“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it
was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to
make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.” There was
the threefold temptation. “She saw that the tree was good for food”;
her desire to enjoy things was incited, and she faced the question of
satisfying in an unlawful way that desire for enjoyment. She saw that
the fruit was “a delight to the eyes”: her desire to get the attractive
thing she saw was incited, and she faced the question of whether she
should satisfy that desire in a way that God had forbidden. Finally she
saw that the tree was “to be desired to make one wise.” Satan had told
her that she and her husband would be as God if they ate the fruit.
Her desire to accomplish things took the form of reaching out after
equality with God.
Now turn for a moment to the analysis of sin and temptation that the
Holy Spirit gives in 1 John 2:16: “For all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of
life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” Here is an inclusive
statement of all that is in the world. The apostle is stating here the
only three ways in which it is possible for a man to sin. Note that
they are the three points at which Eve failed.
When the desire to _enjoy things_ goes beyond the bounds set by God it
becomes “the lust of the flesh.” The lawful desire to _get things_,
when it turns into sin, becomes “the lust of the eyes.” When the desire
_to do things_ leads a man away from God, it becomes “the vainglory [or
the pride] of life.”
Dr. Kyle points out in his study of temptation that Eve fell at _every_
point of her nature, and sinned in “the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the vainglory of life.” He notes also that the lust of
the eyes and the pride of life had no immediate outlet of expression
for Adam and Eve, situated as they were in the midst of a world that
was all theirs, and so the sin found immediate expression in some form
of the lust of the flesh. Yet man had yielded and sinned at all three
points.