Do You Have Control of Yourself?

Find out what the bible says about self-control as we wrap up our study of the fruit of the Spirit.

The final fruit of the Spirit that is mentioned in Galatians 5:23 is temperance or self-control. According to Merriam-Webster, temperance is defined as moderation in action, thought, or feeling. While self-control is known as the ability to control oneself, in particular one’s emotions and desires or the expression of them in one’s behavior, especially in difficult situations (Dictionary.com). For the purpose of clarity and time, I will use self-control as I report on this fruit. In the English Standard version of the bible, the word self-control is seen 24 times in 11 verses. The bible says that a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls (Proverbs 25:28). This scripture causes us to imagine a crime, specifically a robbery. Though this may seem extreme, it is an exact illustration of what self-control is and what our lives look like when we do not operate in it.

Self-control is itself visible and it produces visible fruit in our lives.

From the start, it seems that even though this fruit was mentioned last, it holds a lot of weight in our study. We take self out of almost every other fruit, and though this fruit includes “self” it still is not truly manifested without being in fellowship with the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 7:9, the verse explains that every athlete exercises self-control in all things. Self-control is something that we can see.

A lack of self-control can be seen in various ways in our lives: through our finances (or lack thereof), obesity, promiscuity, physical violence, and the list goes on and on. The common belief is that if we grow up around certain things, we will become those things. This is not wrong thinking in and of itself because it is true if we allow it to be true in our lives. However, when we enter in to a covenant relationship with Jesus and we take on His nature, He gives us the ability to rewrite our story and to embody who He is. Self-control is a part of His nature, so this allows us to disregard what society says about becoming something or not becoming something just because we did or did not grow up seeing certain things.

Having self-control is a lot like having patience because it causes us to slow down. Proverbs 16:32 says he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. The bible is very clear that having self-control is vital to being successful in our walk with the Lord. We see here that the scripture regards being slow to anger and ruling our spirit as greater than overtaking a city. This would be contrary to popular belief since the world’s view of strength is to be aggressive and to take by force.

There is a time for everything, even to take something by force, however self-control causes us to examine the situation and ourselves before proceeding. This is true strength and like Tom Hanks said in A League of Their Own, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.” There is much more to be said on this subject, but we will conclude here. While I may be ending here, it is my hope that you will continue this study and take everything that has been presented before the Lord in prayer. I presume that this information has given you a good foundation and pray that it will ultimately help to aide us all in our understanding of the necessity of each spiritual fruit.