The concept of self-control was a popular one in Greek philosophy. The Greek word enkrateia comes from a root that means power or control. Enkrateia refers to mastery of one’s appetites and passions, power over oneself in the sense of persistence or restraint.
Socrates listed enkrateia as one of the chief virtues. Schools of thought like stoicism and cynicism highly valued self-control. Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle lauded the man who could suppress his desires and impulses. However, Plato did wonder a bit about how a man could master himself, since the one mastering and the one being mastered are one and the same.
Interestingly enough, this concept which seems to mesh so well with Christianity makes few appearances in the New Testament. Here are the three occurrences of this word:
“After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.”” (Acts 24:24-25)
“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)
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7)
Is there any significance to the fact that this word appears so few times? Is it just that the concept is present, merely expressed in other words? Or is there something about the concept of self-mastery that doesn’t fit with the teachings of the rest of the New Testament?
Pretty much does away with the “God controls every aspect of life” doesn’t it?
If you have self-control, you master the decisions you make – right or wrong. You have the control to make those decisions. And God has given us the free will to make those decisions. What am I missing here?
I think that enkrateia, like all human virtues, gets translated into a gospel context.
Romans 1 makes it pretty clear that fallen humanity was not incapable of identifying virtue or acting virtuously. So I’m not at all surprised that Greek virtues like self-control appear in God’s wisdom. But they don’t appear just like they did before – they were “seen in a mirror dimly,” after all. Our understanding of them is transformed by the appearance of Christ Jesus.
I’d go so far as to say that the appearance of enkrateia is an important counter-balance to the idea that we ourselves have no role to play in our own spiritual growth and transformation. Koinonia with God, partnership with God, still seems to be the goal.
Is self-control a Greek way of describing the Hebrew virtue of meekness?
Nick,
Feel free to enlighten me a bit on the Hebrew concept of meekness.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
BWAHAHA! Yeah, because I know so much about meekness!
A cursory bit of research shows that there’s some relationship between meekness and gentleness, so since Paul differentiates between them in Gal 5:22-23, I might be mistaken.
I was thinking that since the illustration of meekness is so often “Strength under control” and since enkrateia is “Self under control” that they might be related. Here’s the same writer as above’s notes on self-control.
So maybe the idea of self-control is that as God transforms us by the renewing of our mind, one aspect of our out-working of that salvation is that we bring our flesh under control? And that that is only possible as the Spirit bears fruit within and among us? That seems to be the idea at the end of Galatians 5, anyway.
One reason for the limited mention of self-control in the NT may be due to its already accepted virtue in society at large meant that it was a given which did not need to be mentioned. That does not mean that every person in the Greco-Roman world exercised self-control but that the virtue was esteemed enough to be a universal moral. It is sort of like “respect for others” in our society. Though not everyperson exercises respect for other, such a virtue is a given for many people regardless of their religious beliefs and practice. Most people believe that you just don’t walk into your neighbors garage to borrow his weed-wacker without permission, that you don’t make fun of a person because of disability they have, etc… Since such respect for others is sort of a given in our society regardless of religion, you probably would not hear too many sermons exhorting Christians to be respectful of others.
Of course, that is just my guess for the seldom use of ‘self-control’ in the NT.
Grace and peace,
Rex
I don’t know, but I struggle with it in several areas. Frustrating!
My two cents: If we grasp love (John 13:34-5; Romans 13:8-10), then we will make decisions that are beneficial to others and self, and not based on carnality. It takes time and education, but love does more for self-control than just the immediate benefits themselves (cf. 1 Cor 9:24-27).
Self control: Do you mean in eating? An over weight population
Do you mean spending? A debt ridden society
Do you mean love relationships? 60 percent in all marriages end in divorce.
Do you mean treating others like you want to be treated?
racism, anti semitism, social bias, political bias, bias against homosexuals and lesbians.
Human beings have no self control……….just sayin
james makes a good point, altruism/love is taught so much, putting others above ourselves, I think that implies self-control
and all of paul’s teaching on the flesh implies control, with God’s/Spirit’s help
we had an interesting discussion Sunday am bible class about Grace/Mercy in OT/NT and people were suggesting how often those words were found in each testament. I requested official numbers, not just, “Grace is used a lot more often in NT writings than in OT writings”
but as you said, word counts don’t prove much
HB, we were trying to have a biblical discussion and you have to bring over-eating into it?? thanks alot, no need to get personal
(j/k, it was a great comment)
Interesting discussion. I struggle with self control when it comes to eating ONLY what my body NEEDS. I want to exemplify all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and have been pondering a few things (along these lines) myself. Would someone expound on ‘our OLD SELF having been crucified with Him?’ Thanks in advance! :)
Oh, and I have to comment to Rex Butts’ note. (Sorry, Tim. I really don’t appreciate people who get off the thread because they have a subject they want to expound on …. that’s NOT my purpose!) I wish some of you gospel preachers would take a really strong stand on the NEED FOR RESPECT FOR OTHERS! It does not seem to be a “given” any more! Witness how people seem to hate anyone who disagrees with them in politics and yes … in the Lord’s Body! I am not asking you to do my job … I”m encouraging it every chance I get … but I don’t have an audience! :) Thanks again!
Barbara,
It’s something that I really noticed when we moved back from Argentina. Discourse has become strident in the U.S. Personally, I blame much of it on talk radio, but things I’ve read point to the news networks. They soon discovered that they got better ratings when presenting two people screaming at each other and insulting one another than they did by presenting two people making logical arguments.
Sadly, we’ve allowed that to creep into the church.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Tim, I think that as media outlets merged, it became a simple thing for network executives to see what was working on talk radio and just import it into their infotainment shows.
I have struggled a lot with self-control for most of my life (even as a kid). It has manifested itself in many areas, some of them serious (like porn).
As I’ve tried to work through this and overcome it, I keep coming back to the idea of dying to self. If I’m dying to myself (on a daily basis) and living for Him — allowing the Spirit to work in me and through me, then self-control takes care of itself. But if I don’t, then self-control quickly becomes an issue. Perhaps this is why Jesus placed such importance on dying to self (e.g. “You can’t be my disciple if you don’t die to yourself” — Luke 14:27, 33).
Barbara,
You have a point…we may be losing some, perhaps much, of the virture of respect for others.
Grace and peace,
Rex
You know I never quite understood dying to self. Does that mean we self destruct? Christ said love others as you love yourself. If there is conflict in me how can I love myself and others? The problem as I see it is a constant battle with in yourself. If a person who doesn’t understand grace has this problem. You are forgiven, past present and future sins.
If Chirst died and its in the past, hence all sin from that point on is future, right? All sin is forgotten and as a result we need to forget it too.
H.B.,
I think of Galatians 2:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
No self destruction. Just a willingness to let Christ express himself fully in me, without my flesh getting in the way.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Hmmmm, not allowing my flesh to get in the way. Sounds impossible
As the apostle Paul states : I do the things I don’t want to do and don’t do the things I want to do. (paraphrased ) but you get the point.
Fortunately, Romans 7 is followed immediately by Romans 8. And Paul didn’t put that big 8 in there; it’s all part of the same argument.
Subduing the flesh is a daily thing. A lifelong process. That’s the whole point of the last half of Galatians 5, as well as Romans 7-8.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer