Proverbs 16:32 ESV
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+16%3A32&version=ESV]
“But fear no more! I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway.” So says Faramir of the One Ring, and in that sentence he sums up a central part of his virtue: self control against temptation. For self-control is an unnatural thing, to sinful man, and much disparaged by modernity, which tells us to indulge in our emotions, to follow our hearts, to be what we want to be and blame everybody else for the consequences. It seems a hard saying that a man should shape himself against his impulse, that he should tamp down his fear and rein in his anger, that he should cultivate love for that which God calls him to love whatever his native sin would have him do. It is a hard saying; it is a part of that narrow way which Christ calls us to (Matt. 7:13-14), the yoke which is light only when we bear it but which we continually seek to replace with the heavy yoke of sin (Gal. 5:1).
To rule a city is a great thing, and to be among the mighty has no shame in it, when that might is turned to righteous purposes (2 Sam 23:8-12). All of this is naught when it has a rotten core. A king who rules a city and not himself is a pitiable thing, even contemptible; he is an apple with unbroken skin and yet filled with worms within. Herod found out as much, when he did not restrain himself from claiming divinity (Acts 12:20-23).
For the righteous, who have been given His law in plain text, self-control is particularly sweet. The righteous man has all he needs to know what is right to do; self-control is the tool whereby he brings himself to do this rightness. After all, my knowledge of the law is nothing of benefit to me, if I do not live by that knowledge despite the urging of my flesh (Heb. 4:2; ). Indeed, to know the law and not do the law is a curse (Rom. 1:20-23). Such was the sin of Israel throughout the Old Testament, and for that sin at last the body of Israel was cut off at A.D. 70, so that only the remnant who turned to Christ remain, and they greatly blessed in their double heritage.
We moderns have an impulse taught to us by the past two centuries or so of culture: follow your heart; indulge your feelings; what feels right, is right. Such ideas make man the judge of what is right and wrong, not God, contrary to His command (Ex. 20:1-7). Yet it is difficult indeed to rule ourselves. The motivation that we need to harness is also the thing we must harness it against, and the desire we need to be controlling is the means by which we control ourselves. The self must control the self, and so it seems rather like fixing a sticky spot on the floor using the honey that was spilled to make that sticky spot. What’s the solution?
The solution, by the grace of God, is already given to His people. The regenerate heart of the Christian has been by God turned to have a supreme desire for Him, to love Him above all else (Deut. 6:5, 10:12). Our means of self-control, therefore, is to by His strength focus our actions, thoughts, and desires upon Him and His law, letting our other desires and wants and deeds flow forth. We must eat not merely out of appetite but because it is a rejoicing in God and a glorification of Him. We must love each other because we love God (for the man who loves God as God can truly love brother as brother, sister as sister, spouse as spouse, friend as friend, stranger as stranger (John 13:34-35)). We must shape our hearts to feel anger or fear or love or pity or pleasure according to His law because we see all things in His light.
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
