Self Control

Titus 2:11-14

¹¹ For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. ¹² It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³ while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

This passage indicates that God's grace is our instructor. It teaches us to deny ourselves those things which draw us away from God, and to live godly lives. This passage is about power. God's grace enables us to have power over ourselves. How so? The word grace means "gift." The gift referred to here is salvation (v. 11). Salvation means that God in his mercy bought us out of our slavery to sin through the death of his son Jesus (v. 14). After Jesus' resurrection he ascended into heaven, but he promised that he would one day return (v. 13) and bring justice to the world. In the meantime we wait. Imagine now your teacher (grace) sitting down with you. He looks you square in the eyes and says: "In our lesson this morning, I want you to look two directions: backward and forward. Look back: what has the Lord done for you? That's right; he bought your salvation with his life. Now turn and look forward. What do you see? Right again. He will return some day and set things right. Okay now, here is the tricky part. We are caught, so to speak, between these two perspectives. In other words, we live in the now, the present, the moment. We have no choice, it's part of God's grand design for your life and mine. So, if that's true, then these two perspectives, like giant spirals in a whirlpool, converge on this moment in time. Anything-everything!-that matters is going to happen in the now. So, don't waste it. Don't throw away the priceless opportunity that has been given to you as a gift from God. Remember what God has done. Think about what he's going to do."

So, we have this moment. The question is, how are we going to use it? That's always the question. We can live for ourselves, or we can live for God. The first is the way of self-indulgence and the second is the way of self-control. It really is an issue of power. We indulge ourselves because we can. We are reluctant to give everything over to God because we have to give up our power base and do what he wants. Like so many things, our greatest strength is our greatest weakness. We are created in God's image. That means we enjoy things like self-awareness and free will. That's our strength. But we use these gifts for our own selfish ends. That's our weakness. The irony is, our quest for freedom so often leads to slavery. The only viable alternative is to give up our power to God. That is also ironic in that the more of our power we give up, the more power God gives back.

Consider these two perspectives today. Think of the great things God has done for you. Think of why he did all this.