Memory – Titus 2.11-14 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works
Self-control is one of these spiritual disciplines that is frequently overlooked. When it is not overlooked, it is often misunderstood or underrated. On the three occasions that Peter references the term in his first epistle, he uses it in the context of being dependent on the grace of God. “The sparse use of this ethical term is due to three things: 1) for Christian life is directed by God’s command, so that there is no place for autonomous self-mastery; 2) belief in creation excludes dualism, for all things are good as they come from God; and 3) salvation in Christ leaves no place for meriting salvation by asceticism” (W. Grundmann, Kittel’s TDNT, II, 339-42).
Self-control, in a Biblical context, is first and foremost a work of God in the life of a self-surrendering believer.“This is the primary reason why a concept so central to Greek ethics found such a small place in biblical ethics. “The reason for this is that biblical man regarded his life as determined and directed by the command of God. There was thus no place for the self-mastery which had a place in autonomous ethics” ([TDNT, II 342] ISBE 4.386).
For the biblical Christian, self-control is concomitant with his self-abnegating surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Paul in Titus 2.11-14, like the apostle in 2 Peter 1.6, reminds the Christians in Crete that they are not ethically autonomous. Christians honor God by being self-controlled; that is, free of avarice, godly in speech, sexually pure, gentle, etc. However, the believer’s self-control is not rooted in his own ability to curb his passions as though it were merely a variation on the stoic disciplines. Rather, it is the believer’s redemptive relationship with Jesus Christ that gives him the strength to live a self-controlled, upright and godly life. Peter makes this clear when at the end of his list of Christian virtues he reminds his readers that if any of them are failing to ‘grow’ in these things, it is because they have forgotten that they have be cleansed of their past sins (2 Peter 1.8-9). Notwithstanding all the hardships that the apostles endured for the cause of Christ, they never claimed to have developed a self-mastery that gave them reason for boasting.
It is the Spirit of God at work within you. Jesus invites you into this relationship: Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11.28-30). This is how Christ is formed in you. It is God’s purpose that you should live in a state of constant dependency on him. Consider how God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness. He provided for their daily needs – not weekly or monthly, but daily. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “give us this day our daily bread.” There is no self-sufficiency in the Christian’s life independent of God’s work within you. That is, to say, the Christian’s self-control is neither autonomous self-mastery nor passive dependence. Rather it is an active obedience empowered by Divine grace.
Individuals commonly seek to advance their own cause, to secure a place for themselves in the world, to defend themselves against injustice, and to justify their actions. The counterintuitive alternative altruistic choices of self-denial, self-surrender seem absurd and counterproductive. Indeed, to surrender the self and at the same time to be self-controlled seems to be an oxymoron. For the modern mind, to be self-sacrificing, self-effacing, and self-denying is to be out of control; it goes against every natural impulse of self-preservation. Nevertheless, this is what the Scriptures require of anyone who is to live a spiritually “self-controlled” life. This obvious conundrum confronting the believer arises from what appears to be conflicting commands in Scripture. What does Paul mean when he says, I beat my body and make it my slave (1 Corinthians 9.27)? Is he alluding to the strength of his will to dominate the unruly sin nature of his body (soma)? Or is it, as we have indicated, his submission to Christ that makes it possible to gain victory over sin and to bring every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10.3).
Self-control, in a Biblical context, is first and foremost a work of God in the life of a self-surrendering believer.“This is the primary reason why a concept so central to Greek ethics found such a small place in biblical ethics. “The reason for this is that biblical man regarded his life as determined and directed by the command of God. There was thus no place for the self-mastery which had a place in autonomous ethics” ([TDNT, II 342] ISBE 4.386).
For the biblical Christian, self-control is concomitant with his self-abnegating surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Paul in Titus 2.11-14, like the apostle in 2 Peter 1.6, reminds the Christians in Crete that they are not ethically autonomous. Christians honor God by being self-controlled; that is, free of avarice, godly in speech, sexually pure, gentle, etc. However, the believer’s self-control is not rooted in his own ability to curb his passions as though it were merely a variation on the stoic disciplines. Rather, it is the believer’s redemptive relationship with Jesus Christ that gives him the strength to live a self-controlled, upright and godly life. Peter makes this clear when at the end of his list of Christian virtues he reminds his readers that if any of them are failing to ‘grow’ in these things, it is because they have forgotten that they have be cleansed of their past sins (2 Peter 1.8-9). Notwithstanding all the hardships that the apostles endured for the cause of Christ, they never claimed to have developed a self-mastery that gave them reason for boasting.
It is the Spirit of God at work within you. Jesus invites you into this relationship: Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11.28-30). This is how Christ is formed in you. It is God’s purpose that you should live in a state of constant dependency on him. Consider how God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness. He provided for their daily needs – not weekly or monthly, but daily. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “give us this day our daily bread.” There is no self-sufficiency in the Christian’s life independent of God’s work within you. That is, to say, the Christian’s self-control is neither autonomous self-mastery nor passive dependence. Rather it is an active obedience empowered by Divine grace.
Individuals commonly seek to advance their own cause, to secure a place for themselves in the world, to defend themselves against injustice, and to justify their actions. The counterintuitive alternative altruistic choices of self-denial, self-surrender seem absurd and counterproductive. Indeed, to surrender the self and at the same time to be self-controlled seems to be an oxymoron. For the modern mind, to be self-sacrificing, self-effacing, and self-denying is to be out of control; it goes against every natural impulse of self-preservation. Nevertheless, this is what the Scriptures require of anyone who is to live a spiritually “self-controlled” life. This obvious conundrum confronting the believer arises from what appears to be conflicting commands in Scripture. What does Paul mean when he says, I beat my body and make it my slave (1 Corinthians 9.27)? Is he alluding to the strength of his will to dominate the unruly sin nature of his body (soma)? Or is it, as we have indicated, his submission to Christ that makes it possible to gain victory over sin and to bring every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10.3).
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