1 John 2:16 English Standard Version (ESV) For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life[pride in possessions]—is not from the Father but is from the world.

This new life in Christ needs a new way of doing things. We have been changed,  transformed. That will not happen easily if we keep looking at things the same way we did when we were in the world and ignorant of the love of God in Christ Jesus.

One of the life ministries of Jesus was to open the eyes of the blind to see the world in truth. When we died to sin and became alive in Christ, He performed the same miracle for us but we were not immediately aware of it.

We take in the world with our natural eye, it is flesh and will instinctively act as our window to the world. It is our spiritual eyes that discern the world for what it truly represents.

What do our eyes naturally follow, focus on? Those things that pleased the flesh of our past. Temptations. The world advertises by presenting images that are distracting. Those images are used to draw us into their trap. The world will use us for their own nefarious reasons.

The easiest observation can be seen in the drive-thru pictures. When we buy the product and open the package, it does not look like the image in the ad. That doesn’t matter now because we already bought the product and our appetites take over. We knew what it would taste like and we did not consider if it was healthy for us, we wanted it. 

That is just one of the easier things to understand. We do not always see the harm in all the things that catch our eye. It is even more difficult to resist those temptations if they have never been a problem in our past. Damage to the body is a natural event, damage to the soul is a spiritual matter. Those can only be discerned with spiritual eyes.

What can spiritual eyes see?

Psalm 13:2-4 English Standard Version

2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

They connect us to see the world the way God does.

Psalm 32:8 English Standard Version (ESV) I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Hebrews 13:20-21 English Standard Version

Benediction

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Every good thing comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ, for His glory not our own.

We all like to be seen. It makes us feel alive.

Colossians 3:3 English Standard Version (ESV) For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

The desire to be seen is of the flesh. The desire for praise is of the flesh.

Matthew 6:1 English Standard Version (ESV) “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

Our motivation for doing good should not be for rewards. That which is given for good comes to the Son by the Father because He loves the Son and glorifies His Son. Love is the motivation that allows the Son to use us to do the Father’s will. We wouldn’t even know the Father’s will if it were not for the love we have for the Son.

Romans 12:1-2 English Standard Version

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

No one can sacrifice self for selfish reasons.

Romans 6:4 English Standard Version (ESV) We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

A new life does not operate in the old ways.