2 Timothy 3:3 - without self-control

“The Last Days and Self-Control”

(2 Timothy 3:3, December 4, 2011)

1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, ...

without self-control,

In the “last days.” people will be without self-control. That is a gravely serious condition. People without self control bring much trouble upon themselves and others. They may be utterly committed to keeping laws, but they do not seem to have power from above to walk according to the Lord's ways. Help us, O Lord!

The author of this letter, the Apostle Paul, acknowledged in another place the challenge that he had in wanting one thing with his mind and doing another with his body. He expressed this as a struggle between the flesh and the mind.

Enter Christ's powerful gift to the church, the Holy Spirit! The Spirit is able to aid us in the fight for self-control.

Not only that, Paul says this in Romans 8: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Just prior to these words, Paul writes, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

There is an ongoing struggle, but we should not be “without self-control.” We have the Holy Spirit. Send Him to us now in power, O Lord!

The Lord's self-control

God has delivered us through Jesus Christ. However, the ongoing struggle is real. We are thankful for the struggle, since sin no longer has dominion over us. Yet we also look to the day when sin will have no presence in us at all.

Until then we fight the good fight in the strength of the Redeemer who had perfect self-control for our sake, even in the face of the cross. He is able to help us.