“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” (1John 2:16)
The ‘World’ as the Bible sees it, is driven by three things: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Among them, the pride of life, to me, is the worst evil as it motivates the other two lusts. It is also one that is most difficult to overcome. Everyone wants to build up oneself in his own eyes or in the eyes of others. It is in our DNA. To Christians, it means a failure to accept the reality of our utter dependence on God, instead see God in ourselves.
The pride of life has to do with cravings for attention, power, boasting of human achievements and desiring to gain worldly wisdom. Basically it is worship of self. The lust of eyes gives rise to endless desire for possessions, envy, addictions of all kinds such as sexual and fitness. The lust of flesh relates to sensual gratifications, gluttony. In any rise and fall of a nation, these three things are present as it reflects the fallen nature of human race.
In the first stage, a nation grows strong, wealthy and powerful. It becomes arrogant of its achievements. When the top is reached, it does not satisfy. There is the usual fear of someone else will take over its prominence. Later, it enters the second stage of materialism, been preoccupied with things. There is this unquenchable appetite for more – homes, cars, clothes etc. The last stage centres on sensuality, been caught up with experiences of feelings, emotions. What really matter is how one feels about it. There is no absolute right or wrong. Everyone does what it is right in his own eyes.
Sound familiar? Where do we stand now in this country? It looks like we are already in the last stage. People are now advocating ‘marketplace diversity’ through recruitment and networking dinner for LGBT students. What does this phase mean today? It is more than gender identity and sexual orientation? That thought chilled me to the bone.
