Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
all that is in the world—can be classed under one or other of the three; the world contains these and no more.
lust of the flesh—that is, the lust which has its seat and source in our lower animal nature. Satan tried this temptation the first on Christ: Luke 4:3, "Command this stone that it be made bread." Youth is especially liable to fleshly lusts.
lust of the eyes—the avenue through which outward things of the world, riches, pomp, and beauty, inflame us. Satan tried this temptation on Christ when he showed Him the kingdoms of the world in a moment. By the lust of the eyes David (II Samuel 11:2) and Achan fell (Joshua 7:21). Compare David's prayer, Psalms 119:37; Job's resolve, Psalms 31:1; Matthew 5:28. The only good of worldly riches to the possessor is the beholding them with the eyes. Compare Luke 14:18, "I must go and SEE it."
pride of life—literally, "arrogant assumption": vainglorious display. Pride was Satan's sin whereby he fell and forms the link between the two foes of man, the world (answering to "the lust of the eyes") and the devil (as "the lust of the flesh" is the third foe). Satan tried this temptation on Christ in setting Him on the temple pinnacle that, in spiritual pride and presumption, on the ground of His Father's care, He should cast Himself down. The same three foes appear in the three classes of soil on which the divine seed falls: the wayside hearers, the devil; the thorns, the world; the rocky undersoil, the flesh (Matthew 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-8). The world's awful antitrinity, the "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," similarly is presented in Satan's temptation of Eve: "When she saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise," Genesis 3:6 (one manifestation of "the pride of life," the desire to know above what God has revealed, Colossians 2:8, the pride of unsanctified knowledge).
of—does not spring from "the Father" (used in relation to the preceding "little children," I John 2:12, or "little sons"). He who is born of God alone turns to God; he who is of the world turns to the world; the sources of love to God and love to the world, are irreconcilably distinct.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 John 2:16:
Genesis 3:6
Song of Solomon 4:1
Song of Solomon 8:7
2 Timothy 2:22
Titus 2:12
1 John 2:14
1 John 2:17
1 John 2:18
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