Our editorial last week dealt with the injunction to not love the world. We read about the “Unholy Trinity” of the world’s lusts — the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. And we saw the way Jesus Christ resisted the temptation of the flesh in the wilderness.
We continue in this week’s article1 to witness how our Saviour resisted the other two temptations of the eyes and of pride, and may it encourage us to follow in his righteous path.
-Ps Luwin Wong
“Do not love the world or the things in the world.” (1 John 2:15)
Tempting His Eyes
When Jesus would not prioritise his fading flesh and its appetites, the devil sought to brighten his eyes with the greatest advertisement in the history of the world.
The devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours” (Luke 4:5–7).
He tried to hook his soul through dangling the glittering worm of the world before his eyes. Calvin understands the lust of the eyes to entail lustful looks “as well as the vanity which delights in pomps and empty splendour” (Calvin’s Commentaries). Here was dazzling splendour to the highest degree (yet empty, if attained by sin).
Men and women all over the world see far less and sell their souls at a much cheaper price. Even for the chance at attaining the empty splendour before their mind’s eye, countless people do perverse things — some explicitly cutting deals with the devil. Moses is a hero of the faith because he denied the riches of Egypt and chose to suffer with God’s anointed people. Jesus, the greater prophet, refused the glory of ten thousand Egypts set before him and chose to make a lost people his kingdom through his own torture (Revelation 5:9–10).
See how Jesus answers: “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve’” (Luke 4:8). He teaches us: Better no fame or applause with God than king of every kingdom without him. Better to serve his Father and live upon earth with no place to rest his head — even as the Father leads on to Golgatha — than worship the devil and receive all his eyes could see.
Tempting His Pride
Satan introduces the first and third temptations with the same phrase: “If you really are the Son of God”. Satan calls for Jesus to prove himself, show his special status as the Son, proudly display his robe of many colours. In this third temptation, Satan turns up the volume:
And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you,to guard you,’
and
‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” (Luke 4:9–11) Jesus had just been coronated at his baptism as God’s beloved Son, on whom his Father’s pleasure rested (Luke 3:22). Immediately after, he was ushered into the wilderness to be tempted. Satan attended his baptism. He heard the pronouncement over Jesus. “God’s beloved Son” — what an exalted position; would he mind proving it? Why hide? Why not make a spectacle for the principalities and powers to show that one has come among men to whom these high beings must bow? Why not jump from this temple, since it is promised that angels will rush to his rescue? That is, of course, if you are the Son of God.
Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Luke 4:12). The time to be openly declared the Son of God would come — through his resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4). His exaltation, his grand reveal in glory, would come after his death. He must throw himself down into the tomb and bid no angel rescue him. He would fall not from the temple but as the temple, and then he would rise again (John 2:19–22).
We, too, resist the honour, the renown, the pride of this fleeting life for our true glory yet to come: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). With that, the devil, exhausting his stock of temptations, departed until a more opportune time (Luke 4:13).
Passing Through
Christian, we follow Christ, and like him, we must not love the world or anything that is in the world, resisting a world that inflames the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. John gives us a convincing reason: this world is passing away along with its desires.
This life is but the entryway to elsewhere. The world counsels, “Invest all your time, thought, and energy in your few steps down that corridor.” John counsels us to walk our way down with both eyes on the door.
The world, even now, sinks, but John provides a contrast: “Whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17). This is the one life that will survive flood and fire. We do not love this world because we belong to the next; we do not pour all our attention into this life because we await Christ, who is our life. Dear reader, do not spend your life filling the hallway with stuff. Soon, and very soon, we will all pass through the doorway to God.
(1) Greg Morse, (2025, Jan 17). Do Not Love the World. DesiringGod.https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/do-not-love-the-world
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