Temptations: Lust of the Eyes
“Watch your eyes, watch your eyes, what they see, for there’s a Father up above, looking down in tender love; watch your eyes, watch your eyes, what they see!” This was such a popular song we sang in Sunday school. I’m sure children still enjoy singing it since it’s so catchy, but they probably haven’t realised what the real message is: be mindful of what your eyes are seeing. Why should you? Because you can succumb to the temptation: The Lust of the Eyes, one of the earliest temptations mentioned in the Bible.
WHAT’S THAT? THIS LUST OF THE EYE?
What then is ‘The Lust of the Eyes?’ Let’s look at what the Bible says so that we may prepare and know what to expect during “The Enlistment.”
Lust of the Eyes is defined as the sinful desire to possess what we see or to have those things that have visual appeal. The first temptation man had was actually this very same temptation we are speaking about. In Genesis 3:6, Eve saw that the fruit was “good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.” This is an exact match for the definition of Lust of the Eyes! The choice to eat the fruit far outweighed what God told her not to do! She later gave some of the fruit to her husband to eat, causing mankind to fall under the curse of death and sin.
FOCUS ON YOUR MISSION, BRO!
Aside from Eve, let us consider David, the guy who had God’s own heart in his mouth! In 2 Samuel 11, King David is shown on his balcony, gazing at Bathsheba taking a shower, something he shouldn’t have been viewing. Instead of returning and fighting as he was meant to, he looked at the woman and was struck by how lovely she was. He asked about her, slept with her, killed her husband on the battlefield, and then married her. Everything happened because David wanted someone he wasn’t supposed to have after only one glance. God punished him for it by allowing anarchy within his family and Israel.
WHEN DESIRE GOES WRONG… (COVETEOUSNESS)
In a similar manner to David’s situation, desires can go wrong. We like beautiful things and desire to have them. However, lust goes deeper than just sexual desires and is used almost interchangeably with the word covet in the Old Testament. Covetousness, like lust, is a strong desire for something that we see.
Contrary to popular belief, our innate desire for beautiful things is not bad or sinful. In fact, that is a trait we inherited from God, who in Genesis 1 described everything that He made as “good.” All the trees He made were also described as “pleasant to the sight” (Gen 2:9). It’s why we spend so much time on Instagram and TikTok watching our favourite ‘influencers,’ keeping up with their day-to-day lives, and on YouTube watching mukbangs and seeing people eating ten times their weight. Suddenly, you want to have that texture of hair, height, skin tone, voice, food—you want what they have. Now you’re insecure; you’re always comparing, always thinking “if only,” and if you’re honest with yourself, maybe a bit envious.
This is when the alarm bells should start ringing because now you’ve become covetous, and not desiring beautiful things is a sin. Ex 20:17 says it best: You shall not covet (sinfully desire what belongs to someone else so much that you’d do anything to get it)—anything that is your neighbour’s.
MAYBE IT’S NOT THAT BAD?
Marketing and social media play a huge role in encouraging the lust of the eyes, but it didn’t just start there; because of the corrupt state of our world, we were trained to covet. Babies crawling, stumbling, and walking—all from a young age, children are exposed to the lust of the eyes. At a young age, the lust of the eyes was cultivated when we saw our mothers, fathers, and caretakers looking at the TV and how they spoke about it, and we started mimicking their behaviour. That is how we were trained to give in to the lust of the eyes. We were born in sin and shaped in INIQUITY (PS 51:5).
OUR EYES ARE THE GATEWAY TO OUR SOUL
Keeping our eyes fixed on worldly things will end with us becoming worldly ourselves. Look at 1 John 2:15–17. If we don’t love God, it’s automatic: we will love the world, and that is what we’ll hold on to—the world.
People start a cycle of scamming to gain wealth or to get the girl. For some women, prostitution is what they do. Hearts slowly become tainted, and we stop listening to the voice of our commander! What should we do? The cure is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus!
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Youth S.O.U.l.diers, join Youth S.O.U.L. every Friday at 6 p.m. on TBC Radio, 88.5/.9 f.m. as we discuss a variety of topics affecting youth, including surviving “the nlistment.” Contact us at [email protected]
