Self-Control – Part four

It is one thing to say, “I am going to do what is right!” and it is some­thing else to achieve self-control. Certainly it is a worthy goal, but how do we go about reaching it?

First, an admission

The first step in living an upright life is the admission that, by nature, we are out of control. This is not an easy admission to make, and few will acknowledge it.

As an example, consider the child behaving so badly that you feel like paddling him yourself while his mother just smiles dotingly. She refuses to admit the misbehavior. Another example is the adolescent who is well on his way to becoming a hardened criminal whose parents, rather than discipline him, say, “Well, boys will be boys. He’ll straighten out.” In both cases, parents and child refuse to acknowledge guilt.

Our point in these examples is that in order to get control of our­selves, we must first admit that we are misbehaving. We are delinquent. It is part of evil human pride not to want to believe that people are basically evil. Most people simply refuse to believe this. They think something like this, “Look at all the good in the world. Sure, there are bad things and bad people, but underneath, people really want to be good. The bad ones are more victims of what society has handed them than anything else.” Or you may hear, “The devil is everywhere, and if you aren’t on your guard, he will lure you into evil.”

Neither of these viewpoints could be further from the truth. To assert that people are basically good is to deny all the evidence of the scripture and experience. People are godless. At times, this godlessness is hidden by a facade of altruism which often runs skin-deep and is motivated by self-interest. When a man’s personal interest or property is jeopardized, his true character will come to the forefront. All through history, men have committed hideous crimes to further their own ends. Such barbarism is unknown in the animal king­dom. It is man who is the perpetrator of heinous behavior.

We are absolutely evil

We are evil and tend always to do evil. (Jer. 17:9) The evil is the natural thing, the good is what takes effort. “But,” you may say, “I do good things without effort. I refrain from killing dozens of people every day. I do nice things for people just because it feels good.”

Do not deceive yourself. When human beings do good, it is for a reason. Usually the reason is self-interest. We like to think of our­selves as being good, and we like even more for others to think of us as being good.

Not cynical, just realistic

Does this sound too critical, or even cynical? The world, that likes to think of itself as good, would say this evaluation is far too cynical. But if people were basically good, and were driven to evil either by their environment or some monstrous devil, would there have been a need for Jesus Christ to die?

The victory Jesus won was in overcoming his human nature all the time. He was tempted in every way just like we are (Heb. 4:15). But he never once succumbed to temptation; he always overcame it and did what was right. The fact that we so often follow our inclination to do evil is what makes it necessary for us to have a sacrifice for our sins and a mediator to stand between ourselves and God.

This is not the place to go into the atonement in detail, but it is the place to make an admission. No matter how highly we would like to think of ourselves, we are basically, inherently evil. If you are inclined to disagree, a careful reading of Romans 3 is recommended. One phrase from Romans 3 will suffice here: “None is righteous, no, not one.” Unfortunately, that includes us all.

Second, a choice

Are we then without hope? Not at all. Our inclination is to do wrong but we can choose instead to do right. We can redirect our lives to conform to godly principles instead of worldly self-interest.

It is not a simple task but it is possible. Jesus showed us how it is done. He always kept himself under perfect control. It is when we lose control that our human nature takes over and we stray from God. Self-control is vitally important.

Self-control is vital

You can see why the admission of sinfulness must come first. Self-control requires a conscious exercise of the will to curb our desires. If we do not admit that our desires will naturally lead us into sin, then we will never make the choice to control them.

It is up to us. Right living cannot be achieved without conscious self-control, and self-control does not come without effort.

A freewill choice

Here is a fundamental point of Bible morality. God does not force us to believe or obey. Each of us is free to choose, each of us is responsible only for himself or herself. No one can make the critically important decisions for us — we are on our own. Reduced to the fundamentals, the choices are very clear. On one side is faith and obedience by self-control; on the other side is doubt and disobedience either by choice or by inaction. On one side, the result is life; on the other side, it is death.

But we find that in day-to-day living, the choices are not so clear. Even when we want to do right, we seem to fall on our faces. We are all in the same plight as Paul:

“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.. .I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do…Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:15-19)

Deliverance

First, we have a painful admission to make; we are basically sinners. Second, we must exercise self-control and choose what is right. And third, we must seek for the deliverance available through our Lord Jesus Christ.