Fruit of the Spirit – July
15, 2018 – Gal 5:23
Self Control or Temperance: Self-control has been defined as the ability
to control one's emotions and behavior in the face of temptations. It is evidence of God working in our
lives. Self Control is a fruit of the
Holy Spirit.
It
is at the height of Christian virtue in a fallen world. Self-control is simply that important,
impressive, and nearly impossible practice of learning to maintain control of
the beast of one’s own sinful passions. It means remaining master of your own
domain but also when faced with trial or temptation. Self-control may be the
epitome of “easier said than done.”
Christian self-control is not finally
about bringing our bodily passions under our own control, but under the control
of Christ by the power of his Spirit.
Jesus showed it every day when dealing
with His disciples, people who came for help and the religious persecution by
the Pharisees, scribes and Saduccees.
Alongside love and godliness, self-control
serves as a major summary term for Christian conduct in full flower. Christian self-control is multifaceted. It
involves both “control over one’s behavior and the impulses and emotions
beneath it” (It includes our minds and our emotions — not just our outward
actions, but our internal world.
Biblically, self-control, or lack thereof,
goes to the deepest part of us: the heart. It begins with control of our
emotions, and then includes our minds as well.
An example is when Jesus healed the Gaderene demoniac. It states
in Mark 5:15 and Luke 8:35 characterize the healed demoniac as “clothed
and in his right mind.” That is what
Jesus does with us.
2 Timothy 1:7, For the Spirit God gave us
does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline or self
control. Paul uses similar language to
speak of being in his right mind (2 Corinthians 5:13, and Romans 12:3 exhorts
every Christian “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,”
but to exercise a form of self-control: thinking “with sober judgment.”
The Bible says the source of true change
and real power is outside yourself,
where you can lawfully indulge. The key to self-control is not inward, but
upward. It comes from the indwelling
Holy Spirit True self-control is a gift
from above, produced in and through us by the Holy Spirit.
Self-control is not a gift we receive
passively, but actively. We are not the source, but we are intimately involved.
We open the gift and live it. Receiving the grace of self-control means taking
it all the way in and then out into the actual exercise of the grace.
As a Christian we want Jesus to get glory.
We want to control ourselves in the power he supplies. We learn to say no, but
we don’t just say no. We admit the inadequacy, and emptiness, of doing it on
our own. We pray for Jesus’s help, secure accountability.
In l1 Corinthians 9:25,
Paul equates self control like this. Everyone
who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown
that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
It is doing what Philippians 4:8-9
says. “Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received
or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will
be with you.”
It is doing Romans 12:1-2. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,
in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the
pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then
you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and
perfect will.
Ultimately,
our controlling ourselves is about being controlled by Christ. When “the love
of Christ controls us” (2 Corinthians 5:14), when we embrace the truth that he
is our sovereign, and God has “left nothing outside his control” (Hebrews 2:8),
we can bask in the freedom that we need not muster our own strength to exercise
self-control, but we can find strength in the strength of another. In the
person of Jesus, “the grace of God has appeared . . . training us” — not just
“to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,” but “to live self-controlled,
upright, and godly lives in the present age” 12).
Self-control is a gift, produced in and
through us by God’s Spirit, Christians can and should be the people on the
planet most hopeful about growing in self-control. We are, after all, brothers
of the most self-controlled man in the history of the world.
I love this next part. Jesus Christ in his life he was “without sin”
(Hebrews 4:15). “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1
Peter 2:22). He stayed the course even when sweat came like drops of blood
(Luke 22:44). He could have called twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53),
but he had the wherewithal to not rebut the false charges (Matthew 27:14) or
defend himself (Luke 23:9). When reviled, he did not revile in return (1 Peter
2:23). They spit in his face and struck him; some slapped him (Matthew 26:67).
They scourged him (Matthew 27:26). In every trial and temptation, “he learned
obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), and at the pinnacle of his
self-control he was “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”
(Philippians 2:8). And he is the one who strengthens us (1 Timothy 1:12;
Philippians 4:13). In Jesus, we have a
source for true self-control far beyond that of our feeble selves. I want to close with some scriptures of Self
Control.
Proverbs 16:32
32 Better a patient person
than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.
Proverbs 18:21
21 The tongue has the
power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 25:28
28 Like a city whose walls
are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.
Titus 1:8
8 Rather, he must be
hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy
and disciplined.
James 1:19-21
19 My dear brothers and
sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak
and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the
righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and
the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which
can save you.
1 Peter 5:6-8
6 Humble yourselves,
therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast
all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8 Be alert and of sober mind.
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour.
I close with two examples of Biblical Self
Control. David when he refused harm Saul
and Daniel when he purposed to not eat the Kings food.
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