What is lust? What does the Bible have to say about lust?

It is an immense thing to get a due sense in our souls of the difference in this respect between Christ and every other man. Here is One who never had a motive in His heart save the will of God — One whose meat and drink were to do that will. And the presentation of anything else to Him brought the most intense suffering, the deepest pain and anguish. Why? Because He was, as Man, absolutely perfect. Temptation to other men is pleasure. There is in us a kindredness to it; there is that in us which responds readily and gladly, which accepts, entertains — yea, even welcomes, the allurements of the enemy. Have you not found this out, my beloved brethren? Is it possible that you have not as yet discovered that there is an open door, the flesh in us, for all comers? Are there no pleasures in sin? And that too even though they be but for a season? Mark what the Spirit of God says as to lust. What is lust? It is a principle of the flesh that desires to have for itself; it matters not what it is. It is the desire to possess independent of God, and that independent will in the creature is the root and essence of sin.

Just as much as we enter into the words and the things of our Lord Jesus Christ, we become partakers morally of this divine nature. If you live with the Lord, and walk with the Lord, this will be the result; and you escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. What is lust? Man's will. The apostle is talking here of this state, and of the walk of a saint, who escapes it. You have every thought of the heart brought into captivity to Christ; you are delivered from your own will; you are not even carried off by the imaginings of your own heart; you breathe the holy, pure atmosphere of God's presence, an atmosphere where the soul finds its delight in doing God's will. You once were in the world doing your own will; now you have been delivered, and you do God's will. What a sweet thought it is that when we get up home in the glory all taint of sin will be gone! "Oh, but," says Peter, "you may know a great deal of that down here. You have the new nature that delights in God, and this new nature having room to expand, your peace grows, your grace is multiplied, and you escape the corruption that is in the world through lust."

"Desire" and "lust" are really the same word, as may be seen from many passages. For example, the word translated "lust" in the above scripture is the same as that in Phil. 1:23 (and a number of other places), where it could only be rendered "desire." It is the thing longed for that characterises the nature of the feeling cherished. If the object of the craving is good, according to God, then it is a holy desire. Thus the Lord Himself uses the word in question when He says to His disciples, "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer." (Luke 22:15.) When the object, on the other hand, is evil, then the desire for it is "lust." Hence the apostle employs the word when he speaks of the "lusts of our flesh." (Ephesians 2:3.) There is consequently an important distinction to be noted. "Lust," as James teaches, has its origin in ourselves (chapter 1:14), but holy "desire" is the fruit of the action of the Spirit of God in the believer.

The word ἐπιθυμέω signifies 'to desire earnestly,' and is often translated 'desire,' without the thought of the desire being an evil one, as in Matt. 13:17; 1 Tim. 3:1; 1 Peter 1:12, etc. The English word 'lust' was anciently not always used in a bad sense, as it now is: see Deut. 12:15; Gal. 5:17.

Having warned us against lust, that would lead to sin against God and wrongs to one another, the Apostle exhorts us “to love one another”. Lust is the very opposite of love. Lust is the gratification of self, in seeking our own pleasure, even at the expense of others. Love is the effacement of self, in seeking the good of others. Knowing that the Christian company can only truly live in an atmosphere of love, the Apostle would have these young converts, and ourselves, appreciate the mighty power of love. Already he has recognised with joy their “labour of love” (1:3); reminded them of his love for them, and in this way brought them into a circle of love (2:17); prayed that the Lord would make them increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all (2:12); now, having heard of the good tidings of their love (3:6), he exhorts them to abound still more in love (4:10). In the last chapter of the Epistle the Apostle encourages the saints to put on the breastplate of faith and love and to esteem those who labour among them “very highly in love” (v. 8, 13). Love is the bond of perfectness, binding the saints together to exhibit Christ. Whatever other qualities they possess if love be lacking there will be no true setting forth of Christ, for the Lord’s own words are, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).

When we judge things according to our state, we are always under the law, in one way or another. The law gives the duties of our relations, but when it says, "Thou shalt not covet"; then it touches the root, the seat of evil in the heart. Nevertheless, the law does not say that man is lost; only the result is, that we cannot fulfil it. Some people quote James 1:14-15, and pretend that "concupiscence" is not "sin," unless the will consent to it; but in this passage sin is outward sin; whilst, instead, in Rom. 7:8, it is sin which works "concupiscence" and here sin is the cause and the root.

Buddha observed that suffering comes from craving‑desire or attachment of any kind. For Buddha, all desire was bad and had to be eradicated. The Bible, however, teaches that, while there are bad desires, there are also good ones. For example, we are encouraged to have great desire for God, His glory in our lives and for His kingdom (see Ps. 27:4; Matt. 6:33).

As for bad desires, James 1:13‑15 points out that a man is enticed from within by "lusts" ‑ passions or appetites that tend to get out of control. When a person yields to these temptations, he sins. The result of sin is spiritual suffering, and death (see Romans 6:23). Christians agree that the cause of much suffering is selfish desire, but they disagree with Buddhism's way of removing this desire.

You will notice that the marginal reading for "lusts," in verses 1 and 3, is "pleasures." That is because the word used means the pleasure that comes from the gratifying of our desires, or lusts, rather than the desires themselves. If our desires run riot and we find a sinful pleasure in their gratification, we at once have the root of endless contentions and warfare.

How it aroused it the apostle likewise shows. — "I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet [or lust]; ' but sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence [or lust]." There the very point is touched that reveals man's departure from God. To "lust" is to manifest a heart not in subjection to God. The "corruption which is in the world" is "through lust" (2 Peter 1:4). Had we not dropped away from the sense of God's wisdom and His love — did we believe in absolute goodness on a despotic throne, the Lord of heaven and earth our Father, — whatever the circumstances, how could one's heart crave more? how should it do other than rest absolutely?

Achan's case is an illustration of the origin and progress of evil in departing from the living God. The last of the ten commandments is, "Thou shalt not covet." It is by the greedy desire to possess, the covetous wish arising in the heart, that the act of sin begins. The effect of these evil desires in a converted man is vividly described in Romans 7. And there is a period in the life of most Christians when they learn by practical experience, the sinfulness of their irrepressible desires, not so much desires after what is positively evil in itself, but after what God in His wisdom has prohibited.

In Achan's case, what harm was there in the garment, or in the silver and gold? The harm was not in the articles, but in Achan's desire to possess what God had withholden from him. From the wrong desire the sinful act springs. The desire must be stifled and crushed. Recall the will of God, take delight in His word, turn away the eyes from beholding the attractions of the world. Paul said, "I had not known sin … except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Let us watch when the germ of covetousness sends up its first shoots, and judge it then and there, looking to Jesus Christ our Lord.