Self-Control

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,

And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.

Proverbs 16:32

How often is a difficult situation made worse by a knee-jerk reaction? How many times is a relationship hurt or destroyed on the basis of a misunderstanding that quickly explodes? Sadly the stories of influential, famous or powerful people whose quick tempers destroyed their personal lives are known to each of us. The world system doesn't help us as we seek to understand this phenomenon. Some may use their angry, fearful, patterns of their flesh as an excuse to commit great atrocities. Saying, "I couldn't help it, I was just so mad." While our culture may at times accept this excuse it is not in keeping with the Biblical view of maturity...it is not what God is making us into as He conforms us to the image of Christ.

The Proverbs warn us that the person who is controlled by his emotions alone is in danger. This is not to say that anger is bad, but it is an extraordinarily powerful emotion and left unchecked can be incredibly destructive. In Ephesians 4:26-27 we are told: "Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." So we know that to feel the sensations and feelings surrounding the emotion of anger is by no means sin, but it easily leads to sin. By what means can we hope to control it? Counting to 10 never seemed to work for Donald Duck. Deep breathing and excusing yourself when you feel you are getting to hot? These types of methods may have some value, but the Bible offers us a more lasting solution:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Notice all of these wonderful characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit! How does fruit grow on a branch? Why by remaining connected to the Vine (see John 15). Self-control is the character of someone who is resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not controlled by anger, or the passing winds of any emotion. The one who is walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16) is able to experience anger, not be controlled by it, yet act appropriately to resolve it. On rare occasion it may exhibit itself as it did when Christ turned over tables, but most commonly the appropriate and Christlike response will be lead to a more peaceful conclusion.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:1

Branching Out

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. John 15:4

As we continue to study the various ways our relationship with God is illustrated throughout the Bible I pray that we are are growing in the understanding of the reality that the Faith of the Bible is a relationship indeed, and one greater than we could ever imagine. This week we get to look at the image that Christ gave us proclaiming us to be branches connected to Him, the vine. The reality of this is easy to understand, as God commonly uses the physical world that He created to display spiritual realities to us.

As we imagine a branch attached to a vine we see that it gets all of its definition from the vine to which it is attached. The branch can only become stronger by being more firmly attached to the vine. The life, energy and power of the branch to produce fruit rest solely, wholly and completely with the vine. Christ speaks so clearly that apart from him we can do nothing, why do we question Him? Why do we waste our energy and spin our wheels trying to produce love, joy, peace, patience, etc. When we really can go only to the source. If those qualities and characteristics are missing from our life we don't need to "try harder" we only need to turn our eyes with Christ and abide, once again, in Vine apart from whom we can do nothing.