BiblicalInsights.net

Self-control (temperance) is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).  It is also a Christian virtue (II Pet. 1:5-8).  Self-control regulates desires and impulses (the lusts of the flesh).  Self-control involves wanting to do one thing, but choosing to do another.  Self-control regulates what we think, do, and how we express our emotions.  Willpower is the emotional and mental energy used to exert self-control.  Self-control is inner regulation by one’s willpower keeping ourselves from sin.  Self-control is the fruit of submission to God.  It is energized by faith in God and love for God. The more self-control is used, the stronger it becomes.  It weakens immediately after use, but strengthens with frequent use.
Automated and Controlled Actions
Automated actions develop whenever we learn a skill or activity through repeated actions (Driving a car).  Controlled actions involve conscious thought and effort (Driving a car in a foreign country).  Automated and controlled actions team up to help us function.  Self-control involves both automated and controlled actions.  Self-control exercised over time produces habits of the mind and heart which affect behaviors.
Self-Control and the Bible
Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”  Self-control is a result of the pursuit of the Spirit rather than the lusts of the flesh (carnality or worldliness).  “As many as are led by the  Spirit, these are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). We must be vitally connected to the Vine in order to bear these fruits (John 15:1-5).
Self-control is a virtue of the Christian life.  II Pet. 1:5-8, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance: and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness: And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.”  Self-control is acquired by exercising ourselves unto godliness (I Tim. 4:8).  Lack of self-control is like a city without walls (Prov. 25:28).
Results of Low Self-Control
If we possess a low willpower level, then there will be more indulgence of the flesh.
A low willpower level, will result in the display of more negative emotions like anger and strife.
Low willpower or lack of self-control make temptations more alluring.  Yielding to temptation creates a greater desire for the object of the temptation (we now have a memory of the pleasure of sin).
Factors Involved In Increasing Self-Control
Each person should get plenty of rest and pursue a proper diet (remember Elijah who became despondent whenever Jezebel sought his life).
Don’t add stressers to your life (rushing to get somewhere increases anxiety-which wastes emotional energy).
Work to reduce or eliminate personal conflict.
Don’t overload or overwhelm your abilities to cope with life.
Steer away from wasting emotional energy on things like constantly checking email or social media.
Self-control must be used or it will be lost.  Use your own willpower to make habits out of your thoughts, feeling and behaviors that you know are good and beneficial.
Don’t accept weakness or shortcoming.  This leads to failure.  Failure to hit the mark (God’s standard of righteousness) is sin.
(see Can You Control Yourself, Christianity Today, May, 2017, pp. 36-41 for more information).

“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28-29).
“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13).
There are two reactions that we can make as we live in the presence of God.  The first is irreverence and the second is reverence and godly fear.
Leonard Pitts Jr. illustrates irreverence when he wrote exposing Jeffrey Darnell Paul who portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. as a “playa” holding up $100 dollar bills while a scantily clad women looked on.  Pitts wrote, “Irreverence is not the liberating of the American mind, but the calcifying of the American heart against anything sacred” (Jan. 16, 2012, Columbus Dispatch).
-Irreverence leads to the death of civility.
-Irreverence produces a tyranny all its own.  A ban against holding up anything above the fray, or regarding anything as too sacred for too long.
-Irreverence violates the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you).  When we mock and ridicule leaders that deserve our respect, then we lower the bar for everyone.
Cindy Brandt gives some examples of irreverence in Irreverence is the New Reverence (Huffington Post, 7/22/2014).  First, Nadia Bolz-Weber, minister of a Lutheran Church in Denver, CO, who is heavily tatted and foul-mouthed.  An obvious example of the “double-minded” (James 1:8) who mocks her own religion with her faulty character.  Second, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary (a female) whose voice contains crude humor and who quoted God as using profanity.  She mocks the holiness of God with such depictions.  Third, some Facebook pages: “Unvirtuous Abbey”; “Stuff Christian Cultures Like” which is a page that exists solely to brutally mock Christian culture.
-Irreverence manifests impiety towards God.
-Irreverence consists of disrespectful attitudes and actions.
-Irreverence toward God is blasphemy.
-Irreverence is disregard for the authority and character of a superior.  There is no higher authority than God.
Reverence is respect for the authority and character of those who are superior in rank or position.
Reverence for God combines the fear of God with the love of God.  Reverence for God involves an understanding of His power to punish the evil-doer, but, also, His great love and mercy toward them that love Him.
Reverence is indispensable to true religion.  Charles Simmons rightly observed that, “Reverence is the very first element of religion; it cannot but be felt by every one who has right views of the divine greatness and holiness, and of his own character in the sight of God” (Christianity Then and Now, Jan. 1, 2012).
There are several glimpses of reverence in God’s Word.  Each involves a deep sense of understanding that we live in the presence of God.
Moses’ call to the prophetic office is given in Exodus 3:1-6.  Moses sees the burning bush and is instructed to take off his shoes for the ground upon which he was standing was holy.  In the presence of a holy God, we have a keen sense of our own unworthiness.
In Exodus 32:19, Moses displayed reverence for God by his zeal for the Lord.  When Moses sees the sin of the people of Israel after receiving the Ten Commandments from God, he is filled with anger and breaks the tablets of stone.  Zeal for God is produced by reverence for God and His laws.
During the period of the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, Ezra was instrumental in guiding the people spiritually to return to the Lord.  In Nehemiah 8:5,9, he reads the Law of God.  When he reads the Law, all of the people stood up.  When he finished, they all wept.  Reverence for God produces respect for God’s Word.
Nehemiah helped Ezra in the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the 70 years of Babylonian captivity.  In Nehemiah 1, Nehemiah learns of the condition of the city of Jerusalem from his brother, Hanani.  He wept, fasted and prayed.  Reverence for God motivates us to intimacy with God.  In face of the task of the rebuilding Jerusalem, Nehemiah sought God first.
When David sinned in conceiving a child with Bathsheba, he received word from the prophet Nathan that the child would die.  David prayed and fasted until he learned that the child died.  Immediately, he washed himself and entered into the house of God to worship.  Reverence for God gives God the glory even in the face of God’s chastening.  The reverent heart seeks to glorify God at all times.
The Roman soldier at the foot of the cross experiences all of the miracles at the time of Jesus’ death.  He hears the seven sayings of Jesus while He was on the cross.  At the end, he says, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39).  The persuasive power of God intervening in human history produces reverence for God that expresses itself in confession of God’s Son.
-Reverence for God is a feeling evoked by the Glory and Holiness of God.
-Reverence is the result of understanding in the fullest sense who God is.
-Reverence produces in us a strong feeling of unworthiness in God’s presence.  It produces respect, humility and submission to God.