires of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life manifest in today's culture, and how can Christians guard against them?

2. In what ways can the account of Eve's temptation in Genesis 3 help us understand the nature of worldly desires?

3. How does Jesus' response to temptation in Matthew 4 serve as a model for overcoming the desires mentioned in 1 John 2:16?

4. What practical steps can you take to renew your mind and resist conforming to the patterns of this world, as instructed in Romans 12:2?

5. How can you cultivate desires that are from the Father rather than from the world, and what role does the Holy Spirit play in this process?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Genesis 3:6
The temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden illustrates the desires of the flesh, eyes, and pride, showing the timeless nature of these temptations.

Matthew 4:1-11
Jesus' temptation in the wilderness parallels the three categories of temptation, demonstrating His victory over them.

James 1:14-15
This passage explains how desire leads to sin, which aligns with John's warning about the desires of the flesh and eyes.

Romans 12:2
Paul’s exhortation to not conform to the world but be transformed by renewing the mind connects with John's call to reject worldly desires.
The Lust of the EyesW. J. Dawson.1 John 2:16
The Pride of Life is TransitoryW. J. Dawson.1 John 2:16
The Three Elements of a Worldly LifeJ. B. Mayor, M. A.1 John 2:16
The Worldling's TrinityJ. Trapp.1 John 2:16
Transitoriness of the Lust of the FleshW. J. Dawson.1 John 2:16
What is The WorldS. Faber.1 John 2:16
The Great Danger of ChristiansR. Finlayson 1 John 2:12-17
A Dangerous ExperimentH. Bushnell, D. D.1 John 2:15-17
An Apostolic Prohibition, and the Reason ThereofW. Jones 1 John 2:15-17
Love not the WorldJames Morgan, D. D.1 John 2:15-17
Love not the WorldJ. B. Mayor, M. A.1 John 2:15-17
Love not the WorldS. S. Roche.1 John 2:15-17
Love of the WorldF. W. P. Greenwood, D. D.1 John 2:15-17
Love of the WorldE. H. Chapin, D. D.1 John 2:15-17
The Christian in the World1 John 2:15-17
The Expulsive Power of a New AffectionT. Chalmers, D. D.1 John 2:15-17
The Guileless Spirit Loving not the WorldR. S. Candlish, D. D.1 John 2:15-17
The Nature and Danger of an Inordinate Love of the WorldJohn Mason, M. A.1 John 2:15-17
The Peril of WorldlinessW. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.1 John 2:15-17
The World and the FatherF. D. Maurice, M. A.1 John 2:15-17
The World We Must not LoveAbp. Wm. Alexander.1 John 2:15-17
UnladingA. Maclaren, D. D.1 John 2:15-17
When Do We Love the World Too MuchJ. Jortin, D. D.1 John 2:15-17
WorldlinessF. W. Robertson, M. A.1 John 2:15-17
WorldlinessJ. E. Welldon, D. D.1 John 2:15-17
Worldliness Impedes the Sight of Higher ThingsW. Arnot, D. D.1 John 2:15-17
Worldly Affections Destructive of Love to GodArchdeacon Manning.1 John 2:15-17
People
John
Places
Ephesus
Topics
Boastful, Boasting, Cravings, Desire, Earthly, Father's, Flesh, Glory, Isn't, Lust, Nature, Ostentation, Pride, Sinful, Vain, World's
Dictionary of Bible Themes
1 John 2:16

     1466   vision
     5149   eyes
     5348   injustice, nature and source
     5786   ambition, negative
     5813   conceit
     6022   sin, causes of
     6121   boasting
     6166   flesh, sinful nature
     6250   temptation, sources
     8777   lust
     8803   pride, evil of
     8820   self-confidence
     8821   self-indulgence
     8825   self-righteousness, and gospel

1 John 2:15-16

     4030   world, behaviour in
     6241   seduction
     8787   opposition, to God

1 John 2:15-17

     1175   God, will of
     4027   world, fallen
     5542   society, positive
     6243   adultery, spiritual
     8484   spiritual warfare, enemies

1 John 2:16-17

     6746   sanctification, means and results

Library
Youthful Strength
'I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.'--1 John ii. 14. 'What am I going to be?' is the question that presses upon young people stepping out of the irresponsibilities of childhood into youth. But, unfortunately, the question is generally supposed to be answered when they have fixed upon a trade or profession. It means, rightly taken, a great deal more than that. 'What am I going to make of myself?' 'What
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

River and Rock
'The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.'--1 John ii. 17. John has been solemnly giving a charge not to love the world, nor the things that are in it. That charge was addressed to 'children,' 'young men,' 'fathers.' Whether these designations be taken as referring to growth and maturity of Christian experience, or of natural age, they equally carry the lesson that no age and no stage is beyond the danger of being drawn away by the world's
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Commandment, Old yet New
'I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning.... Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you.'--1 John ii. 7, 8. The simplest words may carry the deepest thoughts. Perhaps angels and little children speak very much alike. This letter, like all of John's writing, is pellucid in speech, profound in thought, clear and deep, like the abysses of mid-ocean. His terms are such as a child can understand; his sentences short
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

Thirtieth Day. The Unction from the Holy One.
And ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things. And as for you, the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as His anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in Him.'--1 John ii. 20, 27. In the revelation by Moses of God's Holiness and His way of making holy, the priests, and specially the high priests, were the chief expression of God's Holiness in man.
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

January the Twelfth Two Opposites
"If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." --1 JOHN ii. 13-17. No man can love two opposites any more than he can walk in contrary directions at the same time. No man can at once be mean and magnanimous, chivalrous and selfish. We cannot at the same moment dress appropriately for the arctic regions and the tropics. And we cannot wear the habits of the world and the garments of salvation. When we try to do it the result is a wretched and miserable compromise. I have seen a
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Difference Between Walking by Sight, and Walking by Faith
"We walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Cor. 5:7. 1. How short is this description of real Christians! And yet how exceeding full! It comprehends, it sums up, the whole experience of those that are truly such, from the time they are born of God till they remove into Abraham's bosom. For, who are the we that are here spoken of? All that are true Christian believers. I say Christian, not Jewish, believers. All that are not only servants, but children, of God. All that have "the Spirit of adoption, crying
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

The Witness of the Spirit
Discourse I "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Rom. 8:16 1. How many vain men, not understanding what they spake, neither whereof they affirmed, have wrested this Scripture to the great loss if not the destruction of their souls! How many have mistaken the voice of their own imagination for this witness of the Spirit of God, and thence idly presumed they were the children of God while they were doing the works of the devil! These are truly and properly
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

A Bundle of Myrrh
Concerning our text, let us talk very simply, remarking first, that Christ is very precious to believers; secondly, that there is good reason why he should be; thirdly, that mingled with this sense of preciousness, there is a joyous consciousness of possession of him; and that therefore, fourthly, there is an earnest desire for perpetual fellowship with him. If you look at the text again, you will see all these matters in it. I. First, then, CHRIST JESUS IS UNUTTERABLY PRECIOUS TO BELIEVERS. The
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 10: 1864

In Him: Like Him
"Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee." We have entered into Christ as into the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, as guest; into a banquet-hall, as returning travellers into their home. And now we abide--in Christ in this sense, that we are joined to him : as the stone is, in the wall, as the wave is in the sea, as the branch is in the vine, so are we in Christ. As the branch receives all its sap from the stem, so all the sap of spiritual life flows from Christ into us. If
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 29: 1883

What God is to Us.
Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7.--"The lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands." There is nothing can separate between God and a people but iniquity, and yet he is very loath to separate even for that. He makes many shows of departing, that so we may hold him fast, and indeed he is not difficult to be holden. He threatens often to remove his presence from a person or nation, and he threatens, that he may not indeed remove, but that
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Brooks -- the Pride of Life
Phillips Brooks was born at Boston, Mass., in 1835, graduated at Harvard in 1855 and studied theology at the P.E. Seminary, Alexandria, Va. He was elected rector of the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia, in 1859, and three years later to that of Holy Trinity in the same city. In 1869 he became rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and was consecrated Bishop of Massachusetts in 1891. He died in 1893. He was in every sense a large man, large in simplicity and sympathy, large in spiritual culture. In his
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 8

That to Him who Loveth God is Sweet Above all Things and in all Things
Behold, God is mine, and all things are mine! What will I more, and what more happy thing can I desire? O delightsome and sweet world! that is, to him that loveth the Word, not the world, neither the things that are in the world.(1) My God, my all! To him that understandeth, that word sufficeth, and to repeat it often is pleasing to him that loveth it. When Thou art present all things are pleasant; when Thou art absent, all things are wearisome. Thou makest the heart to be at rest, givest it
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

But Since no Man is Worthy to Come Forward in his Own Name...
But since no man is worthy to come forward in his own name, and appear in the presence of God, our heavenly Father, to relieve us at once from fear and shame, with which all must feel oppressed, [8] has given us his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to be our Advocate and Mediator, that under his guidance we may approach securely, confiding that with him for our Intercessor nothing which we ask in his name will be denied to us, as there is nothing which the Father can deny to him (1 Tim. 2:5; 1 John 2:1;
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith

Moreover, the Sophists are Guilty of the Merest Trifling when they Allege that Christ Is...
Moreover, the Sophists are guilty of the merest trifling when they allege that Christ is the Mediator of redemption, but that believers are mediators of intercession; as if Christ had only performed a temporary mediation, and left an eternal and imperishable mediation to his servants. Such, forsooth, is the treatment which he receives from those who pretend only to take from him a minute portion of honour. Very different is the language of Scripture, with whose simplicity every pious man will be
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith

The Last Day.
This gospel day is the last day. There never will be another age of time. An age-to-come teacher is branded by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, as a false teacher. We need no other age in which to prepare for eternity. This is the day of salvation. "Now is the accepted time." Now is the day and this is the time for us to accept Christ, and to be accepted of him. The Word of God holds no promise to you of another day of salvation. How can man, unless he be wholly subverted, teach another age to
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day

Add to This, and Here is Cause to Cry Out More Piteously...
37. Add to this, (and here is cause to cry out more piteously,) that, if once we grant it to have been right for the saving of that sick man's life to tell him the lie, that his son was alive, then, by little and little and by minute degrees, the evil so grows upon us, and by slight accesses to such a heap of wicked lies does it, in its almost imperceptible encroachments, at last come, that no place can ever be any where found on which this huge mischief, by smallest additions rising into boundless
St. Augustine—Against Lying

(On the Mysteries. Iii. )
On Chrism. 1 John ii. 20-28 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, &c.....that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 1. Having been baptized into Christ, and put on Christ [2415] , ye have been made conformable to the Son of God; for God having foreordained us unto adoption as sons [2416] , made us to be conformed to the body of Christ's glory [2417] . Having therefore become partakers of Christ [2418] , ye are properly called Christs, and
St. Cyril of Jerusalem—Lectures of S. Cyril of Jerusalem

But, Again, Lest by Occasion of this Sentence...
50. But, again, lest by occasion of this sentence, any one should sin with deadly security, and should allow himself to be carried away, as though his sins were soon by easy confession to be blotted out, he straightway added, "My little children, these things have I written unto you, that ye sin not; and, if one shall have sinned, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and Himself is a propitiation of our sins." [2207] Let no one therefore depart from sin as though about
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

Evidences of Regeneration.
III. Wherein saints and sinners must differ. 1. Let it be distinctly remembered, that all unregenerate persons, without exception, have one heart, that is, they are selfish. This is their whole character. They are universally and only devoted to self-gratification. Their unregenerate heart consists in this selfish disposition, or in this selfish choice. This choice is the foundation of, and the reason for, all their activity. One and the same ultimate reason actuates them in all they do, and in all
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate,
CLEARLY EXPLAINED, AND LARGELY IMPROVED, FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL BELIEVERS. 1 John 2:1--"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." By JOHN BUNYAN, Author of "The Pilgrim's Progress." London: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms, in the Poultry, 1689. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This is one of the most interesting of Bunyan's treatises, to edit which required the Bible at my right hand, and a law dictionary on my left. It was very frequently republished;
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

What Passes and what Abides
'One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.'--ECCLES. i. 4. 'And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.'--1 JOHN ii. 17. A great river may run through more than one kingdom, and bear more than one name, but its flow is unbroken. The river of time runs continuously, taking no heed of dates and calendars. The importance that we attach to the beginnings or endings of years and centuries is a
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Fourfold Symbols of the Spirit
'A rushing mighty wind.' ... 'Cloven tongues like as of fire.' ... 'I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.' --ACTS ii. 2, 3, 17. 'Ye have an unction from the Holy One.'--1 JOHN ii. 20. Wind, fire, water, oil,--these four are constant Scriptural symbols for the Spirit of God. We have them all in these fragments of verses which I have taken for my text now, and which I have isolated from their context for the purpose of bringing out simply these symbolical references. I think that perhaps we
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The World Our Enemy.
"We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness."--1 John v. 19. Few words are of more frequent occurrence in the language of religion than "the world;" Holy Scripture makes continual mention of it, in the way of censure and caution; in the Service for Baptism it is described as one of three great enemies of our souls, and in the ordinary writings and conversation of Christians, I need hardly say, mention is made of it continually. Yet most of us, it would appear, have very
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

The Wilderness: Temptation. Matthew 4:1-11. Mark 1:12, 13. Luke 4:1-13.
The University of Arabia: Jesus' naturalness--the Spirit's presence--intensity, Luke 2:45-51.--a true perspective--- the temptation's path--sin's path--John's grouping, 1 John 2:16.--the Spirit's plan--why--the devil's weakness--the Spirit's leading--a wilderness for every God-used man, Moses, Elijah, Paul. Earth's Ugliest, Deepest Scar: Jesus the only one led up to be tempted--the wilderness--its history, Genesis 13:10-13. 18:16-19:38.--Jesus really tempted--no wrong here in inner response--every
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

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