A Fruit Called Self-Control

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; 
against such things there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22-23

Here among the fruit of the Spirit Paul lists in Galatians we find self-control. Does this seem a bit strange to you? I mean, how can it be “self” control when it is the Holy Spirit who does this work of sanctification in our hearts? What Paul is teaching us is that it’s both. Self-control is both a work of the Holy Spirit and we are called to exercise it. In other words, as Christians, we are expected to control ourselves by the power of the Spirit.

You see, much like how James explains that faith cannot be displayed without works, and that faith without works is dead; so here with the fruit of the Spirit we see that while the fruit are outworkings of the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts, they are also things that we are responsible to do (that’s the “self” part). You can’t say as a Christian, “Oh, the Holy Spirit hasn’t given me kindness yet and that’s why I’m unkind.” 

Our behavior reflects what we believe to be true about God. For instance, the Scripture often encourages us to trust God by telling us not to be afraid. There we see it again: How are we expected to control our fear? By actively believing that God is in control and that He loves us. In other words, when we choose to believe God’s word rather than our fear, we see the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts, and we are empowered for self-control. When we do this, our behavior honors and glorifies Him.

I don’t want to camp here too long, but we can’t forget that we have an enemy who is actively seeking to destroy our faith, and that enemy is not a fan of self-control. (Neither are advertisers, by the way.) The Proverbs tell us, “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls” (25:28). A person without self-control is defenseless. Make no mistake, Satan wants to wreck your faith and if you are not self-controlled, sin is ready and waiting to attack you. We have heard too many stories of well-known Christians who have fallen into sin. Satan loves to try to discredit the Christian faith, and he has a much easier time shaming the person whose wall-less city was overtaken by sin as a hypocrite.

Rather, a Christian should be characterized by the fruit of the Spirit. They are the marks of Christian character. People should look at a Christian and know that person to be self-controlled. In other words, our faith in the Gospel—that Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, died as a sacrifice for our sins, rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven where He lives today, and will one day return to rule His kingdom on the renewed earth, and is working all things out for good in the fullness of his plan—is the reason why we should be people marked by self-control and the reason we are able to do so.

So, what do we do? Christian, the Holy Spirit is with you and in you. Meditate on the Gospel, on Christ who saved you, and pray for the Spirit to empower you to be self-controlled.

“In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3:6

To live a life of self-control is to acknowledge God in all our ways, trusting that as we do so, he will keep us on a straight path. This is why it is so important to be constantly in God’s word, to keep Jesus Christ—as He is revealed in scripture—perpetually before our faces, so that in our lives, in all of the minutiae and in all of the major decisions, we are continually looking to glorify him for the sake of the Gospel. We Christians are clothed in Christ’s righteousness. We represent Him as ambassadors of His Kingdom. We need to know what He’s like so that we can properly represent Him, and we can only find that out from the Bible. You never know what’s going to happen in the course of your day, but if you are prepared by God’s word, you can point to Christ in your behavior through it all.

People often think of self-control in terms of what they should not do. And yes, that’s true. Self-control involves not doing sinful actions. But Christian self-control (recall that list of Fruit of the Spirit) also points to what we ought to be doing. Self-control is just as much about what you should be doing in honor of the Savior you have believed in. Paul did this when he chose to get into boats to tell the world about the Gospel. And we do this when we orient our lives around the work of ministry and live lives that demonstrate what we believe. These positive behaviors frequently get lost in our conversations about self-control.

But the desire of every Christian heart is to live a life that glorifies Christ and reflects His perfect character, and our job is to make disciples of the One who lived a sinless life. While we continue to grow ever closer to Him in our sanctification, none of us will live as perfect and God-honoring a life as He did. Where we fall short, by the power of the Spirit, we can continue in faith as we trust in the effectiveness of His redemptive work for us.