1 John 2:16 English Standard Version (ESV) For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life[pride in possessions]—is not from the Father but is from the world.

This new life in Christ needs a new way of doing things. We have been changed,  transformed. That will not happen easily if we keep looking at things the same way we did when we were in the world and ignorant of the love of God in Christ Jesus.

One of the life ministries of Jesus was to open the eyes of the blind to see the world in truth. When we died to sin and became alive in Christ, He performed the same miracle for us but we were not immediately aware of it.

We take in the world with our natural eye, it is flesh and will instinctively act as our window to the world. It is our spiritual eyes that discern the world for what it truly represents.

What do our eyes naturally follow, focus on? Those things that pleased the flesh of our past. Temptations. The world advertises by presenting images that are distracting. Those images are used to draw us into their trap. The world will use us for their own nefarious reasons.

The easiest observation can be seen in the drive-thru pictures. When we buy the product and open the package, it does not look like the image in the ad. That doesn’t matter now because we already bought the product and our appetites take over. We knew what it would taste like and we did not consider if it was healthy for us, we wanted it. 

That is just one of the easier things to understand. We do not always see the harm in all the things that catch our eye. It is even more difficult to resist those temptations if they have never been a problem in our past. Damage to the body is a natural event, damage to the soul is a spiritual matter. Those can only be discerned with spiritual eyes.

What can spiritual eyes see?

Psalm 13:2-4 English Standard Version

2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

They connect us to see the world the way God does.

Psalm 32:8 English Standard Version (ESV) I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.