“and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control,
perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness….” (2 Peter 1:6, NASB95)
Panic is an unnerving thing. It is that sudden sense of
things being out of control in the face of a pending threat, whether that
threat is real of not. Panic leads to questions of what to do. It often leads
to uninformed and even unwise responses. And, the reality is that we are all
prone to it in varying times, varying ways, and to varying degrees. At its core
for those of us who are in Christ, panic is the tendency to take our eyes off
of God in the face of a situation and look to the size of the threat and not
the size of our God and His faithfulness.
Chief Engineer James Montgomery Scott (Scotty) was charged
with keeping the Star Trek vessel the Enterprise “together” through all of its
various missions. In one of his later roles Commander Kirk told Scotty, “keep
this thing together till I come back” to which Scotty replied, “I always do.”
“Self-control” can best be described as holding oneself together or holding
oneself in. It is the idea of showing self-restraint or self-discipline. A
self-controlled person is one who is measured and who does not fly off the
handle when provoked. He is one who does not flee or panic at the sign of
conflict or trouble. He doesn’t become unnerved when things could easily be
perceived as unnerving.
In Galatians 5:23 this same word is used in the list of things
which the Spirit works in believers as fruit of growth. In Christ, we exercise
self-control as a fruit of growth such that we become less easily shaken or led
to doubt. In relation to the reality of Christ’s return, Paul wrote, “Now we
request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and
our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your
composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if
from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.” (2 Thessalonians
2:1–2, NASB95) What Paul is describing here is not losing self-control because
someone tries to plant a doubt, but trusting in the true hope declared in the
word of God. Paul wrote so that they might know the truth, and knowing the
truth that they might stand firmly in it, not being easily or quickly shaken
and losing composure.
Self-control means that we stay focused and on task, and it
applies to every area of our lives. The apostle Paul wrote, “Everyone who
competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to
receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a
way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I
discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to
others, I myself will not be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:25–27, NASB95) I
watched the Tour de France again this year, and I was amazed at the total life
discipline that the cyclists had to apply to the entirety of their lives to
cross the line at the finish twenty-one stages later. But as I reflect on that,
I also look to myself and realize how easy it is to lose sight of how all of
this works together in my own life and how I am tempted at times to avoid
enduring one of the stages or trials. We are not running a sprint that will
quickly end, but a marathon that continues until either Christ takes us home or
He returns. It is for that reason that in our self-control we are also to apply
perseverance. Perseverance is needed when things last, and I think it safe to
say that every single one of us has faced things that we would rather not face
that have lasted much longer than we had hoped they would. We probably can all
even point to series of things that have seemed to pile up and pile on and have
seemed somewhat overwhelming. We read that we are in these times to be
self-controlled for the long haul.
It is this patient waiting and standing fast that really
grows us as Christians. One of my favorite passages, not because it gives me
warm fuzzies, but because it encourages me when I don’t feel like it to keep
going with hope is James 1:2-4. “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you
encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces
endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be
perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2–4, NASB95) Notice the
attitude that is to accompany the waiting? It is joy. It is not the warm fuzzy
happiness thing that the world seeks, but a deep-seated joy in knowing that our
God is real and that He is faithful to finish in us the work that He started.
He will not give up on us and we can have great hope in trusting Him. We are to
actively think on who He is and what He has promised when the temptation to
panic comes. We are all going to encounter trials. We will likely encounter
lots and lots of them in all shapes and sizes, but these trials are not to
shake us from our foundation. Though our faith is tested, we can stand knowing
that the giver of our faith is untested. As we trust Him and see Him faithful
to bring us through, we continue to grow more and more in our trust of Him. We
learn to endure knowing that He is in control, and as we endure and endure He
does the work of perfecting and completing us or growing us more and more into
the image of His Son who endured so much for us. Endurance is not fun, but it
definitely is a necessary part of God’s plan, and we do this as we diligently
apply self-control over and over again by faith in our unfailing God.
As James said, the end result of this is our maturity or
completion. The fruit of endurance is godliness. As we look diligently to God,
trust in Him, rely on Him, and stand with Him He does the incredible work of
growing us up and making us more and more like His Son. We can never be any
more saved. Christ accomplished this for us on the cross. We can never be any
more righteous. It is Christ’s righteousness that has been put upon us to make
us acceptable to God. But we all can grow up in how we walk before Him, and
this process of enduring self-control toward godliness is the one which God
chooses to use to accomplish that very thing. This is what godliness is about.
It is looking more like God in how we live as a response to our looking to Him
and trusting Him for all that we are.
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