SWTRBC-Week 7 Self Control
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 4 viewsNotes
Transcript
to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness;
SWTRBC_Week 7 - Self Control:
To Knowledge , ADD Self-Control
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love.For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.
Enkrateia - mastery or control of Self.
This is an uncommon word, used only 3 times in the NT writings.
Peter uses it here in 2 Peter 1:6 and
The Apostle Paul uses this word in
Act 24:25 in his discussion with the Roman Governor Felix & in Gal 5:23 as he seeks to protect the work of the Gospel that was being done in Galatia, which was daily being threaten by the culture and corruption of that area, which is not unlike the culture and corruption that we see in our world today.
I personally struggled with Self Control for years.
As I look back, I think maybe this was because I had never been taught what self-mastery or self-control even looked like.
My concept discipline was rooted in the sound of my Father’s belt clicking through the loops of his pants as he stripped it off to apply it vigorously to my rear end.
The Stinging pain of those moments was all I could associate with the concept of disciple.
Any control over my actions, any second guessing my thoughts before I acted out, any guard rails that may have been in place for me..... were only held in place by fear of the punishment that was sure to come, IF I got caught.
As I grew older and more intelligent, I got better...not at Self-Control....No, I got better at not getting caught.
The concept Self-Control, for the largest part of my adult life ....was to me... what the author of Ecclesiastes called HEVEL, Smoke or Vapor.
Vague and when I tried to grasp at it, it dissipated quickly. And, since I grasping this seemed to a worthless pursuit..and my view on discipline was negative at best....this was not something I devoted any time or effort into.
Several years ago, I forget how many now but within the last 5, I had moment where Holy Spirit was speaking to me during one of my daily prayer times.
I remember him posing this question to me.
“If...you cannot master or control your body, your flesh and all of its cravings and desires; which you can see and touch, what makes you think you can master or control your spirit, your heart, the very seat of your emotions and will, which you cannot see and touch?”
That question still resonates in my spirit and I have been on a years long journey of learning the principles of disciplining my body and how those practices strengthen a man physically and spiritually.
Take the practice of fasting.
These days when I hear someone talking about fasting, they are talking about not eating for 12 hours or giving up Facebook for a couple of days, and while that be stretch for some people, that’s not truly effective fasting that forces you to say NO to basic primal urges like hungry.
When a person fasts for a couple days and there is sense that your stomach is gnawing at your backbone and even the dog’s food is looking tasty...and you are saying NO to your flesh..and instead saying to God...you are more important to me than food.
Our relationship means more to me than Bacon or Steak; A Juicy Cheese Burger or a Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pie; then you are getting some self-control reps in. You are denying the flesh, what the body craves ...for the purpose of strengthening your spirit and learning how to make your relationship with Jesus the priority.
Jesus demonstrated this in the scene recorded in John 4
Jesus stop by a well near a Samaritan town and sends his disciples ahead to find some food for the group.
There he meets a Samaritan Woman and reveals, for the first time to anyone who he really is, the Messiah the chosen one of God.
When the disciples return they encourage Jesus to eat and Jesus replies
“I have a kind of food you know nothing about.”
“Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other.
Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work
1 Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Jn 4:31–34.
I love this scene, because I see my King’s heart so clearly. How he cares for and unselfishly loves this woman who was ostracized by the local town and society as a whole because of her sinful behavior driven by her human nature and her internal wounds. How Jesus confronts the Sin and Loves the Woman, offering forgiveness and Hope that she never dreamed she would ever see.
I love how I see Jesus’ love for his Father and the priority that he places on the Mission and Work he had been given. How the real needs of the body were held in submission to his relationship with his Father.
“My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work
When, if ever have you said this in your life. When has the Mission and the Heart of your King and your Father in Heaven taken priority over the needs, wants or desires of your flesh?
Oh, how I wished there had been a man in my life that would have challenged me and asked me this question decades ago.
It’s easy to pursue Christ if you think you can simply do whatever you like, fulfill every dirty, unhealthy, destructive little desire of your heart and then when or if you get caught, you can simply say “Sorry God” be forgiven and all is well.
I lived decades of my Adult life in this Error.. this lie...practicing sin and feeding the flesh whenever it got a little too tough to resist..because after all, I am only human and God understands, God will forgive, God has to forgive..doesn’t he?
Do you see the insanity in this line of thinking? If not, it could be because you too are trapped like I was... in this lie.
I have really enjoyed Mike Green’s commentary on this Letter from the Apostle Peter and I want share with you some thoughts he had around this passage in 2 Peter 1
to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness;
He says
“Third in the list comes self-control (enkrateia). This is to be exercised not only in food and drink, but in every aspect of life.
The word is not common in the New Testament (though it comes in Paul’s list of virtues in Gal. 5:23) but, like goodness above, it was highly prized in Greek moral philosophy.
It meant controlling the passions instead of being controlled by them.
Aristotle saw through the shallowness of Socrates’ dictum which stated “that no-one willingly rejects the best course once he sees it.”
Aristotle knew full well that men do willingly and wilfully sin, and he has a lot to say about akrasia, being mastered by one’s lusts.
But he had no answer to the problem of human wickedness.
That answer is to be found in the Christian way of life.
For Christian self-control is submission to the control of the indwelling Christ; and by this means... mature virtue (what Aristotle wistfully called ‘divine virtue which is beyond man’) ...does become a possibility for men.
Once again Peter uses a word which must have cut the false teachers like a whiplash.
They claimed that knowledge released them from the need for self-control (2:10ff.; 3:3). Peter emphasized that true knowledge leads on to self-control.
Mike went on to say
“Any system which divorces religion from ethics is fundamental heresy.”
1 Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 18, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 88.
That same mindset that the Greek Philosophers maintained concerning the need to manage our lusts and not be mastered by them is prevelant today.
I see men devoting huge effort to a practice of behavior management flavored with the ‘remember..you are only human, so give yourself some grace” mentality.
...that mindset plagues the Church today.
Many, who would claim salvation in Jesus..live lives that willing succumb to the pressures of temptations and lust that build the life controlling issues and addictions so many fight.. AND they write it off as just being Human.
The is where Knowledge..real knowledge of the Gospel..becomes SOOOO important and leads to Self-Control.
When you know Jesus and the power of his Gospel, when you know and understand the power of the indwelling of Holy Spirit..when you know that you are a New Creature in Christ Jesus...then you know that you are no longer Merely Human..you are something higher ...you are something entirely new and holy..you are sacred space..the dwelling place of God
...when you truly have this sort of knowledge then the Self-Control that God expects us to live and operate in isn’t wishful thinking..it is reality.
That reality by the way..is only lived in when we believe it is true. Imagine that a reality empowered by Faith, by belief in a Work, not that we have done, but in a work God has done for us.
Can you now see how this sort of Knowledge has the power to lead us into Self Control?
As God’s Kids, it’s time we stop white-knuckling our faith and trying to produce righteousness in our own strength.
It’s time we stop using the I’m only human excuse
it’s time to stop justifying our lack of control
It’s time we started operating in a knowledge of God that produces a loyalty and love which in turn produces the mind in us that Jesus had.
My nourishment, my fulfillment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work
Blessing
Until next week
24 ‘May the Lord bless you
and protect you.
25 May the Lord smile on you
and be gracious to you.
26 May the Lord show you his favor
and give you his peace.’
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love.For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.
2000+ years have passed since the Holy Spirit inspired both Peter and Paul to discuss this concept of Self Control and yet the need for such is just as great, maybe even greater that it was