The Spirit Produces Self-Control

Paul's letter to Titus is only 3 chapters long. It's very easy to read and it's filled with great practical instructions. Titus lived in Crete, where many people were of bad character. Paul says in the first chapter that it was a Cretan himself who once said of them, "Cretans are always liars, wicked beasts, and lazy gluttons." Oh my, not something we want on our resumés!
 
Paul tells Titus to teach the older men, the older women (who are then supposed to teach the young women), the young men, and the slaves to be self-controlled. They were to be different than their culture! Here's how he said it:

Older Men: Be sober, sensible, and self-controlled, sound in faith, love and endurance.
 
The Women: Live a holy life, not slanderers or slaves to wine, love their husbands and children, be self-controlled and pure, and good housewives.
 
The Young Men: Be self-controlled, examples of good behavior, sincere and serious.

For God has revealed His grace for the salvation of all mankind. That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world, as we wait for the blessed Day we hope for, when the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ will appear. He gave Himself for us, to rescue us from all wickedness and to make us a pure people who belong to Him alone and are eager to do good.
-Titus 2:11-14

I think we should all spend time evaluating ourselves in the area of self-control. We all have different areas in which we over-indulge. Maybe we watch too much TV, eat too much, gossip, devote too much time to ourselves, shop too much.... One year I just grew disgusted with myself for all the chocolate I was eating. It was ridiculous. Chocolate every single day and plenty of it. I decided I should see if I could just give it up completely. It was a serious struggle, but I sincerely dedicated myself to the project just to see if I had the self-control. With God's help, I made it through the year without a single brownie or chocolate bar. Then I was blessed with an amazing result: I still love chocolate, but I never crave it. I can't even eat a whole candy bar anymore. It's just too rich. One little Hershey's Kiss is a wonderful treat.

Too bad we can't just make an announcement like that about sin. "I'm just giving it up for a year to see what that would be like." I'm sure that going sin-free... just like going chocolate-free... would make us realize that our sins are just too much for us to handle. Too "rich". Actually, just too disgusting!
 
I want to challenge each of us as God's women to think of an area in our lives where we really need to practice self-control. Let's see if we can go "cold turkey" on those things in which we find ourselves out of control! We'll never be able to stop sinning completely, but if we seriously chose one area where we are going overboard, seriously guard ourselves in that area, intentionally cut the problem area out of our lives and offer our inability or unwillingness to practice self control to the Lord, I believe it will help us be more aware of how truly disgusting our sins are. I don't want to be mastered by anything or anyone but the Lord!
 
Now lets scratch a little deeper. Look at my list a couple of paragraphs up... trivial stuff on which we go overboard... chocolate, shopping, TV, etc. If we can go overboard and lose self-control on these little things, then it's certainly easy to go overboard on serious things that do a great deal of damage. So take the principles that went with the trivial and hear the Spirit call us to deal with the serious stuff!

Get rid of all bitterness, [misguided] passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any sort.
-Ephesians 4:31

Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves.
-Philippians 2:3

Do everything without complaining or arguing.
-Philippians 2:14
  
You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry).
-Colossians 3:5

But now you must get rid of all these things: anger, passion, and hateful feelings. No insults or obscene talk must ever come from your lips. Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself.
-Colossians 3:8-10

What would be on your serious list? Clearly, Satan can use many things to trip us up and help us lose control. Let's not treat these stumbling stones lightly. Instead of being mastered by our weaknesses, let's offer our hearts and our bodies to the Savior to be controlled by Him. May the Spirit fill us with self-control, causing our lives to be controlled by love for each other and our Father in Heaven.

---

© 2002, Sandy Fields. Courtesy of Heartlight.org.

Note: The scripture references in this article are from the TEV (Today's English Version of the Bible).