Add to your faith…self-control

2 Peter 1:5-7 (NIV)
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;
6 and to knowledge, self-control;

Another quality that we need to add to our faith is self-control.  Even in the world this quality is commendable.  A man who is able to control his temper, control his appetite, control his urges, or control his vices, is always looked up to.  In a similar way when a Christian practices self-control it is also commendable.  A Christian who practices self-control is usually someone who walks in the righteousness that God desires.

But the essence of the self-control of a Christian is different from that of the world.  When a man practices self-control his focus is in a certain problem or situation.  For a Christian it’s more than that.  When a Christian practices self-control he focuses on a deeper problem or situation – his self.

The Bible speaks of an “old self” and a “new self”.

Ephesians 4:22-24 (NIV)
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

The “old self” is that person we were before we put our faith in Christ, before we were born again, given a new heart, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  The old self was our sinful self.

All the old self thought about was itself.  It focused on what our self wanted, craved for.  It craved for everything that was against what the Lord desired.  As Paul says in Ephesians 4:22 our old self is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.

Even as born again Christians, renewed by the Spirit, given a new heart – we need to understand that our old self is still hidden behind our new heart.  It longs to stick out it’s ugly head and bring out it’s old life once again!

This is where self-control comes in.  Self-control, for a Christian, is not just about controlling temper, urges or desires, but about controlling the old sinful flesh that still tries to have a place in our life.

A man who has been born again, placed his faith in Christ, and recognizes Jesus as Lord of his life knows that he has a “new self”.  And for this new self to mature, to bear fruit, in our life, we must be able to control our old self.

The only reason we are able to do this is because of our new self, which has been created to be like God.  By His grace, and by His working in our hearts, we are able to overcome.  Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, rather than a working of our self.  Our obedience to the Spirit is what gives us self-control.

But this does not mean there won’t be a fight.  There will.  This is why Paul reminds us to “throw away” the old self, to get rid of it.

Colossians 3:8-10 (NIV)
8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Our old self will try and come out, not all at the same time, but through different circumstances and in different ways.  Through each circumstance a Christian is called to walk by the Spirit, follow His ways, and practice self-control, so that our old self may not have it’s way in our life anymore!