Learning to Flee the Lust of the Eyes

Lot did not sit down one day and say—you know, I want to destroy my wife, my kids, my testimony, my legacy, and my friendship with God and Abraham.

No, Satan usually doesn't work that way. Lust is Satan's tool through the back door. He takes something that is already a part of our life and distorts it. Lot's problem started with his career. He was just trying to take care of his family. His business was grazing sheep and goats. The pastures were not large enough for both his flocks and his uncle Abraham's. So he is offered a choice of where to work, where to locate his business.

It is good to be in business. Profit is the correct result of being a good businessman. Watching out for your family is commanded by God. So all that he did was right—until his lust of the eyes clicked in. What is that lust again?

It is the temptation we all face to chase stuff, that is the lusting of the eyes. These are all of the material temptations. This is lust for things. The things may be as large as a house or as small as a ring, as bright and dazzling as a new sports car or as dull and dusty as a two-hundred-year-old antique dresser. Lest we think that this is not as bad as the lusts of the flesh, remember that covetousness (insatiable longing for more things) is as damnable as idol worship. That means that the lust for possessions is as wicked as the lust for immorality. Beware of both, they are deadly!