The Apostle John wrote in his first epistle, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever”.
Adam and Eve were born fleshly and had desires of the flesh, and of the eyes and a sense of pride but God did not intend them in the way they came to be used.
God wanted them to honor him with thanks for the food they ate to satisfy their fleshly desires, to enjoy sex to be fruitful as man and wife in union with one another. God wanted them to honor him for the creation of the world and of the universe that they saw with their eyes and to take pride in what God has blessed them with.
Satan uses these three “attributes” in us to deceive us about God’s commands. Eve saw the fruit of that tree and it was beautiful and she saw that it could satisfy her hunger and most importantly, to feed her pride as she would be like God, knowing good and evil.
And so, being deceived and then tempted (enticed), she sinned against God and then Adam took and ate it too.
Jesus too was tempted but he was not deceived. Satan sought to use Jesus’ fleshly hunger after 40 days of no food to use his own power on himself to turn rocks to bread when we should rely on God to provide our daily provision. Satan didn’t want Jesus to wait any longer for his Father to feed him but Jesus could not be deceived and told Satan that “Man shall not live on bread alone but by every word out of the mouth of God”.
Next, Satan took Jesus to a high mountain and opened his eyes to show him all the kingdoms of the world and their beauty and splendor. Here Satan was trying to appear to the lust of Jesus’ eyes to entice him into coveting these kingdoms and having leadership over them. All Jesus needed to do was to bow down and worship Satan. He refused because it is written…
And finally, Satan takes Jesus up onto the pinnacle of the temple and appeals to his pride in being the Son of God by casting himself down as it is written that God’s angels would hold him up so that he would not dash his foot so much as on a rock. Jesus again refused as it written that man shall not tempt the Lord our God.
So, we can be sure when Satan tempts us that he’s going to use one or more of these three attributes we have in us to get us to serve our own needs. We can resist by remembering God’s Word, sharper than any two-edged sword by choosing to obey God’s Word rather than Satan.