“Men will be without self-control”

By Hayley Boud

(II Timothy 3)

Name some areas that require self-control:
anger, temptations such as over-eating, drinking, smoking, drugs, thinking before speaking, praying before doing anything, asking your husband first if you are married before doing anything, jumping to conclusions, judging, watching too much television or wrong things on tv, neglecting to read the Bible or to pray, being bossy or expecting things your own way, being patient with others

So we can all think of areas that require self-control so we know very well this word. Just remember that it is “self” control and that means I can only control myself and even if I see someone in a big temptation, I can give a warning but there is nothing I can do to push them to control themselves and I can’t control them at all. For example, there are fat camps where people can go to be pushed to have self-control over food but some people sneak in chocolate bars and eat them in secret when no one is watching and so we can’t control other’s actions. Therefore we should not bother ourselves by looking at others but just concentrate on ourselves and make sure we control ourselves.

Also, we have to be careful with self-control that we are truly controlling ourselves rather than just covering up the reality. For example, if I get angry because someone has offended me but I pretend that I am not and prove to the person I am fine, this is good because I haven’t shouted at the person or done anything to offend them back but it’s not true self-control because I haven’t actually controlled the anger because I am still angry; I’ve just simply controlled the reaction to anger. Therefore if I am angry it is better to admit it and talk nicely to the person, ‘please forgive me but I feel offended by what you said’. Or if it is inappropriate to tell the person then at least tell God because if you don’t and you just cover it up, later on it will come out, one way or another ,and you prove that you didn’t have self-control after all.

Many of us wonder if we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and I believe that according to Galations 2:23, we can know if we have the Holy Spirit in us or not if we are increasing daily in self-control.

Interestingly when Paul was in prison he got to speak to a man named Felix (Acts24:25) and he preached to him about self-control so keep that in mind when you are preaching the gospel, it’s obviously an important part of the message.

II Peter 1:3-8

(vs3) we already have everything by God’s divine power that we need to enable us to live godly lives.
(vs5) So for this reason we should apply what He’s given us = self-control. So we already have the power to be self-controlled and we don’t have any excuse if we are not. God has already given us the power; we just have to make a decision to do it.
(vs8) So if we don’t have self-control we will be useless and unfruitful and if we self-control is important if we want to be useful (used by God) and fruitful.

II Timothy 3, in the end days difficult times will come because we will not be self-controlled. I believe that this is talking about the Church also and as we are preparing for a church we need to be sure we are self-controlled or our church will not bear fruit, it will be useless and not used by God and it will be difficult place to be.