The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
For
a few months now, we’ve been looking at these wonderful graces. Now we come to
the ninth and last—self-control. Someone has pointed out that probably these
aren’t nine different “fruits”. Instead, they seem to be different workings of
the one Spirit. They can’t be divided into nine categories. The characteristics
of these graces overflow into one another. For instance, forbearance overflows
into self-control, kindness into gentleness, goodness into faithfulness, and so on.
The last grace, self-control, summarizes and bundles them all together. What is love without self-control? How can there be forbearance without self-control?
Once again, we look for examples in Scripture— Who showed self-control? Who lost it? Moses was the meekest man in the world but, at Meribah, he gave up momentarily on the Israelites, and shouted, “You rebels!” and struck the rock twice—to his great loss. (Num.20:10.) Samson is an even worse example—no self-control at all. (Judges 14.)
The very subject frightened Felix, as Paul talked to him, (Acts 24:25.) because it ultimately means refraining from sin. But who showed true self-control?
Joseph was a good example when he kept control of himself in Potiphar’s house. (Gen.39.) Daniel and his three friends decided that they would not be defiled by what they ate in Nebuchadnezzar’s household. (Dan.1:8.) The greatest exemplar, of course, is Jesus— “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.” (1 Peter 2:23.)
Oh Father, help us to be fruitful and more like Jesus!
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