Chocolate Covered Strawberries: The Fruit of Self-Control
Gal 5:13-26 October 24, 2004
Intro:
“Try Harder!” How often do you hear that? How often do you feel that?? Life isn’t going the way you want it to, the solution must be to try harder. To work longer hours to get a promotion. To try harder to be a good student. To try harder to be a good parent, a stronger athlete, or a better patient. We think the answer is to be more motivated, to put more effort in, to simply “try harder.” Granted, sometimes if we’ve been lazy or neglectful, that is what we need. But more often than not, it isn’t very helpful. And when it comes to our spiritual lives, to simply yell “try harder!” is downright dangerous…
Fruit OF THE SPIRIT:
This morning we are beginning a new series on the fruit of the Spirit, which will take us through the advent season and into January, when it will be ok to have a foot of snow on the ground… Paul gives us a list of what are known as “the fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23, where he lists nine character qualities – we are going to look at one of those each week, starting with the last one and working our way backwards (which enables us to look at the qualities of love, joy, peace, and patience during the four weeks of Advent, as those are the major themes of Advent: it actually mapped out quite well!).
The last one is the fruit of self-control, but before we look at that I need to say this by way of introduction to each of the fruits of the Spirit: these character qualities are not about you and I trying harder. They are not about our effort, our work, our moral discipline. In fact, Paul’s point in the surrounding passage is exactly the opposite! These qualities are the work of God in us, not the work of us winning favor with God. They are about grace. They are about gifts. They are about God by the presence of the Holy Spirit doing what He wants in our lives. That is true of all of them, and I think that will become clear even as we talk about self-control.
Gal 5:13-26
Let’s back up and read the passage in context: Gal 5:13-26. (read). Before getting to self-control, let’s notice several of the main points leading up to the list of the fruits:
a. “called to be free” (vs. 13). Here is the over-arching idea behind the passage – it is about freedom. That is what God desires for us, that we be free to love and to be loved, and that is where it starts. It is actually one of the major themes of the entire book of Galatians. The Spirit of God lives within us so that we can be free.
Our society has a warped idea of freedom. We think freedom means that we can do whatever we feel like. If that were the case, self-control would almost seem to be the opposite of freedom – self-control would be denying ourselves something we wanted. In fact, freedom is the ability to choose that which we believe to be the best, and will in the long run bring us the things we want most – like greater joy, deeper love, an inner peace, etc... The freedom gives us the ability to choose that which is best. For example, we might have the freedom to eat nothing but chocolate bars. That might taste good, and it might be appealing (especially if you are a junior high boy…). But we know that would not be the best thing for us, in fact it might make us really quite ill. Self-control enables us to make the choices that are best for us, not just the choices that feel the best in the short term.
b. “live by the Spirit” (vs. 16). That freedom comes as we “live by the Spirit.” We do have a role to play, of course. We do have our part. But, and listen closely now, our part is not about trying harder, our part is about surrendering more. In many ways, living by the Spirit is about us actually doing less in our own strength and being more in tune with the Holy Spirit living inside us, and cooperating and surrendering to God’s control. It is as we surrender and live by the Spirit that God can set us free and then fill our lives with all of the good qualities listed in the “fruit” section.
Let me attempt to illustrate. I have a little black truck, which I use to get from place A to place B. Now, I don’t actually do the work – the engine in my truck does the work. I have to cooperate – I have to put in the fuel, start the ignition, regulate the speed – but it is not my effort that gets me from one place to another. It is actually kind of scary to consider, but it is really thousands of mini-explosions inside my engine that provide the power! Life by the Spirit is a little like that. The power is all from God. We choose to create the right environment, and then we let God provide the power and create the qualities within us that God desires.
It is very different when I drive to work than when I rollerblade. Which I did, once, this past summer. When I rollerblade, all the power has to come from me. And let me tell you – it is a lot more work, a lot more sweat, and takes a lot more time than when I drive. The destination is the same, but it is a lot more painful (and, when you collapse half-way up McKinnon ravine, a lot more embarrassing…) to rollerblade than it is to drive. The point: let God do the work.
c. winning the conflict (vs. 17). Notice in verse 17 that there is conflict – it is a fight. There is no pretending that living by the Spirit is easy, or that our freedom will remain uncontested. And once again, Paul gives us the answer and the hope: if we will be led by the Spirit, we will see God be victorious in our lives and we will be free.
As we submit, as we surrender to God, the fruit will come as God does what He desires to do within us. Bruce Larson worked in New York City and counseled at his office a number of people who were wrestling with whether they would remain in control or let Jesus be in control. Often he would suggest they walk with him from his office down to the RCA Building on Fifth Avenue. In the entrance of that building is a gigantic statue of Atlas, a beautifully proportioned man who, with all his muscles straining, is holding the world upon his shoulders. There he is, the most powerfully built man in the world, and he can barely stand up under this burden. ’Now that’s one way to live,’ he would point out to his companion, ’trying to carry the world on your shoulders. But now come across the street with me.’
"On the other side of Fifth Avenue is Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and there behind the high altar is a little shrine of the boy Jesus, perhaps eight or nine years old, and with no effort he is holding the world in one hand. His point was illustrated graphically.
"We have a choice. We can carry the world on our shoulders, or we can say, ’I give up, Lord; here’s my life. I give you my world, the whole world.’"
Perhaps some of you walked in this morning feeling like the weight of the entire world was on your shoulders. I want to encourage you this morning with a simple truth: God is in control, and it is ok that you are not. You really can leave it with Him, He really will take responsibility and He really will act in your situation. He might change the circumstances, He might change you. But which ever God chooses to change, it will be the best. It will be good. And it will make your life more rich and more free than you can even begin to imagine.
All you need to do, and really all you and I can do, is live by the Spirit. Choose to surrender, and let God do what is best. The problems come if we fight God on the issue, but if we live by the Spirit the conflict which Paul describes in vs. 17 will be won! There will be victory, there will be freedom, there will be goodness and life.
Andrew Murray, great Bible scholar and man of God, once wrote: “God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.” Let me promise you: it will not only be ok to let God be in control – it will be the best!
To The Fruit!
There will be victory, there will be freedom, there will even be self-control… verses 19-21 list what we might call “fruits of the flesh.” Those are the things that we end up with if we choose not to live by the Spirit, and they are not good and neither is the end result. We will look at those a little more another week. Then Paul comes to his list of good things that God produces in us by His Spirit. The one I want to talk about now is the last one, self-control.
In a department store a young husband was minding the baby while his wife was making a purchase. The infant was wailing, but the father seemed quite controlled and unperturbed as he quietly said, “Easy now, Albert, control your temper.” A woman passing by remarked, “Sir, I must congratulate you! You seem to know just how to speak to a baby.” “Baby nothing!” came the reply. “MY name is Albert!”
When we talk about the fruit of self-control, which the Spirit produces in us, here is how I believe it works. As we live in the Spirit, surrendering to God and seeking to live for Him, the Holy Spirit begins to form in us this thing Paul calls “self-control.” Normally we think of self-control as strict personal discipline, self-denial, the person whose life is always straight, whose hands are always clean, who never indulge, who talk quietly and laugh softly and never yell, whose clothes are always ironed are whose car is always clean. We associate it with giving up, with saying no, with living conservatively and with very limited amounts of passion and enthusiasm.
I do not think that is a Biblical understanding of self-control, for the simple reason that Jesus was not like that. Jesus lived large, lived passionately, got messy and angry, and was a popular guy who got invited to all kinds of parties. And Jesus certainly embodied self-control. So what, then, is this thing called “self-control” which the Holy Spirit produces in us as we surrender to God?
Exposing The Lies:
At the heart, I think self-control is about the Holy Spirit exposing the lies around us for what they really are, and thus setting us free to choose that which is right and best. It is about God showing us clearly what the choice is, what the temptation really leads us to. For example:
Say a temptation to gossip appears. Now, the devil is trying to get us to gossip, and so starts to throw all kinds of lies at us about how it won’t hurt anyone, its ok for the other person to know, you are only going to tell this one person, etc… When we are living by the Spirit, though, God inside of us shows us the truth – gossiping will tear people down. It will hurt, it will sow discord, it will destroy community. When we see that clearly, the sin looks less appealing and thus it is easier for us to choose what is right and best. That is self-control.
Or what about the temptation to lust? The images are everywhere, and they feed into natural and good desires, but then along come the lies. You deserve it. It won’t hurt anyone. It will feel good. No one will ever know. Again, walking with the Spirit exposes those lies: feeding those lustful thoughts corrupts you, it changes how you feel about and respond to people of the opposite sex, it transforms our sexual desires from healthy, positive parts of our whole person into addictions and perversions. When the Spirit within reveals the truth about lust, we are free to be self-controlled and choose what is best.
We could walk through all the various temptations and see the exact same pattern. The temptation appears, the devil and our selfish nature compete with the Spirit of God within us in the battle for our choice. The fruit of self-control is about God producing within us the clarity to see choices for what they really are, and then giving us the strength to choose that which is best – to have the fruit of self-control and thus be free to choose the best, and to be full of life.
Conclusion:
For each of the fruits of the Spirit, I thought for a bit and associated an actual fruit with each of the character qualities. For self-control, I thought of chocolate covered strawberries. Mmmm… They are generally associated with desire, romance, passion, that type of thing. Things that we might previously associate with something to be resisted, which we should muster up some self-control and say “no” to. But that is a wrong picture of self-control, a negative portrayal of a good gift of God. Self-control is not about denying ourselves pleasure, it is about being free to choose what is best. The chocolate covered strawberries are also a good gift of God, to be enjoyed. I made them; there really is very little chocolate on them, and the strawberries are very healthy and good for you. They will be out on the coffee table, and I hope you will enjoy them and remember that self-control is not about denying pleasure, it is about being free to choose that which is the very best for us and thus, in the long run, will bring us the greatest fulfillment and satisfaction.
