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1 John 2:16-17 – Three in One
What do you think of when I say, “three in one?” What would you think if I said that while each is individual, all three are part of the whole? That while you can separate one from the other, they cannot be totally separate? What would you think if I described the first of the three as knowledge since knowledge comes from seeing; the second of the three as physical, natural; and the third of the three as life? Did you think the Trinity? Skeptics scoff at the idea of three in one, and yet did God give us the perfect explanation, one that all could grasp? I think so just in the way man is three in one, spirit, soul, and body (1 Thess.5:23). The better we understand ourselves, the better we can understand God’s three yet one. While this sounds strange, and I put it out for you to crush, I think the better we understand temptation, the more we can understand God. As Eve was tempted in the garden, all three categories were present in that one temptation. Each of Jesus’ three temptations involved all three categories, so again, three in one. Examine your own temptations, and you can probably see how the lust of the eyes, the lust the flesh, and the pride of life were all involved, although one more so than the others. Now go back to God, and we have the Father who sees, the Son who is flesh, and the Spirit who gives life. Just as temptation is three in one, so is God. And while God is perfect, and tempts no one, it is our own temptations that can help us better understand God. Outlandish? Yes, but isn’t so much of what God does foolishness (1 Cor.1)?
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