Nine - Self-Control [Notes]

What kind of person are you becoming? Real transformation isn't about trying harder—it's about letting the Holy Spirit work in your life. Nine is a nine-week journey through the fruit of the Spirit discovering how God grows qualities like love, joy, peace, patience, and more in those who follow Jesus. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
– Galatians 5:22-23 (CSB) 

Self-control (enkrateia) – temperance and moderation; Spirit-formed restraint over our thoughts, desires, words, and actions; the opposite of self-indulgence, excess, and slavery to sin.

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Self-control. Modern translations’ term for several Greek words indicating a sober, temperate, calm, and dispassionate approach to life, having mastered personal desires and passions.

Biblical admonitions expect God‘s people to exercise self-control (Proverbs 25:28; 1 Corinthians 7:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:6; 1 Timothy 3:2; 2 Timothy 3:3; Galatians 5:23; 2 Timothy 1:7; Titus 1:8; 2 Peter 1:6).
 
Freedom in Christ does not give believers liberty to cast off all moral restraint as some members in Galatia and other churches apparently believed. Nor does it call for a withdrawal from life and its temptations. It calls for a self-disciplined life, following Christ's example of being in the world but not of the world.

Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown.
– 1 Corinthians 9:25 (CSB)

Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a long-sleeved robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him. Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
– Genesis 37:3-5 (CSB)

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”
– Genesis 39:6b-7 (CSB)

But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?” Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her.
– Genesis 39:8-10 (CSB)

When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious and had him thrown into prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.
– Genesis 39:19-20 (CSB)

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, “If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him.”
– Genesis 50:15 (CSB) 

So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before he died your father gave a command: ‘Say this to Joseph: Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin—the suffering they caused you.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.”
– Genesis 50:16-17a (CSB)

Joseph wept when their message came to him. His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”
– Genesis 50:17b-18 (CSB)

But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people. Therefore don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
– Genesis 50:19-21 (CSB)

I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.
– Galatians 5:16 (CSB) 

Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.
– John 15:4-5 (CSB)

Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
– 2 Timothy 2:22 (CSB)

No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.
– 1 Corinthians 10:13 (CSB)

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.
– James 5:16 (CSB) 

We need to rely on God, not self, for self-control.

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