Talk to the Faculty at Trinitas Christian School in Pensacola, Fl

Title: Self-Control: Living in the Realm of Strength

Thanks for the opportunity to address the faculty in this new season of Trinitas. From my own perspective, we had a marvelous year last year and I am praying for the rivers of Eden to overflow even more to the classrooms this year.

By the time they called me, it was almost too late. This young lady (16-17 years of age) sat in my office. She looked at her cell phone as if it were a god. Her father was beside himself; angry; no, furious; no, like Jonah, he was angry enough to die. He wanted her out of the house and she wanted him out of her life. The feeling was mutual. When they looked at each other, their eyes rebound like a hockey puck. There were frustration tattoos all over their faces. I spoke to the daughter first and you could tell that there was no longer any energy for reconciliation. I then spoke with the dad, and he looked like he was done long ago. He offered a plethora of accusations, and by the end, I realized this was indeed hopeless. How could the Gospel transform this father and daughter who drifted apart so long ago? Fruits of the Spirit? Not even one. They had convinced themselves that this was not worth it. And then it dawned on me as I read through my notes: neither father nor daughter desired to be an instrument of rescue for the other. They don’t want to speak redemption; they wish to speak condemnation. They were both operating in the works of the flesh. Love, patience? Not a chance. This was about aiming as accurately as possible at the other and hoping it does the most amount of damage.

I want to focus on the last feature/theme of the fruits of the Spirit, which is self-control or sometimes translated temperance. And I want to begin by actually doing a word study. The Greek Word is egkrateia comes from two roots: en which means “in” or “in the realm of” and kratos which means “strength” or “dominion.” Perhaps a more literal translation of self-control, then, is being in the realm of strength.

What does this mean?

Interestingly, both Paul and Peter write a lot about self-control, about being in the realm of strength. There is a unity of mind about the centrality of self-control in the New Testament. I contend that Paul’s ninth fruit of the Spirit is an intentional way Paul concludes his list. It’s as if he were saying, “These eight fruits only make sense if you are in the realm of strength.” So, self-control is the way Paul ties all these virtues together. But it seems that we interpret “self-control” in the English language by talking about restraint. We often use the word “self-control” to talk ourselves out of eating the fourth piece of cake or to cool down from a temper tantrum. Of course, these things are all true, but there is something more important going on for Paul, and it’s the idea that the Christian needs to be in a place of strength to exercise the fruits of the Spirit.

So, let’s flesh this fruit out a bit more until we get to the core.

When Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, he ascended in an earthly body, a glorified one, but the same body. Jesus was always in the realm of strength. He didn’t allow pettiness and emotionalism to guide his steps as we are so prone to doing. But Jesus, in his perfect state, told us to follow in his footsteps and Paul commands us to walk in step with the Spirit. So, the fruits that we have heard need to be practiced in the realm of strength, which means in the presence of God. When our habits are not formed by godly things, we generally fall away from that road of virtue. It’s precisely why Paul calls us to put ourselves in a position of strength and dominion; seek the right environment. You and one bad friend jump from one realm to another; early exposure to a cell phone and suddenly that strong child becomes weak in every conceivable way.

It’s often said that the sin we most enjoy is the one we most condemn. That’s because we don’t like the idea of others indulging in our favorite sins. “That’s my sin! How dare you mess with it!” Paul would say you need to see sin as sin and be angry at all expressions, including your favorite flavor of sin. You must be in the Spirit, in step with the Triune God; living with the ascended Messiah all the time.

Now, I know that we violate this list so frequently, but we need to keep our eyes on the prize; toward the tree of life. If we lack love for one another, let’s not move on to plan B. Let’s stay on track to loving one another. If we don’t show patience with the students, let’s not move on to another plan. I suspect that the lack of self-control is the root of all sorts of evil in the classrooms. There is an interconnectedness to all these virtues, but Paul ties them all up in a beautiful bow called self-control. For Paul, the only way you will ever live a life of faithfulness where these virtues are clearly seen is if you decide to live in the realm of strength. Students need to see self-control as a way of strength. Anger, jealousy, bitterness, and gossip are the vices of weak men and women. That’s why the Apostle says that to be in the realm of strength requires belief, trust, and acknowledgment that there is one that has been in the realm of strength since his virgin birth and who is even now in the realm of strength at the right hand of the Father.

Isn’t it interesting that Paul’s contrast with the fruits of the Spirit is not the fruits of the flesh, but rather “the works of the flesh.” We are not adorning our lives with the things we do and produce solely based on our works, for Paul, the fruit is something we receive. After all, these are called the fruits of the Spirit. To be truly free is to be indwelt by God’s Spirit. God provides the growth and the increase in our classrooms and in the hallways and the in the grand hall.

To be in the realm of strength is to acknowledge that you are completely lost without the Spirit’s aid. We need to be “sustained by the Spirit, challenged by the Spirit, strengthened by the Spirit. If we have the idea that self-control means we garner all the strength we can muster from our own flesh, we are mistaken. If we think self-control is a pep-talk, a self-motivation speech; if you think this is about pumping yourself up to love, joy, peace, etc., you will be devastated when at the end of the school day, you realize that what you did was not so much change a habit, but made those students more subtle in their deception and anger.

To be in the realm of strength is actually to depend, trust, appreciate, and give over our lives, behavior, and moods to the Holy Spirit. It is something we need to keep renewing when you have succumbed to the realm of weakness when a whole week has been in the kingdom of weakness.

Paul has already said this in Galatians 2: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Or in his sermon to the Athenians in Acts: “In him we move, and live and have our being.” So, the fruits of the Spirit are never disconnected from the power and work of the Trinity: Father, Son and Spirit.

So, in what realm do we live? If we were to inventory our habits and speech, what domain do we live in? In the domain of strength and dominion, or in the domain of selfishness and anger? The students will need a healthy dose of reminders to get back to the baptism of life and strength.

Are your dispositions towards these fruits, or are you indifferent to them? I have said this many times, but the problem is not primarily morality; it’s the apathy that leads to ungodly things; among students and teachers. Being at Trinitas is not just one calling among many; it’s a distinct call to instruct all these little and tall humans that if their education is not used for the realm of strength, it will be used to manipulate others, which means they are ripe to be manipulated themselves.

Keep your eyes on the indifferent and apathetic children, those who view Jesus as a convenient answer. If Christian education is only a matter of convenience or “only when it serves me,” or “only when I feel like it,” then you are not in the realm of strength; in fact, you are open to an avalanche of attacks; you are opening the door for poor decisions in your life; decisions which will shape you for a long time.

My encouragement to you is to keep each other in check.

“Today, I am in that realm of weakness. There is a student that simply doesn’t seem to get it. There is tension with a parent, or whatever it may be.” But what you can’t do is fight weakness with weakness. You can’t respond in kind. Yes, we are human, but we are Spirit-indwelt humans.

In the beginning, the father and daughter I spoke to, who were in a desperate state, were content to live far from the domain and realm of strength and dominion. They wanted no self-control; they wanted total control over one another. They wanted the other to submit to his or her demands. They tried to make the other after his/her image.

You see, the fruits of the Spirit are not a take one and leave the others behind. They come together because they are really a part of the same fruit tree. Once you pursue one, the others begin to be equally attractive. If you do not pursue them, they will seem like spoiled fruits.

As teachers, you will need to develop an appetite for this tree, and to do so, we need to open our lives to the work of the Spirit within us; to call the Spirit to give you strength when all you have left is the need for one more cup of coffee.

Paul concludes by saying that against this list, there is no law which is his short way of saying, “Against the fruits of the Spirit being evident in your life, against living in the realm of strength, there is no more appetizing human law; there are no regulations and rules that have dominion over you.”

The good news is that Trinitas begins this new year with a Messiah that knows our weakness and knows how often we are prone to wonder, which is why he gives us his flesh and blood to draw us to the realm of strength. For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such there is no law.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.