Self-Control: The "Super Fruit"
In Galatians 5, Paul provides two lists to the churches in Galatia. The first list (Galatians 5:19-21) lists the works of the flesh—“sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” The second list (most commonly known as the Fruits of the Spirit) includes nine fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If you were to list the works of the flesh, then choose a fruit of the Spirit to combat that fleshly work, you could likely use more than one fruit to defeat that work. However, of all the fruits, self-control may have the greatest effect on those works. A follower of God with self-control can resist immorality, impurity, and sensuality by avoiding sexual temptations; they can resist idolatry and sorcery by following the one true God and avoiding all others. In that context, self-control can be viewed as the “super fruit” necessary to defeat the sins of the flesh.
Solomon, the wisest human that has ever lived, knew the importance of self-control—in Proverbs 25:28, he writes that “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Yet Solomon had lapses of self-control- even though he knew God’s command to not marry foreign women (1 Kings 11:2), his heart was turned away by his 700 wives and 300 concubines. His lack of self-control in choosing whom to marry caused “his heart to be turned away from the Lord” (1 Kings 11:9); in fact, God divided the kingdom because of his lack of self-control.
As followers of God living in a very sinful world, it is important that our city have strong walls—self-control maintains those walls against sin. Exercising self-control keeps our enemy from entering our hearts and minds, it keeps sin from capturing our thoughts, words, and actions, and it keeps our heart turned toward God. If we do not discipline ourselves to maintain self-control over our own actions, we leave ourselves open to Satan, his temptations, and, consequently, sin.This Sunday, we will define self-control in class and learn practical strategies to build self-control in the Sunday morning message. These are lessons we all can use.
— Mike Johnson
