Self Control

Today’s Passages – 1 Corinthians 6 – 9 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)

(Second Milers also read – Psalms 1 – 5; Proverbs 1)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture Song – Joshua 1:8

Read the “1201 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read a previous post from this passage – “Settling Disputes,” “Stumblingblocks“, “Property of Jesus“

“24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

“22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22-25)

Did you notice while reading 1 Corinthians nine that Paul emphasized the need to control himself. The word “temperate,” means self-control. Paul uses the illustration of people who are in athletic contests who need to have self-control. They cannot expect to win the race if they are overeating and under-exercising. It takes a great deal of self discipline to be able to control one’s fleshly appetites and put in the time and sweat needed to achieve “the crown” or trophy in a sporting event.

It is almost the same spiritually. Paul taught earlier (chronologically) in Galatians that temperance was a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23), meaning that it is what the Spirit of God produces in our lives as we are yielded to Him. So, for the believer, temperance is not a fleshly character trait, it occurs when the yielded Christian allows the Spirit of God to control his body, subduing his fleshly appetites. It is not self-discipline, it is Holy Spirit discipline. It is saying no to our flesh and saying yes to what the Spirit of God wants us to do.