Galatians 5:16-26
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
August 13, 2023
William G. Carter
Live by the Spirit, I say,
and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is
opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for
these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you
want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the
law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity,
licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger,
quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things
like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things
will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such
things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with
its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided
by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another,
envying one another.
The summer’s sermon series was prompted by a comment from a friend from California. Jim Kitchens is his name. He spoke at a meeting of Lackawanna Presbytery and said what most of us already know. The religious landscape in America is changing dramatically. Across the land, church attendance has dropped. Sanctuaries are shutting down. Energy is diminished. Good Christian folk are wringing their hands.
Then Jim said, “I suppose if anybody wants to turn this around, they ought to do what they can to grow the fruit of the Holy Spirit.” Zing – he got my attention! So this summer, we’ve worked through the list: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and – for today – self-control. It’s quite the list. And as you’ve offered helpful feedback along the way, you’ve agreed. We would all benefit from more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and gentleness.
These are genuine Christian virtues. They reflect the mind of Christ. They reveal the character of God. They grow as the Holy Spirit works in our individual lives as well as our churches.
Today, the fruit of the week, the final week, is self-control. It’s different from the previous eight, if only because self-control is a human quality. It is a mortal attribute. I suppose a case could be made for God showing restraint, but that’s not the same thing as self-control.
Same thing can be said of Jesus. There’s an episode in the Gospel of Luke that doesn’t go so well. Jesus had decided to make his way to Jerusalem for the last time. As he goes through Samaria, he sends an advance team to prepare the way. The Samaritans refuse to welcome them. That’s a major Middle Eastern faux pas – to deny hospitality. James and John are incensed. “Lord, how about if we call down some fire to burn away these Samaritans?”
Jesus stops in his tracks, glares at them, and says essentially, “Knock it off.” I think that’s the sanitized version that makes it into the Bible. Like his Father in heaven, Jesus shows restraint – because James and John have no self-control.
Self-control is a term with a moral inference. It’s a learned behavior to keep us out of sin. It does not come naturally. If you remember from eight weeks ago, the natural human behavior is what the apostle Paul refers to as “the works of the flesh.” He has a nasty list of what the untamed human animal is prone to do.
- There
are the sins of the body: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, and
drunkenness.
- There
are the sins of turning away from God: idolatry (worshiping the wrong
thing) and sorcery (looking elsewhere for divine help).
- There
are the sins of the soul: jealousy, anger, and envy.
- Most of the list consists of the sins that rip the social fabric: enmities, strife, quarrels, dissentions, factions, carousing, and what Paul calls “things like these.”
And there’s one thing, one thing only, to keep all of us in check. Guess what? “Self-control.”
The Mediterranean world of Paul placed a high value on self-control. Plato, Aristotle, and all the big philosophical superstars thought of self-control as a virtue. Often out of reach, yet something to aspire toward, something to admire when you could see it.
In his commentary on Galatians, William Barclay states the “secular Greek uses (the phrase) of the virtue of an Emperor who never lets his private interests influence the government of his people. It is the virtue (he says) which makes a man so master of himself that he is fit to be the servant of others.”[1] Wow – imagine that! How refreshing! Imagine what level of chaos would ensue if an emperor lacked self-control and served only himself!
Paul speaks of self-control as an alternative. It’s another way of being, an alternative way of living. And it can be misunderstood. Especially if you read the King James Bible. In the King James version, the final fruit of the Spirit is listed as “temperance.” Temperance is a word that sets off all kinds of bells and sirens.
One of our church members grew up in a new church development just outside of Kansas City. The founding pastor refused to touch a drop of alcohol. Rev. Meneilly didn’t stop there. Every year he preached an annual “temperance sermon.” Not sure how a temperance sermon would have flown in Lackawanna County, but he would stand in Prairie Village, Kansas, to lecture the congregation on the evils of drink.
I would venture a guess that he told tales of people destroyed by drinking, which would be a good warning. He probably described what an addiction could do to a family, and how it tends to reoccur in the following generations. Yet he was rather selective about what he said about the Bible – no mention of Jesus pouring out the wine at the Last Supper, no allusion to St. Paul declaring “a little wine is good for the stomach.”[2] No, the prevailing message was simple: just say no. Always say no. Don’t even put yourself in a place of temptation.
Good advice, but if it were only that simple. The fact is a hard position on that kind of temperance has led to hypocrisy. A friend in Tennessee tells me about the Jack Daniels Baptists. Ever hear about the Jack Daniels Baptists? Those are the Baptists who don’t recognize one another in the liquor store. There are plenty of jokes like that, and stories, too. We’ll save them for coffee hour.
The better translation of Paul’s word is not “temperance” but “self-control.” Self-control is a matter of discipline, not merely a matter of abstinence. If you raise your kids in a dry household, it might go well until they go off to college. And then, without Mom or Dad hovering over them, they have that burst of complete freedom – and the animal impulses take over. What will save them is more than merely saying no (which is very difficult to do, especially in the pressure exerted by their peers. What will save them is self-control.
Paul uses this word in the brief passage we heard from 1 Corinthians. He describes the Christian life as an athletic event. It’s running a race. Nobody competing in a race simply starts running. They train. They start modestly, build up muscles and stamina. They work at improving their time. They challenge themselves by running against others. “It’s not an aimless pursuit,” says the apostle. There’s intention. There’s a goal. There’s a quest for continuing improvement.
As he says, “Athletes exercise self-control in all things.” They watch what they eat. They monitor their weight. They focus on building the appropriate muscles to help them through the appropriate challenges. And he’s talking not only about sports. He is referring to the moral life, the Christian life, the Christ-like life. No one becomes an expert in anything without working at it.
It’s true in sports. It’s true in the arts. My ears are still ringing from the glorious music from Friday night’s concert by The King’s Brass. It was superb. If you missed it, you could listen to the concert recording on our church’s YouTube channel, which you can access through our church’s website.
[View the concert by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/live/OMe3Vog7ijs?feature=share&t=723]
That concert began at 7:00 p.m. The band arrived at 2:00 to set up and do a sound check. Our arts team prepared a meal for them at 4:30. So what did they do between 2:30 and 4:30, and between 5:00 and 6:45? Every one of them practiced. There was music in every conceivable corner of this building. Lip trills, scales, working through difficult passages, working through possible mistakes. Those guys have been on the road for ten weeks, playing six or seven concerts a week, traveling together, playing together – and they still practice, practice, practice?
Of course. We can’t become good if we don’t work at it. It’s true in music, it’s true in sports, it’s true in the moral life. That’s what Paul is saying about self-discipline. It’s an ongoing process. We must keep at it.
We were reflecting on temperance and alcohol a few minutes before. Every single morning of the week, our conference room is the home for a group of people who are learning to live without addiction. My friends in that community say it is a daily discipline. Every single day, they are paying attention to their souls. They are listening to what Paul calls out “passions and desires.”
And they know they will only win the race if they surrender. That’s the key verb for the recovery community. Stop faking it. Give up the vanity of appearances. Hand over all our creaturely impulses. Let Jesus crucify those burdens on his cross – and welcome the Risen Christ to live in us. Surrender is the essence of self-control. Every single day. And it opens within us - and among us - the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and gentleness of God.
So we conclude where we began. Each day we begin again. We welcome the Holy Spirit to work within us.
When I began to prepare for this sermon series, I came across a prayer offered daily by a British scholar by the name of John Stott. He was one of the great teachers of the Bible, and I had the privilege to sit at his feet years ago. Those who knew him personally remarked on his consistent Christ-like personality. Never in a hurry, never prone to fits, but Christ-like.
And then, it was revealed that he began each day by praying this prayer:
Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I
may live in your presence and please you more and more.
Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may
take up my cross and follow you.
Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[3]
If we
pray a prayer like that, it will most certainly be answered. May it be so.
(c) William G. Carter. All rights reserved.
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