1 John 2:16, commentary and pictures

All that belongs to this present order can be summed up in three cravings: indulgence of the body, craving for what the eyes see, and pride over standing, possessions and honor. They are not from the Father but from the world under its prince, and love for them shuts out love for the Father, so there is no middle ground. The world with its cravings passes away and disappoints every hope built on it, but whoever does the will of God abides forever unto glory, honor, immortality and eternal life. That exchange is made in conversion, when love for the world is turned from and replaced by love for God, and the old cravings are crucified at the root rather than merely restrained. Victory is possible because Christ overcame the same cravings in the wilderness as the pledge of overcoming through His righteousness, the indwelling word and the Holy Spirit, and it is kept by walking as He walked in obedience, brotherly love and self-denying service.

Threefold Desire of World

All that is in the world is summed up in three categories, the craving of the flesh, the craving of the eyes, and the pride of life. These desires and pride are characteristic of the world and belong to it, and they do not come from the Father. Loving the world and the things in it shuts out the love of the Father and draws away from watchfulness and prayer. The world and its desires pass away, while the one who does the will of God abides forever.

The craving of the flesh is craving for bodily indulgence and sensual passion. It includes intemperate appetite and living to gratify bodily pleasures, sexual desire and self-abuse, and lust stirred by what is seen through impure imagination that defiles the heart and leads to lustful conduct. It includes stimulating drinks loved for intoxication, impure familiarity and self-pleasing irrespective of divine counsel, and thoughts, impulses and purposes controlled by appetite and passion. Young people who live to gratify these passing things separate themselves from God and lose hope of eternal life, and love of gain, pleasure and enjoyment grows like thorns to defile character and choke the growth of the gospel unless uprooted by continuing purification.

The craving of the eyes is craving for what is seen. It includes desire for attractive possessions and spending entrusted money needlessly to satisfy vanity and pride, taking pride even in the ability to buy such things, as well as costly display in clothing and homes, and studying ease, comfort and extravagant preparation. It includes desire for excitement and pleasing entertainment that can appear innocent while serving as snares to draw into love of the world, weaken faith and divert means from the cause of truth. It includes impure pictures and exciting stories that arouse corrupt passions through the imagination, defile the heart and weaken moral powers, multiplied photographs hung everywhere that gratify the eye while pleasing the senses and robbing God of time and money, costly Bibles bought for selfish feeling when a cheaper one would do, and spiritual idolatry that puts things in the place where God should have entire room.

The pride of life is pride over earthly standing, possessions, power and honor. It includes love of display and applause, desire for the world's favor, fashionable sins that may seem unrepulsive, and vanity in appearance. It includes lust for power and for promised riches, honour and happiness that would draw away from worshipping God into serving Satan, and ambition to win distinction in scholarship and to gain position and honor in the world by which secular studies absorb the mind and the life is given up to selfish pursuits. Its attractions belong to this short and uncertain life and turn from eternal interests, so that love of the world, self and pleasure crowded into the heart in place of Christ's graces must be watched and prayed against, especially as probation nears its close.

Together the three are the world's chief temptations, its trinity and controlling power. They govern the masses through self-indulgence by appetite, love of the world and presumption, and by bodily cravings, desire for what is seen and pride in life. They keep in bondage through constant study over what to eat, what to drink and what to wear, serving and honoring self, so that even professed believers may talk of sacrifice and the cross while knowing nothing of self-denial, and may be ruled by hatred, jealousy, selfishness and love of pleasure unless they separate from the world and receive strength from God. Genuine sanctification requires complete renunciation of these sinful pursuits and gratifications, being born again with changed tendencies and transformed by purity, for trifling with or yielding to them leads to ruin.

Not From the Father

All that is in the world — craving of the flesh and craving of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but from the world and is passing away, while he who does the will of God abides forever. It belongs to the world's spirit and order, opposed to the Father and to Christian beneficence, the fruit of selfishness that shows itself in neglect of duty and failure to use entrusted gifts to advance God's work, in the desire to become rich and store up earthly treasure and be fully determined to obtain riches and enjoy the world. Loving the world and the things of the world is incompatible with the love of the Father, for if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him, and that love must be cast out of the heart day by day by making Christ a daily personal Saviour. Those forgiven for His name's sake must not love the world but walk even as Christ walked in pity, tenderness and compassion, keeping His commandments, loving the brother and abiding in the light without stumbling, with the word of God abiding in them to overcome the wicked one.

Loving these bodily, visual and status desires shuts out the Father's love and leaves no room for it, so that no one living a selfish life can enjoy the love of Jesus. There is no neutral position and no middle class, for conformity to the world is forbidden and grasping after its treasures is denounced as covetous, selfish idolatry that forfeits inheritance in the kingdom of God. Even one fostered sin or indulged vice is the forbidden world-love and places a person on the enemy's side, and its warning applies to professed Christians who love worldly gain, put selfish interests first, and will sacrifice conscience to get what they want. When worldly desires and cares fill the soul there is no room for Jesus or for the truth, but when the heart comes under the truth's power the truth renews and transforms it, turning disciples from love of the world's customs and opinions to surrender themselves wholly to God.

Rejection of world-love is the sign that distinguishes the children of God from the children of the wicked one, for Christians following Christ step by step in the heavenward way must not love the world. In a converted soul love for God takes the place of worldly love, and worldly status or riches cannot compensate for being poor in God's regard and separated from Christ. There is a distinct line of demarcation between believers and the world, with the eternal God and the church on one side and the world on the other and no unity between the two, one side choosing the way of the Lord and the other the ways of Satan. God's people show strength and spirituality by maintaining that separation from love of earthly things and selfish action regardless of Christ's principles, leaving worldly attractions behind and charmed by contemplating heavenly things, bringing religion to the Bible standard instead of cutting up warnings and messages of reproof to welcome or reject at pleasure and bend to human likings, ideas and judgments. That nonconformity is required even to gain influence with worldly people, for the Christian and the world are not the same in mind and judgment.

World-love is idolatry even without graven images, and is a grave sin before God. Whatever earthly thing is loved and trusted instead of the Lord for help and good, whatever divides the affections or removes supreme love for God or blocks unlimited confidence and entire trust in Him, takes the character and form of an idol in the soul, whether wealth, gain, honor, pleasure or pictures. Pictures, photographs and images come under the world only when they tend to separate the affections from God and are honored in place of God, when they are exalted above God and fill the place in the heart that Jesus should occupy; they are not idols merely because they exist, but become idols if they draw the heart from God or are worshiped in His place. Trusting and loving wealth more than the living God, seeking the things of the world as worthy to be admired and enjoyed, the fashions of the world, the desire of the eye, love of self and vainglory belong to those who are not lovers of the cross of Christ and not spiritual worshipers, and are obstructions to piety that separate the soul from God. The lust of the flesh, the pride of life and the love of the world, including jealousy and evil surmising, are a degrading influence that is death to all spiritual life and symmetrical growth, and to continue in them while serving divers lusts and seeking only own pleasure is to worship idols and remain in bondage as degraded slaves to Satan and to sin. Loving property and possessions better than anything else is love of the world that is not of the Father and will shut a person out of heaven, and when possessions remain dear and of great worth so that it seems a great thing to sacrifice anything even for the soul's sake the heart is still set upon the world, for one idol left, whatever that idol is, will shut a person out of heaven and every idol must be sacrificed.

Passing World, Abiding Obedience

The world with its cravings comes to an end, for the longings of the flesh, the longings of the eyes, and the pride of life belong to the world and not to the Father. Loving the world and its things draws away from watchfulness and prayer, yet the world and its cravings pass away while the one who does the will of God remains forever. That passing is met in faithful warfare against the enemy and in being built up in the most holy faith. Victory in that warfare requires taking hold of Christ's righteousness and pleading for cleansing from all iniquity, with provision made for every emergency, so that the cleansed go forth to warn cities accompanied by grace with heaven's power, the righteousness of Christ before them and the glory of God as their rearward.

Hopes and expectations built on sought-after worldly things are blasted and perish when those things pass, leaving separation from God and bitter repentance of folly. Every good thing looked to in the world soon passes and gives no lasting refuge, for security and peace are found in God. To live to gratify bodily pleasure, desire for what the eyes see, and pride in life and possessions is to seek passing things of the world, to please the great adversary, to separate from the Father, and to sell a life of bliss that could be enjoyed forever for a few frivolous enjoyments of serving self-pleasure. Withdrawing strong, ardent affections, especially of youth, from the world and placing them upon Christ and heaven is doing the will of God and abiding forever, giving hope of the better enduring life to be crowned at last with glory, honor, immortality and eternal life. Giving the heart's affections and service, which belong to the Redeemer, to the world's claims and pleasure-seeking is robbery that brings care, sorrow and disappointed hopes and leaves the heart impure and corrupted, and finding happiness in worldly amusements leaves strangers to the Father and the graces of His Spirit, for earthly pleasures soon end and what is sown must be reaped.

Love of the world must therefore be cast out of the heart day by day and exchanged for love of heavenly things, by making Christ a daily personal Saviour and doing the will of God, which is the opposite course that leads to abiding forever while the world and its craving pass away. That exchange means honoring God, praising Him, responding to His grace, beholding Jesus so His likeness is reflected in cheerful grateful praise, and welcoming the Holy Spirit breathed upon souls for whom Christ died. Letting one passion after another and one project after another sway the heart lets worldly love take possession and rule until it expels the Holy Spirit, and worldly love and eternal life cannot be held together, so holding to the world causes eternity to be lost out of the reckoning. Rational creatures are therefore to place a right value on eternal things above worldly desires and plans, for when eternal things attract the mind the present world appears as a mere atom and the infinite treasures of eternal life reveal the littleness of the temporal, so eternal interests become all-absorbing and the world is assigned a subordinate and not a controlling place without destroying interest in earthly duties. Inordinate love for worldly possessions puts self first instead of putting the Lord's work first and making God's honor and the saving of souls the chief ambition, which is characteristic of the unrenewed heart and cannot rule where the subduing, controlling love of God takes possession. When the love of God does not control, the things of this world engross the thoughts and absorb the affections, the spell of worldly business infatuates the mind, spiritual vision is distorted, earthly advantages are magnified and heavenly attractions are eclipsed. Even what in itself is lawful becomes love of the things of the world when loved excessively, for giving the strength of intellect to matters of minor importance that should be wholly devoted to God ruins souls, and things harmless when properly managed become sinful and demoralizing when perverted and misapplied. Heeding this warning is worth a lifelong, persevering effort proportionate to the value of eternal life, and it prepares for the coming of Christ and the judgment, whereas resisting its light and evidence leaves walking as blind men not knowing at what they stumble, making crooked paths and turning the lame out of the way, and when the warning is refused the heavenly anointing departs and mischief comes in because the soul is not trained to pity and faith scarcely has existence.

Time and effort consumed merely to gratify bodily indulgence, craving for what the eyes see, and pride in life do not serve God's glory, and when they are deducted from the record little may remain of willing service to God. Those categories examine how time has been spent, warning that selfish gratification can squander precious hours and displace opportunities to work for Christ, and that account will be faced in the final judgment. Not even one penny spent to gratify the eye or the taste belongs to the Father but to the world, including buying a costly Bible to gratify selfish feeling when a cheaper Bible contains all the words of God and answers the same purpose, which wastes money, displeases the Lord, and must be rendered an account for in the day of judgment, with messengers especially to avoid it and be examples to the flock. The answer is to bind about wants, to economize from principle, to cut down self-gratification and personal wants, and to use the margin saved to carry forward the work of God and save souls for whom Christ died. That denial follows the example of Jesus Christ, who for our sakes became poor and was bound about with poverty while engaged in His great mission, that through His poverty we might be made rich.

Victory Through Christ

In conversion the threefold desire once preferred to Christ is turned from, Christ becomes the charm of life and the cause of rejoicing, and love for God takes the place of worldly love so that worldly status or riches cannot compensate for being poor in God's regard and separated from Christ. Merely suppressing worldliness while hearing truth does not change the affections, and a partial restraint under preaching is not a lasting change of heart. Unless every rival desire is relinquished for Christ it gains the heart and can ultimately overcome even professed followers and lead them away from faith. Overcoming the world and its affections and lusts means overcoming self and refusing a worldly sensual way of life in order to be sanctified through truth and made partakers of the divine nature. Those who remain carnally minded and unsanctified are sensual, debased in thought, unfit to join the redeemed, and their presence through the churches makes the churches weak and sickly and ready to die, so impurity must be met with decided pointed rebuke that exalts Jesus while God's people work and wait and watch and pray in expectation.

Rival lusts must be renounced and trampled underfoot, with self-denial and the cross chosen before selfish gratification through self-sacrifice, faith and personal effort decided in the hardest struggle of the soul at the hour of greatest resolve. What pleases the natural heart and carnal mind is cherished and weakens moral power when indulged, so lust of the flesh with its vainglory, worldly fashion and desire of the eyes must be rooted out of the heart rather than merely restrained. Purifying the thoughts, meditating on what strengthens purity and lifts the soul toward God, and avoiding careless conduct that leads to improper acts fortify against seductive temptation and preserve purity, virtue and upright conduct. The lust of the eye, the pride of life and lustful passions are strong inclinations to evil that must be met with determined warfare to conquer or die, refusing to live for self. Indulging known wrong instead of fighting it dulls moral perception of sin, destroys love for piety and desire for the beauty of holiness, enslaves the mind, removes willpower to govern self so that resolves fail and temptation overcomes. They cannot be removed leaf by leaf but must be destroyed at the root by Bible truth, crucified individually in a great moral revolution with perceptible influence upon character and life, letting the light of truth shine forth by those who are not half awake.

Overcoming is possible because Christ overcame the same lust of the eye and pride of life in the wilderness, and His victory there is the pledge that victory through His name is possible and is the only hope and salvation. That overcoming requires laying off the self-made yoke, accepting Christ's yoke, having confidence in poor weak faulty self broken, feeling personal weakness, dropping with the burden into God's hands, and trusting fully and entirely in God without being confounded. Bondage to the three lusts means serving and honoring self with constant study over what to eat, what to drink and what to wear, keeping people from sharing the divine nature and escaping the corruption in the world through lust, even while talking of sacrifice and the cross and professing faith without knowing sacrifice or self-denial in lifting the cross after the Lord. Freedom from this pollution requires separation from the world and receiving strength from God by walking with Him, as Enoch did in a time no more favorable to grace and holiness when by devotion in prayer and communion he escaped corruption and was fitted for translation, the same source of strength needed amid the perils of the last days. Daniel's refusal to eat and drink as the Babylonians did illustrates triumph over lust of the flesh through religious principle and unwavering trust in God even at great personal cost, since yielding could have led to further wrong choices and separation from God. Through Christ human beings may partake of the divine nature and overcome this corruption, while giving place to self-exaltation leads to self-sufficiency and dependence on self rather than on God.

That victory depends on God's power with human cooperation, taking hold of Christ's righteousness and pleading for cleansing from all iniquity with provision made for every emergency, so that the one cleansed carries on faithful warfare against the enemy, built up in the most holy faith. Escaping ruin requires being born again with hereditary tendencies changed and being transformed by purity and sanctification rather than trifling with or yielding to the world's corrupting trinity. Love for the world must be exchanged for love for heavenly things by honoring God, praising Him, responding to His grace, beholding Jesus until His likeness is reflected in cheerful grateful praise, and welcoming the Holy Spirit breathed upon souls for whom Christ died. Strength to overcome the wicked one comes because the word of God abides within, especially in young men who are strong thereby and who therefore ponder well the paths of their feet, begin with high and holy purpose, never diverge from rectitude through grace, have intellect strengthened and moral energies quickened by divine power, give themselves wholly to God uncorrupted by vice and impurity, and remain sober-minded to meet the urgent need for trustworthy workers in fields white to harvest. Those who resist this light and evidence walk as blind men not knowing at what they stumble, make crooked paths and turn the lame out of the way, and when its warning is refused the heavenly anointing departs and mischief enters because the soul is untrained to pity, faith scarcely exists, and handlers of sacred things become sharp, critical and censorious.

Those forgiven walk even as Christ walked in pity, tenderness and compassion, keeping His commandments, loving the brother and abiding in the light without stumbling. Saying one is in the light while hating a brother proves one is still in darkness, while loving a brother keeps one in the light with no occasion of stumbling. The second chapter holds plain truths of great importance for the last days to be read and studied with remembering, repenting and doing the first works, showing that the love of Christ in the heart is necessary to keep fellowship and first love, calling for walking in knowledge of the truth, partaking of the divine nature, keeping the mind from being crowded with many things that would lose true understanding of Jesus' teaching, and walking humbly with God. Love of Christ is wholly different from lust of the flesh, which is selfish passion seeking gratification at whatever cost, enslaving body and mind, bewitching thoughts and imagination, and leading to unlawful affection even within marriage, and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts and stand on holy ground of Bible truth saved from it with no fellowship with darkness. From principle the desire of the eye and the pride of life are banished from wardrobes and houses, so that God's children do not eat and drink to please appetite but to preserve life and strength to do God's will, and do not clothe themselves for display or to keep pace with changing fashion but for health. They act from godly sincerity with elevated and heavenly conversation, in marked contrast to a life ruled by vanity, display, flattery, passion and impure affection, which stands in marked contrast to the life of Christ.

Warning for Last Days

The text speaks in unmistakable terms about conditions in the last days and belongs to the warning that it is the last time when many antichrists have gone out. It holds plain truths of great importance for those living in the last days, to be read and studied with remembering, repenting and doing the first works, showing that the love of Christ in the heart is necessary to keep fellowship and first love. It carefully distinguishes little children forgiven for His name's sake who have known the Father, fathers who have known Him from the beginning, and young men who have overcome the wicked one. Love for the world and its things is incompatible with the love of the Father, because all that is in the world is not from the Father but from the world, and the world and its lust pass away while the doer of God's will abides forever. Three forms of worldly bondage keep people from sharing the divine nature and escaping corruption through lust: slavery to bodily craving, craving of the eye, and pride of life, which is serving self with constant study over what to eat, drink and wear.

Freedom from this pollution requires separation from the world and receiving strength from God by walking with Him. Enoch lived in a time no more favorable to grace and holiness, yet by devotion in prayer and communion he escaped this corruption, and that devotion fitted him for translation, and the same source of strength is needed amid the perils of the last days. Those held by these lusts may talk of sacrifice and the cross and profess faith, yet not know sacrifice and have no experience in self-denial, lifting the cross and bearing it after their Lord. If partakers of the divine nature, the same spirit that dwelt in Christ would dwell in them, and the same tenderness and love, pity and compassion would appear, so that aiding the needy and ministering without waiting to be entreated would be as natural as it was for Christ to go about doing good.

As in Noah's time ordinary activities such as eating, drinking, planting, building and marrying became corrupt when pursued intemperately, so the same worldliness is intensified now. Then indulgence of appetite damaged health and reason, strengthened sinful desires and helped defile the earth, and now appetite and base passions enslave people, while professed Christians may live for the present world rather than the future life. In crowded cities satanic agencies keep men from meditation by leading into gaiety and pleasure-seeking, eating and drinking, and ambition to make an exhibition exalting self. Bodily craving and pride of the eyes appear as confusion, strife and discord between labor and capital, hypocrisy in the churches, every conceivable crime, display of selfishness, misuse of power, cruelty, and force used to make men unite with confederacies and unions. Step by step this brings the world to the conditions of Noah's days, and this uniting in confederacies and unions binds men in bundles for the burning of the great fires of the last days, though men call this round of crime and folly life. Those who remain joined to the world's pollutions instead of keeping separate live in disobedience, and their deeds bring corresponding future retribution.

Not loving the world or its things means coming out and being separate by accepting the cross and the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. That cross becomes a perpetual memorial of a nobler world, rescuing God's law from being discarded and trampled and lifting it up, bringing sight of eternal realities as if standing in the open portals of the city of God surveying the glories within. It links believers with the divine, shows the inferiority of all worldly enterprises, and teaches responsibility to use God-given talents to take others along. Those enlisted in Christ's army bring themselves into entire conformity to God's eternal, unchangeable, immutable law, keep His Sabbaths, hold the cross of Calvary as perpetual memorial of the nobler world, see by faith Him who is invisible, set affections on things above and represent Christ in character. They live as men and women waiting only for that perfection of character enabling them fully to represent the Saviour, standing out in bold relief from the world to beseech men to be reconciled to God. Love of the world obtains power over God's people and binds them in powerful ties hard to sever, fostering self and selfishness, continuance in sin, cherished pride and a polluted soul temple, leaving weakness where there ought to be strength to battle for God.

That love makes the Sabbath too heavy a cross to lift, blunts moral perceptions, breeds enmity to the living God, and turns the professed Christian world from truth to fable, so that under precious light by far the largest class will not receive truth but become worse and worse, and countering it requires great exertion and increased personal effort under the Holy Spirit's influence. All that belongs to the world must be confessed and forsaken without losing a moment to be ready for the Lord's appearing. Self-exaltation and disparaging others must stop, every soul must criticize self, set the heart in order, and make diligent work of repentance, for living in the great day of atonement puts souls in peril, but confession and repentance cleanse from sin. Loving the world and its things shuts out the Father's love, and saying one is in the light while hating a brother proves one is still in darkness, while loving a brother keeps one in the light with no occasion of stumbling.

The call is to listen, to be watchful and strengthen things that remain ready to die, to remember how truth was received and heard, to hold fast and repent, lest Christ come as a thief at an unknown hour. Those who have not defiled their garments may walk with Him in white as overcomers clothed in white raiment, with names kept in the book of life and confessed before the Father and His angels, instead of remaining lukewarm, self-satisfied, wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, needing to buy gold tried in fire, white raiment and eyesalve to see. Loving the world makes everything else secondary, gives and receives a wrong influence in the family and leaves faith indistinct. It refuses the help God sends to subdue the fallen nature, while cooperating with that help gives power for wholehearted effectual service, for loving the world deals with strange fire and neglects diligent conscientious employment of God-given powers in the Creator's service, and God accepts nothing but consecrated service.

The spirit of the world is an evil spirit that kills spirituality, opposed to God, and it is increasing to an alarming extent even in the churches. Children must be guarded from taking in that spirit, which can draw them far from God, and it must be subdued in them from their earliest years.

Daily Life Applications

The verse forbids covetous grasping for gain, riches and possessions, for the desire to become rich and store up earthly treasure leaves no room for the love of the Father. Being fully determined to obtain riches and enjoy the world, and allowing a covetous disposition to take possession, is the fruit of selfishness, ever opposed to Christian beneficence, and shows itself in neglect of duty and failure to use entrusted gifts to advance God's work. The pursuit of wealth illustrates how worldly desire leads into temptation, destructive cravings, departure from the faith, and sorrow, and serves as a measure of character. It turns the heart earthward, weakens spiritual understanding, and blinds to the value of eternal things.

Spending on show and frivolous things to gratify pride belongs to these desires, and denying them means restraining them and sacrificing for truth so means can be given to God's work. Desire for attractive things and pride in possessions or status can control people and draw them away from God, extending even to parents who spend money on ornaments to gratify themselves and their children rather than to please and glorify God. Money is entrusted as a test of stewardship for which account must be given.

The verse forbids pride of appearance and idolatrous love of dress, calling for fleeing pride of appearance and love of self and for being more separate from the world in dress than is commonly thought. Dressing in harmony with the world works directly against the Spirit, leaves a person walking in darkness, and places that person on the enemy's battlefield. The desire of the eyes and pride in outward display are to be banished from clothing and homes, with dress for health not display or changing fashion, and life marked by godly sincerity and heavenly speech. Following the world's fashions and customs, desire for outward display, and pride are to be replaced by God's word as standard, choosing simplicity so time can be given to children's happiness and moral education.

Continual danger lies in pride and love of the world controlling the youth into selfish lives where self-gratification is the ambition, earning means readily yet feeling no special claim of God's cause, spending earnings on dress and trimmings and pleasure trips to display self rather than to glorify God, arranging hair and dressing as worldly young ladies do with little devotion and little of the spirit of Jesus, so that pride and display become a reproach to faith and a dishonor to Christ.

The verse warns against desire for excitement and pleasing entertainment, for the world's attractions include desire for excitement and pleasing entertainment that can appear innocent while serving as snares, drawing into love of the world, weakening faith, and diverting means from the cause of truth. Attention captured by novels and storybooks while eternal truth is set aside leaves people spiritually wanting, showing how these desires work with neglect of God's word. A life drawn from Christ has no desire for the world's frivolous, unsatisfying enjoyments. Affection for perishing things can cheat of eternal reward, since the depraved heart gives worldly things precedence and blends human opinions and theories of science falsely so-called with Scripture.

Lust stirred by what the eyes behold arouses corrupt passions through impure pictures and exciting stories, which through the imagination defile the heart, weaken moral powers, and lead to lustful conduct, requiring avoidance of what suggests impure thoughts and cultivation of moral and intellectual powers. Seeking to please eye, ear, and taste, or allowing harmful self-indulgence, follows the spirit of the world and is not Christ's religion, for profession of faith and knowledge of truth alone do not make a Christian, and worldly festivals and amusements among professed Christians express union with God's enemies.

The verse calls God's people to keep unspotted and separate from the world's spirit, for its desires do not come from the Father but from the world which is passing away, and believers must not join hands with it but do God's will to abide forever. They must not be shaped by these desires or belong to the world's spirit, but remain distinct from it. Love of the world and earthly things, including its customs and opinions, conflicts with following Christ, requiring turning from that love and surrendering wholly to God. Craving for what the eyes see and pride over earthly life, lived out as love of display and love of ease, separates professed Christians from God, leaves them with no more burden for souls than the world has, quenches the missionary spirit except in a few, erases the church's peculiar holy character, and joins Christians and the world together instead of keeping the church separate.

Those ruled by these desires serve and honor self and remain subject to the world's corruption, and freedom requires separation from the world and strength through communion with God. In contrast to love for earthly things, selfishness, luxury, self-indulgence, unholy passions, and love of applause, Christians show the self-sacrificing spirit of Christ, giving up selfish desires and serving others without seeking personal gain or status.

The verse exposes intemperance, love of ease and worldly methods, for bodily desires, coveting what is seen, and pride in worldly life allow love of worldly gain, pleasure, and enjoyment to grow like thorns in the heart, defile character, and choke the gospel's growth unless uprooted through continuing purification, leaving a mere profession unsanctified. Cares, riches, and pleasures are ways of drawing away from God that endanger the soul. Pride and love of the world are snares that hinder spirituality and growth in grace. Desires pleasing to the natural, carnal heart weaken when cherished, including vainglory, desire of the eyes, and lust of the flesh, while rooting out lust of the flesh and purifying thoughts fortifies against seductive temptations and helps preserve purity and upright conduct.

Cherishing ambitious projects rooted in these desires is incompatible with walking with Christ. In Noah's time ordinary activities such as eating, drinking, planting, building, and marrying became corrupt when pursued intemperately, with indulgence of appetite damaging health and reason, strengthening sinful desires, and helping defile the earth, and the same worldliness intensified now enslaves through appetite and base passions so professed Christians may live for the present world rather than the future life, with corresponding future retribution for those remaining joined to the world's pollutions instead of keeping separate.

Even lawful things become world-love when loved excessively, for love of the things in the world includes excessive love and devotion to that which in itself is lawful. Giving to matters of minor importance the strength of intellect that should be wholly devoted to God proves the ruination of thousands upon thousands, turning what rightly used and properly managed is harmless into what perverted and misapplied becomes sinful and demoralizing, by which many souls are lost. Love of the world crowds out love of truth and true godliness and stops spiritual prospering, producing spiritual dearth and loss of former love, harmony and united working, as the world works through varied temptations to overthrow faith, requiring strict watchfulness. It hinders growth in grace and blocks greater devotedness to God's cause, requiring nonconformity to this world but transformation by renewing of the mind, and requiring the church as a whole to leave lukewarmness for an acceptable state before God. Prosperity tests and reveals the heart, for professing to love truth while sacrificing its principles shows attachment to the world, and choices and influence shape others' opinions and habits with responsibility for souls. The phrase pride of life names pride that is of the world and not of the Father, and accusing someone of this pride over a borrowed, starched collar is a false and self-serving application.