Peter wrote two letters. The first was addressed to “God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout….” The second was addressed to “those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours.”
The first letter’s theme is “adversity,” the second letter’s “knowledge.” While Peter writes that self-control is to be added as one of the virtues to faith in his second letter, it is really in the first letter dealing with adversity and suffering that Peter defines self-control. He does it three ways.
As you read those passages, you’ll notice one thing right away, self-control never stands alone; it is always matched with a quality of the mind, such as, alertness, attentiveness, clarity. (1 Peter 1:13-16, 4:7, 5:8-9)
Biblical self-control really has little to do with “self.” It is generated by God’s Spirit in us. As we grow and become grounded in God’s Word and cooperative with His Spirit, we learn what is truly important. Self-control allows us, it enables us, to live and move not by sight but by faith. We can disregard the danger we see because we abide in the refuge we can’t see. We learn to pray, and to resist the enemy of our soul that prowls around looking to devour the unsuspecting and unaware.
Self-control, combined with the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and with the goodness and glory of God’s character, built on the foundation of faith in Christ, keeps us in the fight so that we will end even better than we began.
