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Galatians 5:16–26
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (vv. 22–23).
God expects His people to bear fruit, and those who profess to be the Lord’s people and yet are fruitless will be finally cut down under our Creator’s wrath (Luke 13:6–9). The fruit that our Lord demands from His children is spiritual, involving virtues produced by the Holy Spirit such as those listed in Galatians 5:16–26. We have been looking at several of these spiritual fruits, particularly how they manifest the primary Christian virtue of love as Paul exposits it in 1 Corinthians 13, and we will conclude our study of spiritual fruit today with a focus on self-control (Gal. 5:23).
Dr. R.C. Sproul gives us a helpful picture of self-control in his message on the subject from his teaching series Keeping in Step with the Spirit. He says that “the person who has the quality of self-control behaves in a way that is appropriate to the situation and that is appropriate to the circumstances in which [he] finds [himself].” To have self-control is to be able to keep one’s impulses in check and to not indulge in fits of rage or otherwise show ire that is not commensurate with the issue at hand. Thus, we are not surprised to find “fits of anger” listed among the “works of the flesh,” which form the antithesis of the fruit of the Spirit. Orgies and drunkenness, which are clear failures of self-control, are also listed as works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19–21).
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:5 that love “does not insist on its own way,” and this is closely related to self-control. Think of the person who always has to be right, the individual who stubbornly insists on his own preference even when nothing vital is at stake or when there might be other good ways to accomplish a task even if they are not what the person prefers. Such a person will argue about anything and cause dissensions and other works of the flesh when he deals with other people (see Gal. 5:19–21). He does not have the wisdom to practice self-restraint and to allow others to have their say. We are talking not about matters of essential truth here or other life-or-death issues, of course, but about occasions when not getting our own way will cause no harm.
Loving self-control does not insist on its own way. Those who exhibit the fruit of self-control are teachable, willing to learn from other people and not arrogantly pressing their views as the only legitimate solution when they are not. Such self-control is vital for maintaining peace in the body of Christ (Eph. 4:3).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
From time to time, it can be useful to ask whether we are the kinds of people who must always be right, must always have the last word, or must always get our own way. If we find that any of these are true of us, then we are not bearing the fruit of self-control. Let us remember that none of us has all the answers, and that there is no harm in showing deference to others when God’s truth or human welfare is not at stake.
for further study
- Proverbs 25:28
- 2 Timothy 1:7
the bible in a year
- Psalms 13–16
- Acts 18
- Psalms 17–22
- Acts 19