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Show me a man who is unwilling to exercise self-control and I'll show you a man who is striving towards ruin. Self-control is a matter of the will. You purpose you will or you will not. That's the distinction between self control or lack of it. Young people, the sooner you can learn this lesson, the better. It's such a valuable lesson that I would have to rank it in the top five lessons to learn in life: Someone's going to be in charge, someone's going to give the orders. Is it going to be your body or is it going to be your spirit? That is the essence of self-control and if it's your body, then I say you're on the road to ruin.
The Apostle Paul didn't sugar-coat it. Has anyone written more New Testament Scripture than the Apostle Paul? He was responsible for forming and expositing the doctrines, and yet he leaves the possibility open that if he does not discipline his body and make it his slave, he's going to be, in the end, cast away regardless of how much preaching he's done to others (1 Cor. 9:24-27). That is a weighty statement!
The Apostle Paul didn't sugar-coat it. Has anyone written more New Testament Scripture than the Apostle Paul? He was responsible for forming and expositing the doctrines, and yet he leaves the possibility open that if he does not discipline his body and make it his slave, he's going to be, in the end, cast away regardless of how much preaching he's done to others (1 Cor. 9:24-27). That is a weighty statement!
2nd Timothy 3 describes those who are without self control, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and in the end they perish. They might hold to a form of godliness, but there's no power in it; we're talking about self-control here. It's such an imperative that Jesus said, "If you're going to be my disciple you're going to have to daily deny yourself." The sins of the flesh kill their thousands, but self-control kills ten-thousands. Lack of self control is like a fountain head which all other sins flow out of.
~Clint Leiter
HT: Kevin Williams
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