I have been struggling lately with desserts (sweets). I go through cycles when I don’t eat any, and then when I eat too many. Lately, it’s been too many and my body is suffering the consequences. When I am eating too many, I berate myself for my lack of self-control.
Peter wrote two letters. The first letter’s theme is “adversity,” the second letter’s theme is “knowledge.” Peter writes in his second letter that self-control is to be added as one of the virtues to faith, but it is really in the first letter dealing with adversity and suffering that Peter defines self-control.
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 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 Christ Jesus, 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. Amen&Amen