The term “self-control” is mentioned three times in the New Testament. It is one of those pleasant sounding virtues that (almost) no one speaks ill of. Everyone wants to have self-control. When we fail to have it, we often end up publicly embarrassed, and that is a fate some people fear more than death.
But familiarity can turn to forgetfulness, and forgetfulness to loss. If we’re not following Peter’s counsel to do whatever we can to be increasing in self-control (2 Pet 1:5–6), we will lose the habit with dire consequences for our soul. So it’s worth spending some time thinking about what self-control is, and why it’s important.
Self-Control Contrasted
The concept of self-control was commonplace in the ancient Greco-Roman context of the New Testament. Aristotle, for example, wrote extensively on it in his Nicomachean Ethics, flanking it with two vices: weakness of will and impetuosity. But we need not go outside of the Bible to get a sense of what it is. The virtue of self-control often contrasts with specific sins that clarify what self-control means.
In 2 Peter the apostle contrasts virtuous Christians with false teachers, describing the latter as “irrational animals, creatures of instinct” (2:12). Paul’s fruit of the Spirit has a corresponding vice list, including things like “sensuality” and “fits of anger” (Gal 5:19-20). Similarly, in Titus 3:3, Paul describes the human race not as those who govern themselves, but as those who are “slaves to various passions and pleasures”. In short, those without self-control are those dragged around by instincts or passions, not those whose feelings and behaviour are subject to deliberation and voluntary choice.
Self-Control for Life
To say that self-control is a virtue, and therefore that lacking it is sinful, has implications for our thinking about right and wrong. First, it means that we can feel urges, even very strong ones, to do things that are nevertheless not good for us to do. It is easy to imagine examples, real or hypothetical, for various kinds of emotions: anger and lust when not properly directed have led people into self-destructive traps innumerable times in the tale of human history.
But second, affirming self-control as a virtue means that we need to direct our actions; and more fundamentally train our emotions to follow our voluntary control, with that power to choose in turn being led by our careful deliberation. In short, we need to learn to feel and choose and act based on what is good when everything is considered, not just when one thing (i.e., getting what our urges want us to get in the moment) is considered.
Self-control through God
Yet, even if we grant that this is the ideal, it’s another thing when we come around to trying to acquire this virtue. How can it be done if, as Paul says, human beings are slaves to various passions? The answer is in the work of God in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed,” and “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (8:36, 31-32)”
Through the work of the Son, we are made free. In our subjective experience, this will partly look like “abiding” in his word, and thereby being made free from the power of sin. God shines the light of truth through his word onto our minds, enabling us to see that what we thought we absolutely needed was actually only a partial good. Now we can see the whole picture. We can see what is good all things considered, and therefore our desires are redirected, and new actions follow.
