I John 2:14-16 mentions three major sources of conflict in our lives: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.  When we as Christians read about these sins we say to ourselves, “I’m not guilty of those things.  I am much better than so-and-so.   They are doing drugs, they are out drinking when their families don’t know; they are sleeping around. I’m not doing any of those things.”  Of course the very fact that we are comparing ourselves with others and deciding we are better, makes us guilty of pride (God says He hates this, by the way!).  As for lust, we think we are not guilty of that sin because of what we are not doing in comparison with what others do, but we just might be wrong here as well.  First of all, we are comparing ourselves against the wrong standard – the world’s standard.  We should be comparing ourselves against God’s standard.

I once heard a story about how to cook frogs that might illustrate what I mean.  It seems you can set a frog in a pan of cool water on the stove, turn on the burner and begin heating the water.  The frog will never jump out, even when the water is unbearably hot, and he allows himself to be cooked.  We are like the frog in a pan.  We think the world around us is normal like cool water, but we are living in a world that is constantly changing standards on us – it is heating up.  Those things that were not acceptable years ago now seem normal or even stupid to us.  In my grandmother’s youth, holding hands with a boy was very special and only allowed after a long time of knowing each other.  Dating without being in a group of people and having an adult present was unheard of.  A Christian girl was held in high esteem and treated as something very special by nice young men.  The standard was based on God’s rules.  By comparing ourselves with the standard of those in the world who do not know God, we have come to a low place where girls have to be concerned about their own safety, even when they are out with groups.  The conflicts for a Christian young person come when they look at the world and say, “I want to be popular.  I want to be like that actress or singer.  I want to look different than God made me.”  When any of us compares ourselves to the world and wants to be like what we see there, we are slapping God in the face and telling Him we are unsatisfied with what He is doing in our lives.  We are admitting to God that we love the world more than we love Him.  The I John passage also reminds us that if we love the world, we do not have the love of God in us.

A good example of this from the Bible is the story of David in II Samuel 11:1-12:23.  David was God’s anointed king and David knew it.  He was special to God and he knew it.  But David started looking at the world’s pleasures and lusted after Bathsheba, another man’s wife.  He rejected God’s rules, accepted the world’s rules and committed adultery. He must have thought that because he was special to God, he was above God’s rules.  In order to cover up his sin, David had Bathsheba’s husband murdered.  There were many other sins involved in the entire sequence of events – lying, deception, and the rejection of the Holy Spirit’s warnings.  God sent Nathan the prophet to show David his sin because David had become insensitive to God’s conviction.  The consequences of giving in to the world’s standards are great.  David lost his joy in the Lord because of his sin. God allowed David’s son born to Bathsheba to die. David would suffer his entire life because of his sin.

God made us and knows what makes up happy.  He has very good reasons for the rules He has given us for our lives.  We must keep our eyes on God’s standard and let Him be in complete control of every decision we make.  This is not easy, but God gives us His Spirit to help us. Praise His Name!