Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Self-control”
Our Bible verse for today: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Self-control requires restraint.”
So far in our study of self-control we’ve been thinking primarily about the action side of the issue – making ourselves do the things we know we’re supposed to do. But more often when we think of self-control, we’re thinking about restraining ourselves from doing the things we know we shouldn’t do.
We have already learned that self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit which the Spirit develops in us as we mature in our faith (Galatians 5:22-23). Whether we’re talking about self-control as action or restraint, the more spiritually mature we are the better we will be at controlling actions in ways that are appropriate to the situation. This is the sense in which Peter addresses self-control in 2 Peter 1:3-8, as a spiritual discipline and as an important part of the practice of our faith.
To fully appreciate Peter’s point we need to look at the entire passage verse-by-verse:
Verse 3: “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” So, what Peter is about to describe is given to us for the purpose of empowering us to live life well and in a godly manner.
Verse 4: “By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.” What you’re about to learn will enable you to escape the corruption of the world, resist evil desires, and be more like Christ.
Verses 5-7: For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”
This list is sometimes called “the ladder of faith”. It’s as if one virtue is founded on and springs from the previous one. It begins with simple faith in Christ but then as a result of desire and effort on your part, you grow spiritually and your character changes to become more and more like Christ.
Verse 8: “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yes, please, don’t be useless or unfruitful. If you profess to follow Jesus, then you must strive to be like Him.
Peter’s point in all of this is that you have to want to be self-controlled; you have to want to be more like Jesus; and you have to make the effort in order to help bring that about. This is an important part of living the Christian life well, and the amount of self-control we have has a direct impact on the quality of our lives.
Tomorrow and the next day we’re going to go back to the book of Genesis to consider one example of great restraint, and then another example of the complete lack of it. We will also consider the consequences of each choice. As we will see, exercising proper self-control brings forth good consequences, and the lack of self-control is always bad.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 